The La Clef cinema defense collective, which occupied this theater in Paris for more than two years, told AFP on Sunday that it had obtained a five-month deadline to conclude its takeover in the hope of a reopening at ” 2nd half of 2024”. The filmmakers and actors Mathieu Amalric, Olivier Assayas, Robin Campillo, Leos Carax, Alain Cavalier, Agnès Jaoui and even the American director Martin Scorsese are among the supporters and donors of the “La Clef Revival” collective. Very active, in April she concluded an agreement before a notary to buy the premises with an area of 800 m2 for 2.9 million euros, compared to 4.2 million initially. “Unfortunately, due to rising interest rates, banks have reneged on the loan offers on which we had based our financing plan. We must lower our borrowing forecasts and find alternatives: this is why we asked the owner to extend the duration of our compromise by five months,” clarified the representatives of the collective, while the compromise The purchase came to an end at the end of October.
In the meantime, to complete a guaranteed bank loan, the collective managed to raise 100,000 euros on Sunday thanks to the sale of 45 works out of 96 exhibited in Paris, at the Palais de Tokyo. The remaining works are still for sale in catalog until the end of the year. A fundraising campaign among the general public, still ongoing, has also collected more than 360,000 euros. “Thanks to you and many patrons, we are reaching the objective that we set for ourselves six months ago: nearly one and a half million euros in donations, or half of the amount needed to the purchase of the building”, announced the collective which intends “to make this neighborhood cinema a common good, which will allow it to be permanently removed from speculative pressures”. From September 2019 to March 2022, this arthouse cinema located in the Latin Quarter, the last associative hall in Paris, had been occupied by a collective of citizens and film buffs – ultimately expelled – opposed to a real estate operation which would have resulted in his disappearance. The American director Martin Scorsese is therefore, in particular, a loyal supporter of the collective. He said: “To all members of La Clef Revival, please know that the filmmakers here in the United States support you… Greetings from New York and I’ll get straight to the point: La Clef must remain a movie theater “. The reopening project includes daily screenings but also image education workshops, a community café and a screenwriting residency.