To mark the 78th Cannes Film Festival, the Art Explora and CANAL+ foundations are inaugurating CinéMo, a third-generation mobile cinema that will soon be traveling the roads of France. Its aim is to reach audiences who are furthest removed from culture.
We are a long way from the glitz and glamour of the stars walking the red carpet and climbing the steps under a flurry of camera flashes.
3 p.m. on May 17 in Cannes La Bocca, near the media library: adults and children climb a few steps to enter the truck. They settle into very comfortable armchairs to watch the short film “Pile poil” by Lauriane Escaffre and Yvonnick Muller, which won the César Award for Best Short Film in 2020. After the screening (the CinéMo driver also acts as projectionist!), the mediator-facilitator opens the discussion.
Questions and comments fly. The children participate enthusiastically while the adults smile at the remarks. This intergenerational moment is a success. CinéMo aims to reach audiences who are furthest removed from culture. It offers free screenings to people living in rural areas and priority neighborhoods in the city.
Starting on June 25, after the Cannes stage, the road trip will begin! The cinema truck will travel through the Cannes hinterland, the Ile-de-France region, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and then the rest of France, depending on the needs of regional elected officials.
Through this ambitious initiative, Art Explora and the CANAL+ Foundation, the main sponsor of CinéMo, are affirming a shared belief: cinema, a popular and powerful art form, has the power to bring people together, provoke thought, and create dialogue, everywhere and for everyone. Screenings are planned for children, adults who never go to the cinema, as well as residents of nursing homes, women in difficulty, and people with disabilities.
Designed and styled by Camille Chardayre (Prémices and Co) and Jean-François Aimé, the CinéMo (the only prototype at present) is a genuine 72-seat mobile cinema, equipped to CNC standards, with image and sound quality worthy of the biggest movie theaters. The cost of the operation: $1.2 million and $500,000 per year in operating costs.
This “fresh butter yellow” truck does not go unnoticed. It is a trendy color which, like La Poste, evokes a local, simple, efficient, no-frills service. You can see it coming from a mile away! The theater, from floor to ceiling, including the seats, is purple. It creates an atmosphere that invites the audience to introspection. “This theater is so beautiful and comfortable that even rowdy children will be well-behaved!” commented curious police officers who came to visit CinéMo.
An initiative by Frédéric Jousset, philanthropic entrepreneur and founder of Art Explora
“It’s a joy to launch this new initiative to take to the roads of France, then Europe, to introduce people to the magic of the 7th art, the shared emotion of a screening in a dark theater, and the pleasure of lively discussions after the film,” says Frédéric Jousset, the philanthropic entrepreneur who created the private foundation Art Explora in 2019.
But who is this discreet yet daring Frenchman who has just celebrated his 55th birthday?
A graduate of HEC, co-founder and CEO of the multinational Webhelp (outsourced customer services and call centers), Frédéric Jousset sold his group in 2023. It’s a French success story that many entrepreneurs would love to emulate! With a mother who was chief curator at Beaubourg and a father who was president of the Ecole Normale de Musique, he has always been interested in art and was a patron long before the creation of Art Explora, notably at the Louvre. Frédéric Jousset is motivated by making culture accessible to disadvantaged audiences. This is the mission of the Art Explora Foundation, a recognized public interest organization that now employs 60 people, brings together numerous partners, and mobilizes more than 2,000 volunteers.
The creation of the CinéMo is part of the development of the Art Explora Foundation’s fleet of cultural trucks, complementing the two museum trucks currently operating in partnership with the Centre Pompidou, the Centre national des arts plastiques (Cnap) and the Fonds régionaux d’art contemporain (Frac).
Ingrid Brochard, an exceptional woman, came up with the idea of mobile museums. Now Director of Cultural Truck Development at the Art Explora Foundation, she explains: “For more than ten years, we have proven with the MuMo (mobile museums, ed.) that culture can reach everyone, everywhere. With CinéMo, we are continuing this mission by opening a new door to cinema, an art form that brings people together, moves them and makes them think. We are very happy that this new truck is joining the Art Explora fleet. And with the Canal + Foundation, we are offering unprecedented access to the seventh art to those who are furthest away from it.”
A superb program with the participation of Wim Wenders
Based on the theme “A step towards others,” CinéMo has its own program, just like a movie theater. The selection was made by a jury that included director Wim Wenders, winner of the Palme d’Or in 1984, as well as high school students and educators. “Some young people told us they didn’t want subtitled films because they were too complicated to follow. And they were heard,” notes Marine Schenfele, General Delegate of the Foundation.
At a time when the proportion of 25-35 year olds going to the cinema has fallen by 10 points in ten years, the future of the film industry is at stake at all levels, including in remote areas. Stéphane Roussel, President of the Canal+ Foundation, emphasizes: “We want to encourage young people to see something other than blockbusters on streaming platforms. We believe in the virtue of shared emotion in a theater without the interruption of a sushi delivery person ringing the doorbell!”
The StudioCanal catalog has been made available to Art Explora. This promises high-quality films! CinéMo will screen Claude Barras’ “My Life as a Courgette” (2016), Ken Loach’s “The Angels’ Share” (2012), Gilles Lellouche’s “Le Grand Bain” (2018), Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s “Persepolis” (2007), and more.
Educational workshops will complement the screenings to raise public awareness of careers in cinema. For example, how to use your phone to create a video, how to design a movie poster, and more.
“CinéMo is a great tool that has two objectives. First, it allows people to discover the pleasure of cinema, share emotions, and create bonds between different audiences. It is also a way to promote careers in film that are not well known,” says Stéphane Roussel.
All that remains is to hope for some impromptu appearances by stars and prestigious guests at CinéMo. Much to the delight of the audience!
Read also > Cannes Film Festival: James Horner composed the music for the opening ceremony!
Featured Photo: CinéMo, a “fresh butter yellow” truck, is sure to turn heads on the roads of France ©Matthieu Joffres
