16/08/2003

The director and head of programming at the 3-screen, 420-seater "Le Palais" cinema in Créteil outside Paris, Bruno Boyer is a thirty-year veteran of theatrical exhibition.
His boyhood curiosity about the secrets of the projection room turned into a professional interest that took him all over France and finally, in January of this year, to the French capital.
Boyer has always worked the arthouse film circuit and has an innate talent for theatrical exhibition, as proved by the excellent results of Le Palais, and Boyer adheres to the demands of the Europa Cinemas circuit. “The funding is extremely important because it allows us much greater freedom of choice. That said, I am not convinced that the percentage of non-domestic European films we are obliged to programme are correctly balanced. It is easy to cover 28% of all screenings annually with titles like Pedro Almodovar’s Speak to Her or Benigni’s Pinocchio. All you have to do is keep them up for six months and bingo, you’ve made your quotas! But what happens when you aren’t dealing with high profile European directors like the two I mentioned?”
So what’s the answer? “We should have regular meetings for distributors, exhibitors and producers to learn about the new line ups available internationally. Here in Locarno I saw some trailers of Italian, German and Bosnian films that will probably never be seen in France because they were not made by famous directors. I am sure that the point of view and opinion of exhibitors is just as important as that of distributors. We work much more closely with the public and are best able to forecast their likes and dislikes.”
Boyer’s consummate professional skill was not built on his love of cinema alone; he has a built-in radar that he honed and perfected with years and years of practical experience. “Today every profession in the arts requires a special sensibility and total and continuous alertness. You have to be ready to see and act on even the tiniest changes in taste. It’s a little like a chef creating a new dish; he has to know what people like but also what they are likely to appreciate. He must also have the courage to try something new and combine that with waiting for results patiently.” Exhibition is not a profession that can be taught at the blackboard. “In France we have taken significant steps forward in acknowledging the intrinsic value of exhibition with new training courses set up this year by FEMIS.”
Starting in September, France’s world famous film and audiovisual institute will hold its first 16-month course for future Distributors & Exhibitors. “This is a passionate profession, not least because it is not a precise art but rather a mix of theory and supposition, where the key element is the unforeseeable reaction of the audience.”