Episode 2: The Appointment

As Manuela concluded her first week in Paris, chance brought us back together again when a last minute work opportunity allowed me to visit the French capital for a day. 

In this episode, Manuela first talks about her experience seeing a film at le Christine Cinéma Club, in Saint Germain in the 6th arrondissement. This is one of the two repertory cinemas — together with Écoles Cinéma Club — owned by Isabelle Huppert and programmed by her son Lorenzo Chammah, and it lives up to this stellar pedigree.

Not only is there no popcorn on sale, there is nowhere to hang out or sit down before the film, you wait outside like everybody else. Manuela paid €9 for an evening show; students, seniors and the unemployed pay €7.5, while people under 26 only pay €6. 

Manuela went to see Lindsey C. Vickers’ The Appointment, a doomed gem that was barely screened in its time, showed up every once in a while on British television in the 1990s, then virtually disappeared altogether. For years fans and archivists looked for a copy of reasonably good quality that could truly bring this 1982 British film, starring Edward Woodward of The Wicker Man, back from oblivion — until finally, “a one-inch broadcast tape, held in the Sony Pictures archive, left over from a long-forgotten television broadcast” was found by Douglas Weir of the BFI a few years ago. The film was cleaned up and restored as best as it could be from the available material and released on a wonderful BFI Flipside Blu-ray in 2022, but it was not (re)released in UK cinemas. 

It did come out in French rep theatres, though, and over a month after its release, it was still attracting an audience at le Christine when Manuela saw it. We couldn’t have asked for a starker example of how different the repertory film landscapes are in both countries. 

In an attempt to get a fuller picture of the scene in Paris, Manuela and I set off for a multiplex on Saturday morning, 10am. We went to the mk2 Quai de Seine which, as its name indicates, is by the water, and therefore perhaps not your average multiplex.

It’s a truly beautiful location and it felt great being out of the house early, especially when we realised that quite a few other people seemed to also consider this an ideal Saturday morning activity. But the most surprising part was seeing right across the Bassin de la Villette another, seemingly identical mk2 cinema, this one called Quai de Loire. A little digging reveals this is where the commercial, often American, more blockbuster types of films play, while Quai de Seine shows more arthouse fare. Nevertheless, I was able to take this moody picture of Manuela with Timothée Chalamet as Wonka in the supposedly more arthouse theatre, so perhaps the distinction remains loose. 

We went to see Mars Express, a French animated film by Jérémie Périn that premiered in the 'Cinéma de la Plage' section of this year’s Cannes Film Festival and which had been released in French cinemas a little over a week prior. It’s a gorgeous style of animation entirely free from the maddeningly stupid facial expressions seen in recent Pixar films, and a potent reflection on AI full of lovely references to sci-fi films we love — the most unexpected being Demolition Man (1993). Although the screening was early, we were seventeen people total, in one of the cinema’s 6 screens. 

Tickets at mk2 Quai de Seine everyday before 12pm are €9.90, and €12.90 usually. People under 29 pay €5.90 on weekdays, and €8.90 on weekends and bank holidays (?!). You don’t need to go very often before the unlimited card “Carte UGC / mk2 illimité”, at €21,90 / month, becomes a better option. 

If you have any questions (or Paris tips) for Manuela or me, you can reach out on Instagram at @animus_mag, on BlueSky at @animusmagazine.bsky.social, or by email at contact@animusmagazine.com.

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–Elena Lazic