ONE CITY, ONE CINEMA – At the time of the reign of streaming platforms, the Bíó Paradís, a non-profit arthouse cinema, strives to perpetuate the collective experience in theaters and has even improvised distributor to feed its programming. Guided tour.
There is only one and it lives up to its name: Bíó Paradís. “This is the last cinema in the center of Reykjavik, zip code 101”, proudly insists his boss. Since 2011, Hrönn Sveinsdóttir has directed this unique institution in Iceland, a non-profit arthouse cinema, owned by an association of filmmakers, producers and technicians, and subsidized by both the State and the City. . In a (small) country with 350,000 inhabitants, seven cinemas and around thirty screens, almost all located in the capital and its region – like two-thirds of the population – this islet looks like a Gallic village, well, rather Viking. , facing the invader. “When we started, American production represented 96% of films released in Iceland! It’s very difficult for national directors to express themselves, there are festivals from time to time but, apart from that, access to cinemas is restricted. “
Conversely, at Bíó Paradís, we project everything… except recent Hollywood. Clear : The Godfather, it’s welcome, Spiderman, it’s no way. A director herself – she signed a documentary on the election of Miss Iceland in 2002 -, Hrönn Sveinsdóttir fulfills her “Mission” with boundless passion and imagination. This Monday 1er November, by showing us around her cinema located at 54 rue Hverfisgata, a wide thoroughfare in the heart of Reykjavik, the tall laughing blonde sums up the issue: “We have two goals, to promote culture and provide free education in the image of children. Most of our information today passes through the image. If you don’t know the history and the language of films, you are like illiterate, incapable of recognizing propaganda, stereotypes… It is very important to teach young people. ”
Hrönn Sveinsdóttir, director of the Bíó Paradís cinema in Reykjavik.
Photo Benni Valsson for Télérama
Starting from nothing, in this case an old cinoche from the 1970s fitted with antique 35mm projectors, Bíó Paradís has renovated and digitized three out of five cinemas (200 seats, 130 seats and 50 seats). Between classics and novelties, we screen two hundred to three hundred films per year. It was not easy: “At the start, we didn’t have any equipment, but no films either! remembers Hrönn Sveinsdóttir. Those who buy feature films in Iceland have their own cinema circuit and only deal with studio productions: one circuit takes Disney, another Fox, the third Universal… It’s like a cartel. If they come across a Lars von Trier or a commercially viable auteur film, sometimes they buy it, but they refuse to give it to us because, of course, they want to sell their own popcorn, that’s where they are. is money. “
In return for this, the director had to improvise as a distributor, to feed her art house Eden. “The first thing to do was to go to Cannes, to the film market, to convince them to sell us works for which we had neither money nor public! ” It now distributes around twenty feature films per year. “The worst part is trying to buy a Japanese film. When they say to you on the phone, “What? Ten thousand euros ?” and that you answer them “No, five hundred!”, they hang up on you! ” Still, it works. It was she, for example, who won the rights to Parasite, the Palme d’Or of Korean Bong Joon-ho, for Iceland. “When he triumphed at the Oscars, it was huge for us, it was the first time that the other exhibitors wanted one of our films. And it happened again with Drunk, by Thomas Vinterberg, who has done very well here. We also review it regularly: we do screenings for teachers who get drunk before the session! “
“Everyone has a nice flat screen at home and access to all the entertainment on the planet. But what has not changed is that we go to the cinema to live a collective experience, in the dark, to see new things and talk about them afterwards ”explains Hrönn Sveinsdóttir, director of Bió Paradis.
Photo Benni Valsson for Télérama
In fact, one of the keys to the success of Bíó Paradís lies in its generous programming in fantasy. Every Friday evening, there is thus a “Party screening”, a festive screening. “For example, you can show a movie about office life, after which viewers are invited to smash a printer with a baseball bat. Or we suggest Dirty Dancing and people come in disguise and dance at the same time. ” But that’s not all. “You can also rent a room at a knitting club or a BDSM association. It is a safe and inclusive place at the same time. We have a bar, armchairs, we come there just to have a drink… Do you see this lounge area? It is intended for swingers, to get to know each other, it’s new. We are more than a cinema, we are a place of sociability. All of this cannot be downloaded or found on Netflix. “
When the rest of the island surrenders to James Bond or the superheroes, this little paradise welcomes moviegoers curious to discover Lamb, by their compatriot Valdimar Jóhannsson, released Wednesday, December 29 on our screens, but also Annette, by Leos Carax, Titanium, by Julia Ducournau, Madres paralelas, by Pedro Almodóvar, or Julie (in twelve chapters), by Joachim Trier. And every second screening is subtitled in English, so as not to leave any non-Icelandic speaker behind. After ten years of adventure, the results delight Hrönn Sveinsdóttir: “The distribution of European films in Iceland has quadrupled – this is our contribution – and Bíó Paradís has recovered. I don’t want to brag, but I think it will be the most popular cinema in the country in five or ten years.. Everyone has a nice flat screen TV at home and access to all the entertainment on the planet. But what has not changed is that we go to the cinema to live a collective experience, in the dark, to see new things and talk about them afterwards. ”
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In Reykjavik, the heart of auteur cinema beats at Bíó Paradís