The independent cinema Le Sémaphore in Nîmes is turning a page after 38 years of programming by Jean-Sylvain Minssen. His successor, Daniel Vidal, promises to preserve the spirit of the place while addressing a new audience.
A high school student in Avignon, Jean-Sylvain Minssen finished classes quite early. This is how, with a group of friends, he began to regularly attend cinemas. “I didn’t have a cinephile approach, I discovered cinema through the films and the atmosphere of the theater, not through the authors. What appealed to me most immediately was being a conveyor of images”confides the director of Sémaphore, who is preparing to retire after 38 years of programming work. From next month, Daniel Vidal will take over…
38 years of programming work
After working for a few years at Utopia in Avignon, Jean-Sylvain joined Sémaphore in January 1988. “I called Alain Nouaille (editor’s note, the creator of the cinema) to find out if he had heard of work”he remembers. The boss of the independent cinema had just signed an agreement for school audiences and hired him.
Another era… The Sémaphore then only had three rooms, then two others were built at the turn of the century in the context of the multiplex war and a sixth, with its endless work. In 2015, the cinema was sold to Haut et court, a production and distribution company which also owns Diagonal in Montpellier and Navire in Valence. “Without them, we would not have gotten through the Covid crisis”says Jean-Sylvain Minssen, when discussing his memories and the changes of these four decades.
“In the 1990s, the career of a film took place over several years before its broadcast on television”remembers Jean-Sylvain Minssen, quoting the film Baghdad Coffee which remained on display at the Sémaphore for an entire year. “Fewer films were released and there was a cinephilic reflex. When a film by Almodovar or Wenders came out, we rebroadcast the previous ones. And the big difference is independent American cinema” which has almost disappeared.
Among the notable moments, Jean-Sylvain Minssen remembers the inauguration of the first young audience festival by Danielle Mitterrand, the arrival of faithful like Tony Gatlif or Laurent Cantet, but also the reopening after Covid “with rooms full of schoolchildren in the morning”the British Screen Festival with Ken Loach or a session with Terry Gilliam, “Nice to see kids who had seen his films asking him questions.” But as he says in the latest editorial in the Semaphore newspaper, the greatest satisfaction is seeing your programming choices confirmed by the public!
“The promotion of independent cinema”
And this is what Daniel Vidal, who arrived at Sémaphore in 1995, wants to maintain. Initially, he was more in the administration, but he also welcomed Agnès Varda, Robert Guédiguian, Raymond Depardon and more recently Dominik Moll. After the health crisis, he completed the diploma in operations management at Fémis, the leading film school, investing more and more in entertainment, particularly with the Ciné-Luz sessions devoted to Spanish cinema.
At the head of cinema, he wishes to ensure a form of “continuity, loyalty or public”while relying on a renewed team, on a new generation. “They are younger, sensitive to other cinema interests, have other ideas for entertainment” and are a guarantee of public renewal. “The trap would be to become a venerable institution”explains Daniel Vidal, who will be assisted by Inès Leenhardt, deputy director.
“Cinema has been able to evolve. We have to be on the lookout, be in the wind, without giving in on the essential, the promotion of independent cinema”continues Daniel Vidal, convinced that people have “a fundamental need for a collective place, on condition of being able to evolve, to reinvent oneself”.
Jean-Sylvain Minssen underlines this social importance in the life of the city and hopes that elected officials “understand the importance of the movie theater, a place open every day of the year in the city center, where everyone can go, be welcomed and find something to see.”
