Four years after the closure of the Caméra cinema, the City announces the upcoming creation of its own dark room in Bandol
"The curtain will soon rise again. A new cinema will be born to bring the magic of the big screen to life." At the city council meeting held at the end of last week, the mayor was delighted to announce the return of a movie theater to Bandol. "This is the culmination of work that has been underway for several years, " he explained. "We started thinking about it after the closure of the Caméra cinema in 2021. It was a hard-hit for everyone. This cinema had its glory days, when it filled the 600-seat room with two screenings per evening."
But the turning point of the 2020s was fatal. "Over the past two years ," Jean-Paul Joseph continued, "the number of spectators has plummeted. Due to competition from streaming platforms, the need for significant investment to renovate theaters, and of course the Covid crisis. The owner (the Corbelli family, Editor's note) finally threw in the towel and sold his property to the Public Land Establishment."
"The sector has recovered"At the time, the mayor justified, " we could have exercised our right of pre-emption. But despite its historic character and the charm of this hall, it was not reasonable for the town to maintain this activity when a professional could not do so. The large hall was very expensive to renovate, there were high and incompressible operating costs, as well as uncertain revenues because cinema in France was then going through an existential crisis."
Why relaunch a cinema today? "The sector has recovered and we want to offer this service to the people of Bandol again. After various feasibility studies, it appears that the Pagnol hall (on the ground floor of the Maison Tholosan) appears to be the best solution. It is very popular and its schedule is complicated to manage because we lack rooms to host these activities. But thanks to the Grands Ponts stadium project , we will have a 200 m² multi-purpose hall and we will free up rooms at the Deferrari stadium (the changing rooms)."
"Our finances allow it."Furthermore, added the chief magistrate, "the excellent financial results of the municipality mean that the City can now afford to invest without risk to its finances. Finally, demand from the people of Bandol has increased over the past three years: I am very often approached, as are elected officials. And some recent local initiatives have enjoyed a certain success" (notably the Six-Fours cinema, Editor's note).
The decision has therefore been made: the Pagnol room will be transformed into a real cinema, with state-of-the-art projection equipment, a screen at least 6 m wide, one hundred new seats (including three dedicated to people with reduced mobility), and a social area. "We plan on three to five screenings per week (recent and old films), but this could change depending on attendance."
Once the development is completed, management will be entrusted to a private service provider, a professional in the sector, as part of a public contract with specifications that will include programming partly labeled "art et essai", as well as the development of projects and tools for image education, in partnership with the youth structures of the municipality and schools. "Several operators are already interested" , assures the mayor.
Work starting in SeptemberJean-Paul Joseph also specified that the hall, which has a stage, will continue to regularly host "small-scale shows, particularly for associations, with a stage and a dedicated sound and light system."
The total cost of the operation will be 583,000 euros excluding tax , including 121,000 for air renewal and fire safety at Maison Tholosan. 240,000 euros were allocated in the 2025 supplementary budget adopted last Friday. The balance of the total cost will be included in the 2026 budget, with the City requesting a grant from the Region to cover 20% of the project. Unless otherwise stated, work is expected to begin at the start of the school year in September and be completed early next year.
The announcement of the creation of the cinema at the Pagnol hall has provoked a reaction from the municipal opposition. "It's rather good news ," said Gérard Mino , "but we are not going to be associated with this project because the chosen site does not seem very suitable to us due to the mix of activities." "The large hall of the Jules-Verne theater seems more appropriate and would require less investment," said Philippe Leclecq.
"In fact, " Jean-Paul Joseph replied, "it's the first location we considered. The cost assessment has been done and it turns out that the development would be much more expensive."
Deputy Mayor Philippe Rocheteau agrees: "The cost of running the theater is enormous; just opening it for a show costs nearly 1,000 euros in fixed costs."
A cultural center at the Pagnol hallAnother argument put forward by Hervé Baud , deputy delegate for culture: "The Jules-Verne theater is dedicated to live art shows; putting the cinema there would obliterate all other programming and compromise the entire cultural planning. On the other hand, at the Pagnol hall, we are creating a cultural center with two galleries and a cinema in a place that already hosts conferences and concerts. And which could also host conferences from the University of Free Time, seminars, training courses...".
For his part, Franck Bertoncini (who has joined the opposition), declared that he "does not agree at all with this project. It is a band-aid to replace the old cinema which was part of the town's heritage and which was razed so that it would disappear from the memory of the people of Bandol" .
In the end, the four opponents present abstained from validating the financing of the project.
Var-Matin
