Moissac. The Concorde cinema, a dashing forty-year-old

It was in 1984. L’Étoile Palace, a historic cinema in the good town of Moissac, located on Boulevard Pierre-Delbrel, with its beautiful Art Deco facades, became Le Concorde. A time in the hands of the CGR group, taken over in 2000 by Jean-Michel Durand, then by his son Olivier in 2014, it is now managed by the Perpignan family group Cinémovida since June 2024. A date which proves symbolic since it seals both the fortieth anniversary of Concorde and its renewal.

Tuesday January 21, an exceptional evening open to the public was organized with the screening of an emblematic film, “Spectateurs!”, by Arnaud Desplechin, presented in Cannes in 2024, and a buffet offered by the cinema.

As a preamble to the screening, the manager of Concorde, Jérémy Cacheux, presented the project for the Moissagais complex; warmly thanked the institutional, private and associative partners, and presented his team, Louis, Victoria, Ambre, Stéphanie and her assistant Juliette Giquel, in the presence of Antoine Font, director of Cinémovida.

The choice of Arnaud Desplechin’s film was undoubtedly daring, a real cinematographic UFO, between documentary, essay and autofiction, but salutary as this complex but touching work puts the spectator at the center of the game, and the message is clear: without spectators in room, cinema point.

Cinema in Moissac has a long history, and the city can boast of still having a complex of 6 theaters with varied programming in the heart of the town. “I was elected to the municipality in 2008. I remember the battle we fought with the municipal council to keep our cinema in the city center,” says Marie Castro, vice-president and representative of the regional council for the evening, but above all Moissagaise in the circumstances.

During the petit fours, we come across the rare gem, Alain: “Cinema has always been very important in my life, it was a way to travel and escape when I was young. Mr. and Mrs. Nadal, then owners of the Étoile Palace, allowed me to assist the projectionist; it was well before the digital revolution. The adventure ended in 1984, when the cinema became Le Concorde with the CGR group. , a loyal spectator.”

New programming

Forty years which, from Wednesday January 22, will materialize in a special program until January 28, with a selection of feature films acclaimed by spectators, including “Ghostbusters” and “Gremlins”, two films premiering at the Concorde in 1984. Two other thematic weeks are also scheduled during the first half of 2025, with, from February 19 to 25, films from the animation studio Japanese Ghibli, and from April 16 to 22, the great classics from Disney studios. If we add, this year, the major American blockbusters whose release had been delayed by the health crisis and the Hollywood strikes, we can, without being too mistaken, predict that the Concorde, already dashing forty years old, is still promised to a beautiful youth in 2025.