Has the way you watch movies changed? Pierre Chican, an architect specializing in the design of cinemas, who offers a new cinematic experience with his Ōma cinema in Cannes, answers us.
“I love the feeling when I leave the movie theater and forget that night has already fallen where the car is parked. You entered the world created by the director so much that the experience took you outside yourself. Coco at work, the movie theater described by the director The Truman Show, Peter Weir, expresses individual and collective. Laughter, fears, surprises, tears can contradict each other, support each other. Has the way we watch movies changed, especially after the Covid crisis? Does the darkroom retain its appeal? It is around these questions that architect Pierre Chican envisioned a new room called Ōma, which has just opened at Mogen*, in the heart of Cannes.
Image above all else
Since the disappearance of temple cinemas in the 1950s, standardization has become the norm; small theaters in city centers preceded multiplexes. “The technological revolution was first through images in screen sizes, the transition to digital, 3D, followed by 4D. Then we played with sound with the invention of Atmos systems. The latest trend is to improve seating comfort with large armchairs and tablets,” explains Nicolas Chikan, his father Pierre’s partner in the Ōma Cinémas project. This emphasis on technology can be seen even in the classification of rooms: Ice immersive, Imax, 4DX, Screen “When you watch a beautiful movie, you should focus on your feelings. That’s why we’ve focused on the power of the screen, the image, hiding the speakers, removing all the distracting elements. Nothing catches the light, no colorful curtains like in many rooms.” We find the idea of a cocoon in the dark, which allows us to fully immerse ourselves in the image.
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Intimacy bubbles
Who has never been annoyed by the noise of popcorn, annoyed by the light on the phone screen, annoyed by the chatter or the ringing tone? It is a given, however, today the room is no longer a sanctuary, everyone experiences it in their own way. For some it is a temple to which they trust their feelings, for others it is a place of consumption and relaxation. The shell we find ourselves in, in complete anonymity, now includes the sum of certain behaviors. “Godard said that cinema is characterized by the fact that we look at it with our heads raised. I see everything differently. inspired by Italian theaters and the opera boxes arranged on the sides, I recreated the audience in the room,” explains Pierre Chican. He invents boxes that float above the floor like many mini-ships, diversifying the viewpoints. “We benefit more from the top of the picture. And then, intimacy with strangers in these little bubbles leaves room for post-film exchange.
Total immersion
What makes us attached to the room is also the size of the glasses it offers. We enter from the hall in the “spectator state”. cut off from the world, we look forward to immersing ourselves in history. This space reconciles the hopeful, ritualistic side (trailers, treats) and the surprise conveyed by the work. Pierre Chican built the bar into the general volume, planned a stage in front of the screen, reviving the tradition of live performance. “The idea is to extend the emotional journey by integrating the arrival, the journey to your seat, the pause, the projection.” Thus, the show puts the entire room at the service of the emotions of this “collective constellation,” to use the iconic phrase of German author and film professor Julian Hanich.
* Les Balcons de Mougins, 600, avenue de Tournamy, in Mougins.
Source: Le Figaro
