Forget the clumsy communication campaigns and entreaties in the mainstream media: the greatest advocacy for the theater experience is almost 30 years old, made by the great Joe Dante and is called Panic sur Florida Beach.
To cope with the decline in cinema attendance in France, attributed both to habits acquired during the pandemic and to the stranglehold of American SVoD services, the CNC launched a campaign entitled “We all have a good reason to ‘go to the cinema”; while the big players in the industry follow one another in the media to give their opinion on the subject.
What if the greatest eulogy of the big screen and moreover its best promoter was not rather a film, directed by one of the greatest defenders of popular culture, Joe Dante? And if the director of Gremlinsyet famous for his love of the small skylight (cf. commuters et The Looney Tunes take action), had already, almost 30 years earlier, produced the ultimate spot for dark rooms? And if Panic sur Florida Beach was the most beautiful declaration of love made to the collective experience of cinema?
Dantesque memories
Good that Panic sur Florida Beach is probably his most explicit film on the subject, Joe Dante is the great promoter of popular television, mainstream cinema and theatrical experience, nostalgic totems that follow him in all his works and whose mechanics he never ceased to dissect. Trained as an editor, he was already having fun with the hypnotic power (The Movie Orgieto be discovered urgently in a sleeping room), then, in Corman, delirium (Hollywood Boulevard) screenings to a large audience. His most famous film is without appeal. The only way to calm the infernal Gremlins is to take them to an apocalyptic meeting of Snow White.
It is precisely at the end of Gremlins 2who pushed the cork even further by breaking down his own film to invite the filthy critters into the room, that the filmmaker is made to read the script of Matinee. And the project itself requires a passion for the seventh art. Not content to be responsible for the sabotage in good standing of his franchise, Dante also tackles a much more personal film… and therefore much more difficult to finance. The detours, arrangements and poker moves necessary for its production anticipate the way in which the margoulin Lawrence Woolsey, himself in trouble, manages.
“I don’t really like thieves…”
“We had to go abroad to raise the budget, as always for an independent film. Even today. We made an agreement with a company that was able to raise the funds, i.e. a sum $14 million. Universal Studios was supposed to handle the distribution. During the pre-production of the film, there were problems with the casting. When the money comes from abroad, you have to hire stars from there- bass who are rarely stars in the United States. It created a lot of stories, but the project was able to be put together” says the director in the fascinating interview Paranoia in Antvisionfound as a bonus on the Carlotta edition.