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Paris arthouse cinema La Clef to reopen after buyout from squatters’ collective
Filmmakers and students evicted by police in 2022 make a triumphant return to the historic venue after raising funds to buy it for €2.7m
Photograph: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty ImagesAfter securing further bank loans and successfully renegotiating the sale price, the collective this week announced that they had bought the screening rooms on Rue Daubenton, in Paris’s 5th arrondissement, for €2.7m. When the rise of home television disrupted the cinema industry in the 1980s, Franck-Forter sold his venue to the local chapter of the French cooperative bank Caisse d’Epargne, but its influence grew nonetheless. But when the owners decided to sell in 2015, the cinema, named after the adjacent Rue de la Clef, looked certain to go the same way as many of the iconic film palaces on the Champs-Élysées, where the George V, the Gaumont Marignan and the UGC Normandie have all permanently closed down in recent years.
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