While VOD party offers tempting offers until the end of the weekend and as the Lumière Festival begins on Saturday evening in Lyon, film buffs may well want to immerse themselves in these timeless masterpieces which are the heritage of cinema. No need to travel for this: streaming platforms do the job and do it well to bring classics of the 7th art and forgotten B series into your living room.
There are five platforms dedicated to old films and forgotten gems of cinema. Cinema Universethe most complete, and MK2 Curiositylinked to the distributor and operator MK2, Mubithe most discreet… but above all La Cinetek, which has the particularity of being hosted by filmmakers, and FilmoTV which offers a quality program, The living room, centered on the heritage of the 7th Art. This is a strange change from Netflix, Disney+ and other Prime Video.
Filmmakers at work
And in this maze of proposals, we will admit a little weakness for La Cinetek. “Unlike other platforms, it is not an algorithm that recommends films to the viewer but more than 120 directors who recommend their playlist by drawing on their cinephilia,” explain Pascale Ferran who founded La Cinetek in 2005 with Laurent Cantet and Cédric Klapisch. Like other platforms, La Cinetek has experienced great expansion with Covid but it now needs to reinvent itself to survive. “This is an association under the law of 1901 which brings together between 12,000 and 15,000 subscribers,” explains Cédric Klapisch, “and we would need 20,000 to be comfortable. » More than 3,000 films have been added in fifteen years. L’offer is exciting, attracting many young people under 25 who benefit from an exceptional rate of 19 euros per year.
Heritage but not only
Another success: Film TV, which was the first independent French platform. “Our figures have increased slightly since Covid,” says Etienne Metras, product manager at Filmo TV. It must be said that we are constantly on deck to make ourselves known. » Heritage cinema makes up 60% of their catalog with numerous new releases and careful editorial content intended to provide keys to understanding the works on offer. “Heritage cinema is an important vector for subscribers,” explains Etienne Metras. A 14-day free trial is a good way to discover their very complete “all-cinema” offer, which also offers recent films, sometimes never before seen in theaters. The other platforms, between weekly, à la carte or subscription programming, are also worth looking into.