History of cinema in Reunion Island
Cinema first appeared on Reunion Island on December 18, 1896, thanks to one man in particular, the painter François Cudenet. It was he who set up the first screenings of the Lumière brothers' films in Saint-Denis. At the beginning of the following year, he took his Mendel projection machine on the road to bring the joys of cinema to the island's inhabitants. Then it was Marius Rubellin's turn to travel the length and breadth of the island, this time equipped with a Lumière device, to continue showing films to the public. The least we can say is that the public quickly took to the show, and it was a resounding success. As proof of this, in 1905, La Réunion witnessed the inauguration of the first cinema in Saint-Denis, named Le Casino. It showed silent films. A few years later, in 1936, the Cristal cinema was opened by Armand Moreau, this time in the commune of Saint-Benoît. We can't talk about Reunion's first cinemas without mentioning Le Rio, opened in 1957 by Mario Hoarau and said to be the first cinema with a flashing sign. At the time, the atmosphere in cinemas was very particular, and where we're used to silence during screenings in mainland France, the Reunionese were very active during the film. They don't hesitate to exclaim, to give their opinion, to challenge the characters. On the island, cinema is seen more as a place of entertainment, and less as a cultural and artistic practice.
It's also worth pointing out another singular situation on Reunion Island with regard to cinema. The vast majority of cinemas on Reunion Island belong to the company Investissement Commerce et Cinéma (ICC), founded by Kasimir Drotkowski. This operator, which is also a family business, now runs several cinemas in the Indian Ocean. This monopoly can be explained not only by the island's geographical remoteness, but also by the fact that the Centre nationale de la cinématographie, which defines a framework for cinema-related activities in metropolitan France, has not established itself on the island. The distribution of films depends largely on the decisions of cinema owners. It wasn't until 1998 that other operators such as Mauréfilms began competing with Investissement Commerce et Cinéma. Subsequently, the film industry in Réunion has been modernized, and today there are multiplexes that enable Réunionese to see films immediately after their screening in cinemas in mainland France. Of course, the arrival of multiplexes on the outskirts of town has not been without collateral damage for the smaller cinemas in the city centers, which see their doors close as soon as they are no longer profitable. The first multiplex to be built on Reunion Island dates back to 2005 and is called Ciné de Cambaie. It is located in Saint-Paul.
Films, documentaries and series shot in Reunion Island
One of the key dates was December 1930, when the young André Albany and nine of his friends shot a film on the Piton de la Fournaise. The idea was to promote the island at the Colonial Exhibition in Vincennes the following year. Although the weather was miserable at the time due to an approaching cyclone, the team returned with the first panoramic view of the volcano ever filmed. In 1963, Yann Le Masson's documentary Sucre amer (Bitter Sugar ) made a name for itself. It documented the abuses committed during the electoral process that saw Michel Debré become a member of parliament that same year. The volcano, like many other landscapes on Reunion Island, also provides an exceptional backdrop for filming. For example, François Truffaut arrived on the island in 1969 to shoot TheMississippi Mermaid, accompanied by such French film stars as Jean-Paul Belmondo and Catherine Deneuve. Almost twenty years later, in 1986, the island's paradisiacal setting attracted director Valérian Borowczyk to shoot the fifth instalment ofEmmanuelle, deeming the tropical atmosphere ideal for erotic scenes.
Since the 2000s, film shoots have followed one another and Réunion has become a host territory for a variety of productions. In 2006, the series Les Secrets du volcan was filmed here, and more recently, in 2019, short films such as Baba sifon by Laurent Pantaléon and Blaké, by Vincent Fontano. In 2020, while Hugo Benamozig and David Caviglioli's Terrible Jungle features characters in the heart of the Amazon, the film was actually shot on Reunion Island.
In terms of pure Reunionese cinema, most of this was made up of short films such as Moulin's Visage forestier in 1954 and Donnadieu's Les Chapeaux. Reunion's first feature film, Le Moutardier by painter and poet Alexis Alatirseff, was not shot until 1978.
Reunion Island, a land of film festivals
Proof that cinema is an integral part of Reunion's cultural life, numerous film festivals take place in various communes across the island throughout the year. These include the Festival du Film d'aventure de la Réunion (www.auboutdureve.fr), which takes place in May in Saint-Gilles, Saint-Denis, Le Tampon and Mafate; the Festival international du Film d'Afrique et des îles, in October in Le Port; the Festival de l'Image sous-marine, in June on Réunion's west coast; the Festival du Film scientifique (sciences-reunion.net), in April-May; and the Même pas peur festival (www.festivalmemepaspeur.com) in February in Saint-Philippe.
