Promising scene

Meanwhile in Paris, the lockdown has seen the operators of one particular cinema take matters into their own hands.

For the six months prior to cinemas in the French capital being shut, a collective of cinema-lovers and film industry professionals had taken over what was the defunct Cinema La Clef, operating it under the "La Clef Revival" moniker and holding nightly screenings as they looked to gather the funding and government support to ensure the cinema's survival.

Once the lockdown came, these people thought immediately of the local audience they had been serving — and so launched "La Clef Survival", with rooftop screenings of classics such as the film noir gem The Night of the Hunter (1955) visible to the surrounding apartments and (safely distanced) outdoor crowds.