For the third consecutive year, the municipality of Noisy-le-Sec has consulted its inhabitants on the site of the municipality and in the pages of its magazine to develop the programming of the summer outdoor cinema sessions. Among the retained films: Barbie. Released in 2023, Greta Gerwig’s film was a worldwide success, in particular attracting nearly 6 million spectators in France. Despite this popularity, the choice of feature film was obviously not to the taste of a small group of inhabitants in the Londeau district, where it was to be screened, Friday, August 8. According to a press release from Olivier Sarrabeyrouse, the city mayor of the city, the latter have “Mobilized [leur] energy under the pressure of an individual to prevent the projection of this film, however classified all audiences in France when it was released in the cinema ”.
Still according to the elected official, the censors threatened the city’s agents responsible for the organization of the session with violence, as had already been the case in the past in this same district. “These threats were motivated by fallacious arguments, reflecting obscurantism and instrumentalized fundamentalism for political ends”specifies Olivier Sarrabeyrouse while Barbie had been considered too “Woke” and censored in Kuwait, Algeria or Lebanon. “Faced with tensions, the session had to be canceled, to the great despair of residents who wanted to participate”deplores the communist mayor. The latter regretting that“An extreme minority of thugs, which, no doubt, has not seen the film, [ait] Transformed a simple free outdoor cinema session and open to all into a violent opposition movement ”.
At the height of its success, the film in which Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling hold the headliner had aroused violent controversies from both the reactionary right and religious obscurantists. Two years after its release, Barbie visibly continues to irritate its detractors. “When some accuse the film of” highlighting stories of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual characters “, others condemn a” neofeministic propaganda “”points the elected official who takes advantage of it to remind you that “If this is the case, this does not contradict the values of the left and emancipation that our municipality carries”.
Farm, the councilor announces in its press release that it will go “Obviously” file a complaint and that he will not tolerate “Cultural laws in our city”. Elected in 2020 against the outgoing mayor (UDI) and a various leftist list, the one who had received the support of socialists and environmentalists in the second round denounces “A handling political manipulation of a handful whose main objective is to hinder the success of our municipal actions”. If Olivier Sarrabyrouse notes that the incident occurs “In an electoral context”he does not specify who is targeted by his suspicions.
