The Special Guest - Nathanaël Karmitz (MK2)

To open the ball of this 8th edition of the MIFC, Nathanaël Karmitz intervened as a great witness. A lively and fascinating interview conducted by Gérald Duchaussoy. 

First, Nathanaël Karmitz quickly went back over the history of MK2. A story started in 1974 by his father, Marin Karmitz, with the opening of a first cinema in the Bastille district to take the 7th art a little out of its usual Latin Quarter. A place, with already a bookstore, dedicated to rare films that we couldn’t/wouldn't see. It all started with a cycle of revolutionary Bolivian films. It is thanks to this openness and culture that, for his part, Nathanaël Karmitz developed his cinephilia, but also because, after he was expelled from school in 9th grade, his parents forced him to watch films. A pleasant punishment which, according our key player, changed his life, he who became aware at a young age that he would take over from his father. Which he did in 2005. 

From this rich history stems the present of MK2 led by a motto that could be summed up in 3 words - Selection, Otherness and Transmission - and in 3 activities - MK2 Films, MK2 Cinemas and MK2+. A definition for MK2 according to Nathanaël Karmitz: "An author's house for world cinema". 

Gérald Duchaussoy quickly moved on to what was the company's most recent news, and the one that caused the most talk during the confinement: the deal with Netflix on some fifty heritage works including films by Godard or Truffaut. A surprise from the one who still recently said that Netflix was a danger for cinema? Not really for Nathanaël Karmitz: "Two years ago, we sold a hundred catalog films to Amazon and nobody was moved. I still think that Netflix remains a danger and I'm very critical of its methods, especially the algorithms and a wavering willingness to ensure the durability of works. But what has changed is the policy of Netflix, this inescapable giant of the web, towards heritage cinema. And that I can only rejoice in". Far from being blissfully optimistic, the chairman of the board of MK2 understands that if Netflix has, in particular, signed this non-exclusive agreement for one year, it is also because the platform needs to comply with new European standards (especially the SMA directive) and is aware of the rather exceptional appetite of the French for heritage. The fact remains that through this sale, he says, it allows MK2 to remain in its role of promoting and transmitting cinema and hopes that this can continue and expand, with reasonable prices for the rights holders and a willingness to exhibit these films. 

This deal, which became effective during the confinement, has allowed a natural transition to this health crisis that is hitting the sector hard. On this point, Nathanaël Karmitz, aware of the difficulties and not escaping them, prefers to remain positive. For him, the crisis in the film industry is above all American and gives us the opportunity, in France, but also in Europe, to rethink our cultural independence. For MK2, confinement was also the occasion to launch MK2 Curiosity, an AVoD (Advertising video on demand) service where it was possible to discover five "oddities" free of charge per week. A success that will start again in November and which proves, according to Marin's son, that the desire for heritage must come from curiosity and not from algorithms. 

For the future, Nathanaël Karmitz wishes to renew himself in continuity. In this case, this means continuing with innovative offers, full of audacity, at the risk of failing, but always with the desire to make cinema attractive and to be able to fit into any exploitable gap. A story in the DNA of the company that in 2003 made the wager to re-release, in a restored version and with great pomp as they would for a novelty, Charlie Chaplin's The Dictator. A real leap into the void at the time, which ended in success with the closing of the Berlin Festival and 350,000 admissions in French theaters.  

This policy of releasing classics, of making events out of them, MK2 has not lost it. This year, in November, a Claude Chabrol cycle "Suspense au féminin" is planned with five films, including The Flower of Evil or Hell, as well as an exhibition and retrospective of Abbas Kiarostami at the Centre Pompidou in Paris from April 2021. Programming and restoration choices that are made according to the feeling, the desire: « in the spirit of the times. We try, we don't always understand why it works or not, but we try," he explains.   

And MK2 has tried many things in its recent history such as DVD publishing, music, distribution, restaurants ... Not everything has been a success and the company has chosen to focus on what it has mastered most and delegate the rest by partnering with other companies in the sector (Carlotta, Potemkine ...) in a desire for mutual reinforcement. But MK2 has not lost this will, this need for try and plans in the months and years to come, to continue in its event-driven cinema with the continuity of Cinéma Paradiso, the opening of the Hotel Paradiso (at the MK2 Nation, 36 rooms equipped with 3m screens and an open air room on the rooftop) or to rehabilitate a malt house in Strasbourg into a cinema with the help of Cinémas Star managed by Stéphane Libs. 

In addition, MK2 continues Trois Couleurs, its media tool. A free of charge available in MK2 cinemas perceived by Nathanaël Karmitz as a means of promoting the films but also as a link with spectators and distributors. And also MK2 Institute that brings the cinema and films to life in a different way through conferences and debates to, as the Chairman of the Board of Directors points out, "in a world of black and white, summon grey matter". 

And, at the age of 42, Nathanaël Karmitz does not intend to stop there and perhaps hopes one day to open a MK2 theater in all the major cities of the world to be copied and allow a different kind of cinema to exist and be seen.