Bed Bugs in the Cinema- or Urban Legend?

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the Paris cinemas, there have been reports about bugs — bedbugs — in certain movie theaters. This hasn’t the same level of urgency as when the coronavirus stalked the land, leading to closures and masks. However, it’s kind of creepy (or creepy-crawly) evoking the late William Friedkin’s Bug. In that film the characters’ obsession with being infested by insects may be psychological (but then isn’t that what Regan’s therapist said in another Friedkin film?).

The story started in late August/early September, when a person named Nawel complained on social media that she’d come out of the UGC Bercy cinema with red marks on her body. Some other so-called internauts seconded the complaint, and also incriminated the MK2 chain. Soon, both the UGC and MK2 groups apologized publicly and said they’d treated their screening rooms.

A few facts (remember those?) should be noted. The complaints seem to have been made exclusively on social media, and somewhat anonymously (first names only) to boot. The complaints apparently weren’t made directly to public authorities or the cinemas in question. While the movie-theater chains issued apologies (the prevalent reaction to controversy nowadays being to be as abject as you can as quickly as you can, yanking it out like a bad tooth), they did not officially confirm the presence of the bedbugs. (Nor has any public hygiene inspector.)

As it happens only two cinema establishments were accused: UGC Bercy and MK2 Bibliothèque, in the 12th and 13th arrondissements, very near to one another (within walking distance, albeit a long walk). Also as it happens, they’re located in my own stomping grounds, and I go to both with some frequency for first-run fare. I’d been to both at the start of summer, without any ill effects. Perhaps I was just lucky? In any case, why these cinemas?

I wondered if the critters were attracted to the snacks and sweet drinks that the multiplex cinemas sell, but experts maintain that the insects don’t dine on these, insisting on human blood. Likewise, though the cinemas are in close proximity to many restaurants, cafés, food trucks and the like, food and waste don’t play a role in their proliferation. (But as news reports and a recent article in the New York Review of Books attest, rats are a different story.)

The most efficient method of travel for the bugs is being ferried by human hosts, so the high turnover at densely-populated movie theaters may account for their presence in the seats. (Both cinemas run shows continually from late-morning or noon to 10 pm at night.) In other words, the cinemas may be the victims of their own popularity. According to one source, the bugs quite correctly associate warm, smelly materials with human prey. They adore dirty laundry, so cinema-goers who don’t clean their clothes often enough may share in the blame. Bed bugs enjoy dark colors, red and green in particular, and so the color of cinema seating may have been to the bug’s taste. The same applies to the public’s clothing. If you want to ward off bed bugs, wear white or other bright colors. (The in color among young Parisian women this summer? Black.)

Climate change plays its inevitable part in all this. For the most part, Paris escaped extreme weather this summer, but was warmer than usual. Temperatures between 70 and 80 F. are ideal for bed bugs, and humidity helps. Both MK2 Bibliothèque and UGC Bercy are located near the Seine, and the sheer density of bodies adds to the humidity. The bugs are also attracted to carbon dioxide. If you have a predilection for groping/being groped by your seatmate in the manner of a certain Colorado congressperson, at least have the good sense (and taste) to control panting and heavy breathing, better yet, you might take up the recent fad among professional athletes and put duct tape over your mouth.

A number of authorities have pointed out that international travel, the popularity of AirBnb rentals, and people returning from vacation can contribute to importing bedbugs. One observer speculated about the banning of certain insecticides (another “expert” opined that insecticides may somehow help propagate the bugs).

I couldn’t let this story go without some on-site research, so I made sure my latest first-run movie would be at UGC Bercy. I went early to interview staff (not spokespersons or managers), and asked about the bedbug situation. They rationalized about the problem as a company flack might, but credibly, saying that bedbugs are found in mass transport and hotels as well as cinemas. They maintained that the screening rooms had been treated, notably with steam, at temperatures that kill the bugs, and that any room open to the public was hygienic. I examined my seat and those beside and in front of me, and didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. I did feel an itch at one moment, but that was from a pre-existing bite, from a mosquito … I hope.

Afterwards, I noticed no red bite-marks, no other itching. Since then, Le Monde has cited a report by the city of Paris confirming a general increase in bedbugs in the capital. An expert the newspaper interviewed said that mosquito repellent should also work against bedbugs. The same expert made a very apt point: that the reason we’re freaked out by bedbugs is that bed is our most intimate refuge (while mosquitoes delivering yellow fever and malaria are just “pesky”). So the problem really exists, but never underestimate the power of suggestion, especially via the social media. A book entitled Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (by Charles Mackay) said it all (and best) back in 1841. Or as a friend of mine who’s a federal judge in the U.S. put it once, “People believe what they want to believe.” (Good one, Your Honor!)