CANNES: The Cannes film festival opens this week with the authorities in the French Riviera resort torn between the need for tight security and wrecking the party of a particularly starry year.
France is still officially under a state of emergency six months after the Paris attacks in which 130 people died, and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve will visit the town himself to oversee measures.
He promised “the highest level of security possible given the context of the terrorist threat.”
With a host of Hollywood stars including Julia Roberts, Jodi Foster, Sean Penn, Robert De Niro, Kirsten Dunst, Charlize Theron, George Clooney and Jeff Bridges due on the Croisette for the festival which starts Wednesday, police are taking no risks.
They staged a simulated terror attack last month on the Palais des Festivals, where the films in the running for the Palme d’Or are shown, to test their new emergency response plan.
A car bomb attack on a school on the town was also part of the scenario, with four top security experts including former Israeli general and anti-terrorism expert Nitzan Nuriel carrying out a full security audit.
Air and sea exclusions zones are also being declared — including a ban on drones — with a security cordon thrown around Cannes and all road and rail routes leading to the town.
Mayor David Lisnard said the police were being ordered to “randomly search people in the street. We are taking all measures so that the festival will be both safe and popular,” he said.
More than 500 security personnel will guard the Palais des Festivals itself and prefect Adolphe Colrat will announce Monday the number of police and paramilitary gendarmes that are being drafted in to patrol around that cordon.
He has already said that security with be “a degree above last year’s levels” which were themselves ramped up after the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket attacks in Paris.
But many are worried that too much security will cramp Cannes, making the already hectic merry-go-round of screenings, meetings, interviews and parties all the more difficult to navigate.
The head of the Directors’ Fortnight section of the festival, Edouard Waintrop sounded the alarm, telling reporters he had been forced to cut screenings.
“If the numbers have fallen this year, it’s not out of choice but rather necessity,” he added.
France is still officially under a state of emergency six months after the Paris attacks in which 130 people died, and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve will visit the town himself to oversee measures.
He promised “the highest level of security possible given the context of the terrorist threat.”
With a host of Hollywood stars including Julia Roberts, Jodi Foster, Sean Penn, Robert De Niro, Kirsten Dunst, Charlize Theron, George Clooney and Jeff Bridges due on the Croisette for the festival which starts Wednesday, police are taking no risks.
They staged a simulated terror attack last month on the Palais des Festivals, where the films in the running for the Palme d’Or are shown, to test their new emergency response plan.
A car bomb attack on a school on the town was also part of the scenario, with four top security experts including former Israeli general and anti-terrorism expert Nitzan Nuriel carrying out a full security audit.
Air and sea exclusions zones are also being declared — including a ban on drones — with a security cordon thrown around Cannes and all road and rail routes leading to the town.
Mayor David Lisnard said the police were being ordered to “randomly search people in the street. We are taking all measures so that the festival will be both safe and popular,” he said.
More than 500 security personnel will guard the Palais des Festivals itself and prefect Adolphe Colrat will announce Monday the number of police and paramilitary gendarmes that are being drafted in to patrol around that cordon.
He has already said that security with be “a degree above last year’s levels” which were themselves ramped up after the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket attacks in Paris.
But many are worried that too much security will cramp Cannes, making the already hectic merry-go-round of screenings, meetings, interviews and parties all the more difficult to navigate.
The head of the Directors’ Fortnight section of the festival, Edouard Waintrop sounded the alarm, telling reporters he had been forced to cut screenings.
“If the numbers have fallen this year, it’s not out of choice but rather necessity,” he added.
