Cannes film fest kicks off in France under heavy guard
Officials and former IDF general involved in security hope tinsel trumps terror as movie stars jet in
With almost enough star wattage to forget the grim anti-terror measures in place, the Cannes film festival opens Wednesday with Woody Allen’s “Cafe Society” starring Kristen Stewart.
The red carpet awaits some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, such as Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Sean Penn, Robert De Niro, Charlize Theron and George Clooney, as the French Riviera town transforms into the film capital of the world for 12 heady and exhausting days.
The event has heaped pressure on French authorities already on high alert six months after a terror attack left 130 dead in Paris.
Hundreds of extra police officers have been deployed, with daily bomb sweeps to take place at the main venue, the Palais des Festivals.
Police on horseback, foot and motorbikes patrolled the Croisette, a strip of beach lined with ultra-luxury stores as hardened autograph hunters braved blustery winds to set up chairs and folding ladders at the foot of the red carpet.
Last month, French police held an anti-terror drill simulating a terror attack on the glitzy get-together, to make sure the city was ready to face any threats.
“The line has shifted. Things that we used to do in the previous festivals are probably no longer relevant,” said Nitzan Nuriel, a former Israeli general who was reportedly involved in pre-festival security. “The most important thing is to make sure that we have the know-how, the capability, and are fully trained to take the responsibility if something should happen,” Nuriel said of the large-scale exercise.
A video of the exercise, which featured masked gunmen with machine guns storming hotels and car bomb attack on a local school, played repeatedly on French television and was widely circulated online.
During the 10-day festival, bomb experts will carry out daily sweeps throughout the city as 200 armed police officers, an unknown number of undercover officers, and 500 security cameras will be in place to protect the estimated 200,000 festival attendees.
But while rain is forecast to drench the opening, authorities have vowed security measures will not dampen the party atmosphere that lures billionaires, celebrities, film industry schmoozers and tourists to Cannes.
This year is one of the most star-studded in recent times, and “Twilight” megastar turned indie darling Kristen Stewart, Blake Lively and Steve Carell are among those appearing on the red carpet for the opening film.
Veteran filmmaker Allen, 80, gets the party started with his coming-of-age tale about a young couple who fall in love in 1930s Hollywood, which is being screened out of competition.
Allen is the narrator of “Cafe Society”, his 46th film which he describes as “like reading a novel on his life”.
The feature is Allen’s 14th presented out of competition in Cannes and his third — after “Hollywood Ending” in 2002 and “Midnight in Paris” in 2011 — to open what is arguably the world’s most prestigious film festival.
However the director told French radio this week that he “is not at all blase. I am always happy to come to Cannes.”
The population of Cannes is set to nearly triple to some 200,000 people as film producers, industry workers and actors roll in to soak up the glamour, sell films, network and party.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has visited Cannes to ensure all was in place to secure the event, declaring an “extraordinary mobilization” of security forces.
“We must keep in mind as we prepare to open this festival, that we are… faced with an enemy determined to strike us at any moment,” Cazeneuve said on his visit to Cannes Monday.