Benjamin Dodman, France 24 | CCTV cameras outside the famed Martinez hotel in Cannes, home to the highest number of surveillance cameras per capita in France.

The 69th Cannes Film Festival opens on Wednesday with local officials at pains to juggle an unprecedented security effort and the glitter and glamour of the world’s most prestigious movie festival.

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Cannes' sun-blessed, palm-tree-lined seaside promenade has precious little in common with the rougher suburbs of Glasgow. But they share at least one essential feature in the ubiquity of CCTV cameras, the subject of 2009 Jury Prize winner “Red Road” by British director Andrea Arnold, whose latest effort “American Honey” is one of the hottest tickets in this year's festival line-up.

Like the menacing concrete blocks pictured in Arnold's gripping Glasgow-set drama, the streets of Cannes are surveilled 24/7 by an extraordinary web of cameras hanging from traffic lights, lampposts and porches. In fact with one camera for every 147 inhabitants, this usually sleepy town with a population of 73,000 is more closely monitored than any other in France.

CCTV is just one link in a massive but discreet security apparatus that swings into action each year ahead of the world-famous festival, when the biggest movie stars, industry executives and tens of thousands of film buffs descend on Cannes – bringing crime professionals and petty thieves in their wake.

Jewel heists, which seem to occur at every festival regardless of the beefed-up security, generally constitute the main headache for police. During the 2013 event, a lone robber stole diamond-encrusted necklaces and other jewellery worth more than €140 million from the illustrious Carlton Hotel, once the setting of the Hitchcock classic "To Catch a Thief". He has never been caught.

A week before last year's festival, four men burst into a Cartier store on the Croisette and made off with booty worth more than €17 million. The brazen heist, involving masked robbers, was apparently inspired by the 1973 film “Happy New Year” in which Lino Ventura dons a mask before raiding a jeweller on the famed seaside promenade.

Terror drill

A very different raid involving masked gunmen and controlled explosions rattled Cannes last month, part of unprecedented drills to prepare security forces for a possible terrorist attack during the festival. The test run – a video of which circulated widely on the internet – featured four gunmen armed with automatic rifles storming the famed Palais des Festivals, where the annual film fest takes place. Police also simulated a car bomb attack at a nearby school.

Deputy prefect Philippe Castanet said the exercise had allowed police to identify “gaps in coordination” between security services. And while Palais representatives said the very public show of force was designed to reassure festival-goers, shocked reactions on social media suggest the stunt had mostly the opposite effect.

France is still officially under a state of emergency six months after the Paris attacks in which 130 people died. While the Charlie Hebdo shootings in January 2015 had already led to beefed-up security at last year's festival, the seemingly indiscriminate nature of the more recent terrorist attacks in the French capital has brought the terror alert to a whole new level.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has promised “the highest level of security possible”. He was in town on Monday to oversee measures taken to guarantee the safety of festivalgoers. “We must keep in mind as we prepare to open this festival, that we are faced with a risk which has never been as high, and faced with an enemy determined to strike us at any moment,” Cazeneuve said. “We must demonstrate extreme vigilance at all times.”

With the biggest names in Hollywood expected to hit the red carpet, the world’s most glamorous festival is looking especially starry this year – and police are taking no chances. Cannes Mayor David Lisnard commissioned a full security audit from retired Israeli General Nitzan Nuriel, the Israeli prime minister's former point man for counter-terrorism operations, and moved to tighten controls at every entry point to the town.

More than 500 security personnel as well as paramilitary gendarmes will patrol the Palais des Festivals area, in addition to police deployed around town and the huge number of private security guards that accompany the stars. Plainclothes officers will mingle with crowds along the Croisette and carry out random searches. A tight maritime security net has been put in place, drones have been banned from the skies, and the main rail and road routes in and out of Cannes are being closely watched.

Party poopers

Inevitably, the exceptional security measures have an impact on the festival’s crowded programme. “We’ve lost 17 hours of screenings the equivalent to four films due to the new security protocols for gaining access to the cinemas,” said Edouard Waintrop, the head of the Directors’ Fortnight section of the festival.

But Mayor Lisnard dismissed concerns that the tight security would cast a pall over festivities. “We have succeeded in preserving the festival atmosphere. The public will be at the foot of the [red-carpeted] steps. All the parties will be authorised, but, security must be taken care of,” he told AFP. “Cannes must be protected not because of the cocktail parties, but because it is a professional event of a high level which brings honour to France.”

Cazeneuve has made it clear he will not be attending any of the parties. According to local daily Nice Matin, the interior minister took a dig at his cabinet colleagues, several of whom are expected to hit the red carpet during the festival and rub shoulders with Hollywood stars at glitzy soirées. “Some ministers think they are stars, but it’s not my case,” Cazeneuve quipped. “I came before the stars, because I know where my place is.”



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