Foie gras and flip-flops: Cannes readies for film festival

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2007

CANNES, France (AFP) — The Cannes film festival is to open officially to red-carpet glory on Wednesday, but already this Riviera resort is bustling as final preparations are made to host the global invasion of stars and celluloid.

All along the palm-lined beachfront, tourists in shorts were being elbowed aside by sweaty workers frantic to set up billboards, stalls and the other fixtures that for 10 days will turn this town into a glitzy orgy of movie promotion, parties and screenings.

The industry was all the more intense this year because Cannes, the grande dame of the world's movie festivals, turns 60, with all the fanfare that entails.

Organisers have ensured the star-hungry lenses of the thousands of accredited reporters will be treated to a galaxy of...