Venice (AFP)

Between social distancing and compulsory mask, the Venice Mostra has implemented drastic safety rules condemning festival-goers to stay in their bubble to avoid any contagion.

Gloria Garbisa, a Venetian who has been following the festival for 24 years, quietly queues at one of the access checkpoints near the Palais du Cinéma: police officers measure the temperature, control the wearing of masks and check accreditations.

"I know it's for our good, but it makes me sad to see our freedom shrink like hell ... Before we went where we wanted, without control, without police. To see uniforms at a festival, this is not normal, "laments Gloria, readjusting her mask under huge sunglasses.

"Raise your mask, including on the nose", also launches an annoyed agent to a septuagenarian dandy.

"But we are outside," exclaims the recalcitrant.

"The mask is all the time, inside AND outside!"

we retort.

Between the distance of at least one meter in the queues, the mask concealing the mouth and one in two chairs automatically condemned in the screening rooms, it is difficult for the participants to initiate a conversation.

Except perhaps to reprimand an unfortunate man who brushes against you too closely or a smart one who takes off his mask as soon as darkness falls in the room.

The red carpet, unrolled in front of the Palace facing the sea, is no more than a shadow of itself, hidden by a gray wall to prevent crowds of curious people.

"The public this year is not there, everything has been put at a distance, disinfected", confirms Alberto Pizzoli, a photographer who has been covering the Mostra for years for AFP, but also his rival Cannes.

“There is no audience, so we are missing a whole bunch of photos that we had in the past, when actors approached the audience to sign autographs,” he explains.

- Black mask on red carpet -

"And that was an important moment: the big actors would spend 10-15 minutes signing autographs, as well as posing when they arrived for a few selfies," he recalls.

In addition, "when the actors walk in the street, they wear a mask, so we don't recognize them right away".

Arrived Thursday on the Lido, the Spanish director Pedro "Almodovar was the first that I saw signing an autograph: he walked from his hotel to the Palace", tells Alberto, who confides to have had to buy a black mask, a color imposed by the festival management in addition to the usual evening dress required on the red carpet.

The general atmosphere on the Lido suffers from this: "The arguments with the press officers, which usually occur after a week because of fatigue, started from day one," observes Alberto.

The situation is not any more fluid on the side of journalists and critics, who must reserve on a dedicated site their places, all numbered, for screenings and press conferences.

Impossible to sit down where you want to find colleagues and colleagues: in any case, you always find yourself surrounded by two empty seats.

Even in the reassuring privacy of dark rooms, courteous but firm security guards promptly bring lost sheep to their place, which goes without saying a few hawks punctuated by well-felt swear words.

No truce either in the evening in the perimeter of the festival, as evidenced by this scene Wednesday evening in a street close to the Palace: a police officer hails two young women walking with an ice cream cone in hand, "Ladies, the mask s 'please?"

Answer: "But we eat ice cream!"

Final conclusion: "You had to eat it on site at the ice cream parlor!"

In the land of "gelato" it would almost be a crime under normal circumstances, but the Covid has been there and changed everything.

© 2020 AFP