French Riots Put Hollywood Film Shoots on Alert

Studio security teams have told productions working in France to avoid Paris and Marseille. Executive producer Raphael Benoliel said the warning was blunt: "Be careful. Avoid Paris. Avoid Marseille." (Variety)

The unrest began on October 17, when people across France took to the streets over the rising cost of living and worsening conditions in public schools. Around 550,000 people joined the protests, according to Variety. Many of the demonstrations turned into looting, arson and clashes with police. Three days in, authorities had recorded 2,397 arrests, and at least 3,000 businesses had been damaged.

Some of the worst damage hit famous places. In Lyon, rioters set fire to the historic tourist office on Place Bellecour. In Marseille, masked protesters stormed City Hall and toppled a bust of Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic. In Paris, luxury boutiques were ransacked and their storefronts smashed.

Film and TV crews had largely been spared trouble until now, but the riots rattled them. The French Riviera was hosting the final stretch of filming for Season 4 of HBO's The White Lotus. Warner Bros.' Ocean prequel, directed by and starring Bradley Cooper alongside Margot Robbie, George MacKay and Monica Barbaro, was wrapping its French shoot in Monaco. Mimi Cave's thriller Pumping Black, starring Natalie Portman, Jonathan Bailey and Lukas Gage, was filming in Nice.

Isabelle Desgorges, an executive at the French production company Gaumont, said her crew handling production services on the Ocean prequel was staying in Nice, where shops had been looted over the weekend. She described the situation to Variety, which reported the account.

The government has responded with curfews. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu called for partial curfews in affected cities, and curfews were set in parts of Paris, Lille and Nice, as Reuters reported. President Emmanuel Macron appealed for calm after what he described as one of the country's worst days of unrest in years. Lecornu later said new curfews would be imposed where necessary, and NPR reported that nightly curfews would stay in place "for as long as necessary."

By October 22, three consecutive nights of local curfews in the worst-hit areas had passed without major incidents, according to Reuters.

For a film crew, the practical questions are simple: where to sleep, which streets to cross, and when to be off the road before curfew. Security planning has become part of the daily call sheet, alongside lighting and camera plans. Productions in France are now working under those rules while the curfews remain in force.