Paris, home of couture, chic pâtisseries and chain smoking in cashmere coats, is not the city you would expect to pull off the most bonkers Olympics Opening Ceremony to date. However, the French capital went there. Dancers dressed as giant croissants? Sure. A crowd of Minions chartering a submarine to steal Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa painting? Yep. Beheaded Marie Antoinettes? Excusez-moi indeed.
With our event expert hat on (perhaps a beret would be more appropriate in this case), we’re always watching closely at how mega scale situations like the Olympics play out. Sporting moments aside, at the Olympics it was naturally the Opening Ceremony that piqued our interest. Paris didn’t take themselves too seriously, light-heartedly mocking French culture and we applaud them for that.
After Tokyo’s slick and hi-tech 2021 show that was overshadowed by the pandemic and took place without an audience, we agree it was time for something a little different and Paris certainly understood the assignment. The organising team, spearheaded by the ceremony’s Creative Director Thomas Jolly, threw any ideas of playing safe out the window and purposely chose to buck with tradition – something we always like to champion. It was all about fun; it embraced humour, satire and kitsch and sometimes bordered on the bizarre. Something we can all do with a bit more of at the moment.
Of course, taking this approach is always going to cause a little controversy somewhere. The tableau that evoked Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper featuring drag artists and a portrayal of Greek god Dionysus which the internet quickly nicknamed ‘Semi-Naked Blue Guy’ didn’t go down well with some corners of the Internet. On the plus side, it spawned a whole host of viral memes. It was a conversation starting show and sometimes being bold pays off. While 28 million watched the live, many many more were discussing it online.
While its portrayal of Paris – and French culture – was a little different to what we were all expecting, the city was at the heart of it all. For the first time in history, Paris didn’t put on the show in the stadium but instead used the city as a stage. The four hour spectacle took place on the Seine as 85 boats, one for each participating country, carried nearly 7,000 athletes down Paris’ famed river. The bridges provided additional platforms for the variety of acts with some scenes even taking place on Paris’ iconic rooftops. It was ambitious and we imagine at some points a total logistical nightmare. The show had been in the works for six years and reportedly cost around $130m and it’s clear to see where all those euros went.
Hosting the ceremony within the city was all part of a plan for as many Parisians to experience it. The largest Opening Ceremony on record, around 100,000 people watched in stands that lined the river with a further 220,000 on raised roadways along the 6 km Seine stretch. For those not in the front row, eighty giant screens and strategically placed speakers across the city allowed the atmosphere to spread out across the capital.
While the crowds on the ground loved it, it didn’t translate to TV that well. Filming a live, multi-part and moving spectacle is a challenge for the best of film crews. Some claimed it felt disjointed or even a little all over the place as cameras switched between scenes and tried to capture the chaos of moving boats. It’s probably fair to say that organisers could have given a little more thought to how it would appear on screen to viewers considering there were tens of millions of them. However, we also respect their attitude, their priority was clearly Paris and they were clearly not fussed about much else. C’est la vie eh?
The pouring rain did also throw a small spanner in the works. There were some comical scenes as rain soaked performances battled against slippery floors and the audiences watching on in Paris got totally drenched. It didn’t dampen the mood (pardon the pun) overall and arguably added to its drama but reportedly some of the crowds left earlier than planned. As much as you plan down to the very last detail, anyone working in the events industry (especially here in the UK) knows the one thing you can’t predict is the dreaded weather. While providing cover for the entire outdoor show would have been impossible, some precautions could have been taken for the crowds watching on.
Rain and controversy aside, it was a success in our books. LA 2028, get your thinking cap on.
