Olympic Opening Ceremony

[TheGreenKnight]

Watching the opening ceremony. AIBU in finding it boringly grim. Especially when compared to London 2012.

I liked that Paris was integral to the whole thing. Some bits were too long but if you were actually there, there might have been lots to see (stuff in front of you and then on giant screens). And 300,000 people were there, many more than a stadium could accommodate. For the competitors they had a much longer involvement than just marching into a stadium.

I was surprised that Hazel Irvine and Andrew Cotter didn't know who was on the boat with Nada. I didn't recognise Nadia Comaneci but thought they would have been fully briefed. Love AC's voice and looking forward to Olive's and Mabel's thoughts on the Olympics.

The Brits may well think that, people in other countries have been more enthusiastic (no surprise there!)

Yeah I get the impression it went down better in other countries. Just going by reddit, seems lots enjoyed it, until you got to the UK reddit...

It's already been labelled the worst ever so whilst I'm glad you enjoyed it you're out of step with the majority.

Hanging the flag upside down took the biscuit I'm afraid.

No. Australia too.

Cheap and unrehearsed apparently.

You people are so boring. 2012 was quite some time ago, there have been Olympic Games since then - why on earth would you think France would want to do something which was the equivalent of London?

I don't remember the 2012 ceremony being anything special - there have been far better ones.

No surprise there either 😂

The poster before you wrote:

Yeah I get the impression it went down better in other countries. Just going by reddit, seems lots enjoyed it, until you got to the UK reddit...

I haven't been on reddit yet but absolutely not just the Brits who are shocked by how poor it was.

I wanted it to work. I love the Olympics. Hopefully it will pick up.

Well it's been more of a mixed bag everywhere else I think whereas it went down badly in general in the UK it seems. Maybe other countries are just less scathing in general though 😆

2012 wasn't superior to others, this one is inferior to others. You disagree and that's fine but why add abuse your nasty 'superior brits' to that?

Some bits were amazing- would not have happened in the UK. like the focus on women’s achievement in the gold statues on the river, including abortion rights. i loved the presentation of the Olympic award for work with refugees, the silver horse, the final lighting of the balloon,

The first line of dancers in water against the gold wave backdrop by the side of the river werr great.. Visually the red streamers flying out of the building with Marie antoinette in it were spectacular with the Paris boat passing along.Although making MA the main focus of the revolution is always a sexist trope. The 100 year old torch bearer from the 1948 Olympics was touching and the professionalism of everyone in the rain was tioo. the use of Paris was spectacular. better than a stadium only thing. And i liked blue Dionysus!

Maybe in the UK we’re nostalgic about 2012 because it was a success, and the UK has had a shit time in the last 12 years, and to see the NHS celebrated then trashed by successive Tory governments since 2012, to see Brexit dividing us, and the cost of living crisis and the normalisation of foodbank Britain happening since then, it’s all painful. I do agree that opening ceremonies are usually for the hosts.

Other bits were bad-
the bridge catwalk with loads of sexualised male adults and a young child, olus thar the only woman allowed to perform on there was an older woman. Apparently she was there to have a presumably 'controversia' kiss based on her age. No otjer women featured, that I spotted, dressed as men or women. 'Queer' culture is massively sexist and not inclusive to women though, so plus ca chamge., they just didn’t bother to hide it.

Ugh to the fhreesome, coming just when I had been praising the French for referencing libraries and their literature.

The waste of the interest built up over the night of who or what the mystery parkour person with the flame was all about,

the flashing, speeding up jump cuts through the years of Olympic archive footage were literally physically painful to watch.

The two officisl IOC addresses from the lectern were way too long and completely squandered the beautiful goodwill of the Olympic prize for supporting refugees, and gave Macron, the internationally recognisable figure, just one line to say which was anticlimactic. I felt the pain of the assistants holding their umbrellas over with one arm every time the two dignitaries each got fresh wind with their speeches.

One of the big outdoor screens by stands failed in the rain. I believe that area was ticketed. They wouldn't have seen half of it. But at least those spectators had actually made it to Paris unlike the ones told to stay home due to the trains.

The South Koreans have lodged an official complaint as they were introduced using North Korea's official name (I'm led to believe this happened in 2012 too but to do it again is just unforgivable).

And then the flag. Omg the flag. How embarrassing.

Some good moments but the pacing was off and poorly thought out. It was massively disjointed at times. And that's probably my biggest complaint. How long was the sign language guy on stage for by himself? Could they really not have made more of that moment with the whole world watching? That's not french hating - that's bewilderment at the decision making choices that went into the ceremony. What were they trying to achieve with that moment? Cutting between dancing sign man and horseman of the apocalypse for about 10 to 15 mins was a massive lost opportunity. Previous ceremonies have captivated and held the attention regardless of the host country. This one failed to do that.

The content of the ceremony in places was ill thought out too. It was insensitive.

I thought it was different and pretty hilarious. The thought behind it to do something different, amazing, but some of the acts were a strange choice.

Lack of a big audience was a big downside, I dont know what the public actually saw, as there were some benches along the Seine but most people would be watching things on big screens?

Some bits looked ad-hoc. The cancan was unrehearsed, like every dancer was doing a little bit at odd times?

And at times it was just a bit too niche. Which was also for me the downside of the London Olympics, where some of the segments references parts of culture that a vast majority of the world would have no clue about. In Paris, some stuff just seemed a bit random.

I thought it was mostly very good. I also thought 2012 was mostly very good. Both very different though.
There is a quite bit of British superiority on this thread and it's a shame to see. It's natural people will prefer a ceremony in their home country as they get the humour/patriotism aspect etc. Its clear a lot of people in the UK don't get French culture and humour but the superior attitude is a shame to see.
For some people whatever the French did they would criticise. If they did something remotely similar to the UK they would have be accused of copying. There were already mentions here of copying the UK on some aspects of last night.
Personally I thought it was very good. Paris looked amazing and I thought it was a wonderful idea to showcase the city like that. Some of the performances were magnificent and magical. The Eiffel Tower looked splendid in the background. It was a shame about the weather but they cannot control that and not what you would expect in July. I felt some parts, especially at the beginning went on a bit and a few parts were not to my taste but overall I thought it was a wonderful spectacle. Different, but no better or worse than 2012 for the average unbiased spectator.

Trump would have been gloating 'I will do gooder in 2028, the greatest ceremony everrrrrr!!!'.

I only watched 30 minutes because it was boring but honestly how many viewers would get (or care) that France invented menage-a-trois?

What performance were “magnificent and magical” I’ll give you Gojira were good, the horse was hood for 5 min until we realised it started in Germany. The rest was a dogs dinner. Boring, pretentious, lacking direction and largely pointless. As for the men in dresses totally negated any of the “sisterhood” segment.

I mean, if the best you can say about the culture is it’s invented something that has probably broken up numerous relationships- well, did they mention the afternoon shag your mistress whilst the wife looks after the kids hour?

It's not gone down well on Twitter. Especially in America.

The religious and conservative in the US and I imagine else where including France but then the people who planned and organised it would be aware of that and probably like it.

The unknown person was Nadia Comaneci!

Romanian gymnast who won five gold medals at the Olympics and, at that age of 14, was the first gymnast to score a perfect 10 at the Games in 1976.

Nadia Comaneci

I don't remember an opening ceremony that contained such overtly sexual imagery - threesome, the models feeling themselves up. Didn't even spot the mocking of the last supper - Leonardo da Vinci wasn't French and that painting isn't in the Louvre so why that was included apart for controversy or to upset people I don't know. It's Paris, so expected it to be a bit cheeky but it went too far. An opening ceremony should bring the nations of the world together not make viewers uncomfortable.