To say I loved the opening ceremony?

[scottishheather86]

I really enjoyed the show last night! It was bold and ambitious and all
Encompassing! It was a shame about the rain, but I think overall it was really great! But shocked how many utter miserable responses to it there have been!

I'm shocked that people are still complaining that there were trans people performing and a cheeky scene that insinuated a threesome! Love, passion and style are all big French themes! Can we get past the British stiff upper lip and just enjoy it for what it is?

Remember, we had David (not holier than thou) Beckham driving a boat up the Thames and loads of weird and quirky things at our opening ceremony, that would have gone over the heads of most of the rest of the world.

I'll have to watch again but was that not Supernature by Cerrone?

Someone's done a playlist anyway 😃

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0DyWb1pXKTYw99VVjTIpk6?si=HZXNXJ1dR9GR85AKDYtJ4Q&pi=YUFCDFQ-TCm6p

It was supernature

As used in the mad French film Climax

It's an amazing tune. The French really got into space themes with that electro disco sound in the 70s. Sheila B Devotion - Spacer, Space - Magic Fly (were they French?), JM Jarre - Oxygène. Popcorn was early 70s and not Jarre. Surprised they didn't use Air - Sexy Girl.

JMJ did do Popcorn, as a cover. Here’s wiki on the song, under ‘legacy and influence’:

“French electronic composer and musician Jean-Michel Jarre recorded a 1972 version under the pseudonyms Pop Corn Orchestra and Jammie Jefferson. Later he was inspired by this song to compose his 1976 biggest hit Oxygene part IV. In early 2019, when Kingsley died, the experimental composer Blanck Mass chose "Popcorn" as one of the 10 most influential compositions of his career.”

🎶 🍿 🎶

Yep you’re right my mistake !! Maybe we’ll hear Jarre ( and hopefully the brilliant JJ Goldman ) in the closing ceremony.

Ah, right. I have been educated 😁

I really enjoyed it, yes there were slow bits but there always are at these openings.
I felt for the performers but the rain threw up some amazing visuals with the dancers.

I liked it - creative, original, interesting, unique, and with a great many surprising elements. Very artsy, and hinted at Paris belonging to the world while at the same time a quintessential symbol of France and all things French.

Or the suppression of the monasteries, the dark deeds of the empire, the Civil War, the gin craze, the famines of the mid nineteenth century in Ireland and the North, public hangings at Tyburn...

Agree with this assessment.
They captured that 'je ne sais quoi' of Paris - elegance, decadence, provocation on many levels.

@mathanxiety yes I think that's it- very artsy, very 'French' and some people will get it and many will not because I think in all honesty high art and culture here in the UK are no longer as big with the masses. I also knew plenty who didn't really rate the UK one either, apart from the Queen and James Bond bit.

With a French mother, I'm aware France has plenty of culture. That was my point. The ceremony didn't include a lot of it.

Thing is, Marie-Antoinette is the only thing Americans people outside France know about French history. They kind of had to include her, it couldn't all be in jokes.

The point is surely that the Minions and Assassin's Creed are French culture, and unexpectedly so. I didn't know either were, and I am French, and it made me go huh, didn't know that, that's cool.

I really liked it - I thought it was bold, original and well executed. Would have loved it if it hadn't rained all the way through as the concept was clearly designed with clear skies and a calm river in mind.

(It helps that I love Paris and visit every year)

Brilliant thread on Threads here explaining it and showing the level of inclusivity (not just drag as some seem to think), also properly explaining what the ‘Last Supper’ bit was. Not the last supper at all…
https://www.threads.net/@hellojoce/post/C9710xasPdq/?xmt=AQGz33xBuVNbNJ0CmwBuf3S3fOJlAXS18j11px5JocJPRw

what would you have included ?

I thought it was great apart from shrieking, posturing, Celine Dion. I do seem to be in a minority on the Dion front however. Am a purist and would have preferred Edith Piaf singing with the real star of the evening The Eiffel Tower and the fabulous light show