Olympic Ceremony 4 Tony and Papa Smurf flew off in a balloon

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Just heard an ambassador on R4 explaining some of the references. She also said that she was sure a lot of the London 2012 references were incomprehensible outside and not sure why the extent of the NHS stuff.

Perfect Friday night viewing for me . Tired after long journey, collapsed on sofa , nice slow pace enabling lots of breaks for tea, baths etc with no need to pause.
And best of all , these threads.
I actually really enjoyed it .
And come on , kudos for the way they coped in the rain . How did no one come a cropper!!

The Paris president, an Olympic canoeist.

We all had a bit of a swoon earlier when he was giving his speech.

Tony was chaud.

Celine was a delight.

Paris looked beautiful at night.

Other than that, merde.

“Some pp said, we were being scathing as we thought we were better. NO, we WANTED Paris to be AMA ZING, because there's so much to love and admire about FRench culture, but this wasn't it!”

Yes, this.

And you just know he knows it!

Yes, I’m pretty sure there were plenty of ‘wtf?’ moments in 2012, but Danny Boyle had a vision which was executed to perfection, with a cohesion which just wasn’t present last night. I bet lots of different committees were involved - Eiffel Tower committee, balloon committee, flag committee…oops!

It was all a grotesque caricature and it wasn’t well performed.

It didn’t create beauty, except for the last 5 minutes.

The music was very good at times.

It was the disjointed nature of it and long periods of waiting for the next thing that were problematic for me. The content, I didn't like at times, but I consider that less of an issue and would chalk it up to culture. Why was sign language guy on his own dancing for so long. Total missed opportunity. There was a massive stage. Couldn't they ship in some local school children to sign too or something? Just anything rather than that ridiculously long segment with the whole world watching going 'do you think we've got time for a toilet break. Hmm yes and I'll clean the bathroom at the same time'.

Horse was great. But having to watch the horse for the full 6km? Not so great.

Probably done deliberately; "Look at us, aren't we just SO alternative in ignoring all these silly conventions"

I believe the word for the overall mess they made of the ceremony is "malaise" - the denigration of a culture rapidly eating itself by pursuing the ever more self indulgent and ridiculous

Bunnycat101, your proposal sounds great. Please could we start a bit further back in history in Act 1 though and begin with Astérix-era Gauls v. Romans, before a quick run through the Middle Ages and ending with the revolution/Les Mis? I was really hoping for some Astérix!

They were very incomprehensible outside the UK. The Americans thought Isambard Kingdom Brunel was bloody Lincoln!

I personally loved ours, but I understand that people may not have understood the NHS bit (but then surely everyone worldwide knows who the child catcher is?? And they follow JK Rowling?)

The bit with bouncing men on stilts was a bit weird but that section was all about British Music throughout the years!

last night was totally bonkers for the majority of a worldwide audience!

I agree.

it was fragmented, some great ideas were flogged for too long, others were just poorly executed. Many were just bizarre.

And maybe I missed it but they didn’t use the spectator crowds? Were there even any? The last bit with the torchbearers was so empty. I suppose security concerns played a part, but this part felt even though the cauldron itself is spectacular.

For me, it was nothing to do with comparing last night to the London opening ceremony, or any other one.

There were individual bits of brilliance last night, but the wait between acts, the lack of crowd atmosphere, the lack of women in the acts (every gay man and transgender woman in France must have been called up for service), and the lack of cohesion all night meant for me that the whole thing just didn't hang together and was therefore a bit tedious. Everything just took too long.

Lady Gaga must be furious at the tiny little stage she was given.

An arena creates atmosphere and a sense of audience participation - that's why they are designed the way they are. Having the parade and entertainment on the river was a mistake, even discounting the rain which no one can help (there should have been a plan B). N

The flame, though beautiful, isn't in the arena, where it would inspire athletes to do their best.

The teams didn't get the opportunity to parade, show off their outfits and carry their flags. They were far away from the river banks and fans.

And it would have been better if it had started an hour later, so more of it was in the dark, and then the whole thing cut by an hour.

France is known for its design flair, but last night wasn't well executed. If it had been half as long with all the good bits kept in but just shorter (horse on river) it would have been fabulous.

I hope they have a lessons learned session before starting on 2030.

Security concerns will have been massive. It's not been a decade since the Bataclan massacre, and the current political temperature is at boiling point.

This is one of the things weighing heavily on my mind, must have been frustrating to see the infiltration of issues on the high speed rail network yesterday!

Yes, splashed about at points along the Seine. Also near the Eiffel Tower I believe

It seemed really low budget and a bit half arsed. Not at all what you'd expect from a major world city hosting a massive once in a generation event. It had neither the magnificent but slightly soulless spectacle of Beijing, nor the typically British quirkiness of London. Using the city as a backdrop should have made it seem more lively and 'real', but actually it was a bit sterile, especially the flame lighting at night in empty streets.

I get the security concerns, obviously, but then why have it in the city as opposed to a stadium which would be relatively easy to lock down? The weather didn't help either, but then that's an inevitable risk with an outdoor event. I guess it will go down as one of those things which were much better in theory than in practice.

Where is the first thread????

can I have a link please

I thought after everything Celine Dion is going through, she still has an amazing voice and unlike Lady Gaga she was actually singing live.

Thought Rafa and Serena were a bit of an odd choice. They're not French. Amelie (I'm sure I've spelt that wrong) is could she not have done the bit in the boat and what was with Serena and Rafa swapping holding the flame on the boat about.

Was also a bit surprised that they didn't bring any of their French DJs out for the laser bit, that would have been quite good.

But....Tony was quite a highlight.

The obvious stadium would be the Stade de France just north of Paris but it was hit by the terrorists on the same night as the Bataclan so perhaps not ideal from that POV? The surrounding area doesn't exactly showcase France at its best either, it's pretty grim. Also, they were going for a cost-effective and environmental sobriety message (the ballon is LEDs and water vapour not actual gas) so didn't want to be building lots of new resources.

Apparently there were negotiations with Daft Punk that broke down for political reasons. David Guetta was openly miffed on social media about not getting the call.

Was Celine singing live? That would be very surprising for me. Even if it wasn't for her illness, vocals at major events like these are almost always pre--recorded, because there are just so many things that can go wrong.

I agree that the lack of French athletes and artists was odd. Even Celine, though a French speaker, is not French at all. I think it added to the disjointed nature of the ceremony.

To-nee was indeed sublime.

I think she was singing live. Great set of pipes.

She is french canadien and is of french descent.