First it starts with a comedy video which turns into this weird creepy thing about kids running through the Paris sewers, encountering an alligator, then getting rowed out and into the Seine by a ghost and it cuts to reality and all the nations are going down the river on boats past a bunch of water jets because they’re not doing this in a stadium.
This looks awful and ridiculous. Compare this to the spectacle of London 2012.
Now they’re doing some weird old Hollywood movie musical style musical number with Lady Gaga and she’s on a staircase, which is… somewhere in Paris?
I am so fucking confused.
Edit: They just cut to Macron and he looks as confused as I am.
I’ve re-watched that Gojira performance like 10 times. The beheaded Marie Antionettes were .
I’m getting old and have watched a lot of opening ceremonies with all of this art that they have to explain the meaning to you.
In front of an in-person audience of hundreds of world leaders and live to the entire world, the French chose to depict their final monarch that they deposed and beheaded while playing death metal and opera. That’s one of the most badass things I’ve ever seen. And the announcers didn’t have to explain to you how badass it was.
The decapitated Mary Antoinettes singing operatic methal from a palace’s windows were cool.
That wasn’t just cool, it was badass! You can rewatch it here: https://youtu.be/cJowjYixfEs
What country are you in? I can’t see it in the US
Ugh, might be a EU region lock thing. I hate that type of restriction, especially for a global sports Event. The organizers or media have been going after every shred of shared media from the ceremony. It’s ridiculous, do you want to promote you event or not?
Sorry for the rant, but these antiquated copyright behaviors make me angry.
It’s France. If it weren’t some weird avant-garde art statement, people would probably be disappointed.
Lots of people in this thread have never seen Les Miserables
This is why all Olympics - whether ceremonies or matches - get recorded on the DVR, so we can skip past all the nonsense.
I always find it strange when host nations choose performers from the non-host nation. Like why is Gaga there? She’s not French.
Celine Dion will be there too apparently. I guess she’s from a Francophone part of Canada at least?
Céline Marie Claudette Dion
Nah, sounds English to me.
She’s Canadian. Quebecois. Her parents too. She is descended from French ancestors, but she is not French. Of course, being from Quebec, she speaks French fluently. I’m not sure if people in France can tell she’s Canadian from her accent or the words she uses or whatever. Canadian French is different in some ways from French spoken in France. Not enough to not be mutually understood- similar to the UK and the US.
I’m only slightly kidding when I say:
The Olympics are happening this year? I feel like I’m usually really in the loop for these things.
If you are actually heading trouble remembering what years the summer Olympics are in here is something that can help. Summer Olympics, leap years, and us presidential elections are always the same years.
Except for the 2020 Olympics that were in 2021.
And the Winter Olympics used to be the same year as Summer Olympics until 1994.
Eh, you know what? I like it. Go weird
It’s weird, but not in a good way. Not for me. It’s just so completely disconnected. There’s nothing that unifies it at all. It’s just random weird stuff. Lady Gaga does an old fashioned Hollywood number, sure. There’s a weird Assassin’s Creed faceless person doing parkour with the torch, whatever. Headless Mary Antoinette sings a song. I guess. Robot horse for five minutes… okay… get on with it.
A lady sings Imagine and I hope she doesn’t burn to death because of the GIANT FIRE in the piano behind her? WHAT THE FUCK AM I WATCHING?
