savas

"...I love and worked my mission with all my power and all my heart, but this didn't change my opinion for the mass super show of the games."

Please dont chnage what i said. I was very impressed by the Beijing Ceremony and there were some parts which i liked very much. I just said it didnt touch me emotionaly. There is a big difference...

Actually a shameful moment was as the Greek team entered the stadium the Chinese director of camera showed the ex-king of Greece and his wife (who is banned from Greece) while the delegation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dora Bakojianni was there. This was very disrespectful... We were discussing the Opening Ceremony of Beijing in relation to the one of Athens in a Greek Forum and one member said something which was completely right. For Greece the return of the Games was a highly emotional moment. So it was the most natural thing for the Opening Ceremony to be very emotional, romantic and fulfilled with the nostalgia of the Greek people. It was like the returning of a long lost beloved friend. This is why while the President declared the Games open, bells were ringing and the audience in the Stadium was waving with olive branches to welcome them home. On the other hand the Chinese with a culture completely different, a political system which is enforced through collective behaviour created a ceremony which seems incomprehensive for western people but is nothing new for the Chinese. This explains why 9000 of the 14000 performers were soldiers and why the second man of the Ceremonies was Zhang Jigang, General of the People's Liberation Army. However it is a bad habit to try to pick all the miscarried parts and not to concede the good parts. Criticism is only goof if it is constructive. One thing more: It is very risky by Zhang Yimou to say “It will be impossible for London to surpass the Ceremony of Beijing in a technological level. Because the technology used in Beijing wasn’t new.

You are wrong. Obama bought them to tour through Europe..

i mean the artistic parts are a matter of taste and of mentality but this is unbeatable: Welcome of the Athletes

Well after i saw the Opening Ceremony 2 times i will now (tada, tada...) express my opinion: I have to say that i was negatively attuned before the Opening Cermony. So i tried to relax and to watch it with fun and open to what comes. And it was impressive. At least most of the segments of the artistic part. Did i like it? Well it didnt touch me. For me there was also no emotion there. It was extremely impressive, perfectly staged but with no emotion. And then i understood why. Because the intension of massperformances isnt to touch the soul but to impress the eye. And this was the intension of the organizing committee. I strongly believe that if Zhang Yimou could decide alone we would have seen a different Ceremony. Better i will quote Zhang Yimou's word (as he said in a interview on Olympic Magazine on Eurosport): "The Opening Ceremony of Athens was a revolution of the aesthetic and the dramaturgy of Ceremonies. And it wold have been impossible to try to achieve the same. Chinas culture is the opposite of the hellenic. We dont have a connection to the Olympics as the Greeks do. No one has. So for me there will be pre and post-Athens Ceremonies." What i thought was great was that Zhang Yimou achieved to bring an air of lightness in the normally very heavy and cold massperformances. If they only would have declined on the kitsch of tremendous Sarah Brightman... If you are making such a impressive ceremony then waive to things that dont fit. Little sweet children on the way to scool dont fit with 2008 soldiers presenting martial arts! It was very constrained. And s the artistic part was ok for me, there was some other parts which miscarried. There was a break of 30 sec. directly after the fantastic countdown. This was totaly wrong! They should have gone on with the drummers prerformance. Where was a welcome to the audience? I will never forget the lovely voice of the woman saying directly after the countdown "Citizens of the World welcome to Athens. Olympic Games welcome home" Also i missed the ceremonial atmosphere of the "Walk of the Presidents". Of course it is impossible to create the same charming elegance which Gianna shines without her but the music didnt fit. And if we are talking about music: the music of the Parade of the Athletes was terrible. This musical loop was awful. No energy, no fun.. Those are young people full of energy. The best athletes of the world and they are playing "la cucaracha"???? Where was a majestetic presentation of the entrance of the Athletes? After the bombastic massperformances i would have expected also an impressive entrance. Remembering the anticipation that the music in Athens created in combination with the anouncement "Ladies and Gentlement, the Athletes of the World" i was very disappointed by the unimaginative start. And at the end, Chinas entrance again with mexican backround music?

It seems he forgot to wear the cape!!! Go superman, go!

Those costumes are just fantastic!!!!

Well only 30 min to go!!...

Only 1 hours to go!!! i hope for a fantastic ceremony and great fun!.........

I dont get your problem Pyrros!!!!

Officialy yes. But in daily life you dont tell your name with the addition. Just the name and surname...

The addition "of Nikos" means "son of" or "daugther of". In this case it means Ilias Iliadis son of Nikos (this is the name of the father).

Ilias Iliadis of Nikos, gold Olympian in Judo will be the flag bearer of the Hellenic Team

I am sure that there is a second copy of every costume just in case something going wrong!

i like the feeling of this picture. The pictogram of equestrian makes it looking more chinese. Generally i think that the Beijng pictograms are very good...

...jungle look? Athens Look of Games, designed by K2 is the creative result of researching 5000 years of hellenic art and then designing a simple and understandable look of the Games. Something that people also expected from Beijing Look of the Games. And if you are missing the elements of the water, the earth, the nature, the sun and the human then take a closer look to the Athens Look:

Yeah but TITANIC and the Dark Night wouldnt be half as good without the "heartbreaking story of love" or "the complex story of batman resp. of Joker" Lets get serious. $300 million is an outstanding budget if you have a good concept and mean nothing if there isnt one. Zhang Yimou is a very good director no matter if you like his work or not. So there will be a good concept. The question is how many compromises he had to do to satisfy the megalomania of the government. So i decided: i wil have some tasty pizza with coke and will expect not more then an entertaining show. If there is more to see then even better...

I think you misunderstood me Baron. I didnt say your comment is disrepectful. You critisized me of showing no respect to this thread by going off topic with my post about Clepsydra. But you your self posted off topic before me. If my post was disturbing for other members then i have to apologize. One is for sure. After we all watched the Opening Ceremony this Friday, then we automatically will compare it with the Ceremonies of the past. I for some reason have a biased feeling about the Ceremony. I dont know why. I am trying to "get rid" of my negative attitude.

Well to be hhonest i dont understand what all this construction is about and why they are making such a secret out of it when the cover to hide it doesnt really hide it.

I surely will not start a new thread just to respond to a members post. And about respecting this thread: "I got epiClepsytic seizures watching it. " Dont try to teach me about good manners Baron

the trailer: MEDEA|2

Clyepsydra

Better watch this version without those annoying commentators and without "NBC-Cut-Version" that excludes scenes because they were rated as "not moral"!!! The first scene of the Fertility Goddess is extremely importand because the Clepsydra starts with her and ends with a pregnant woman. The ancient gives birth to the modern and future evolves.