Paris 2024 Ceremonies - Verdict

[Bear]

40 minutes ago, JesseSaenz said:

I'm definitely worried for LA.

 

If Paris with it's plethora of history and culture couldn't make it work, what on Earth is LA going to do!?

why are you worried? our ceremonies are taking place in a stadium, so the risk of a Paris repeat is pretty much non-existent (no offense to the French here)

[sebastien1214]

22 million viewers in France for the ceremony, 81% of all people in France watching television at that time.

[sebastien1214]

31 minutes ago, Bear said:

(no offense to the French here)

Anyway, I always thought that even if Paris was an exceptional success, LA should keep with its original plans. I really like the ideas they have for their opening ceremony.

[kevzz]

First image of the cauldron in daylight 

 

[mr.bernham]

54 minutes ago, sebastien1214 said:

Well, the Olympics have always been political platforms, starting with the opening ceremonies. Plenty of examples starting with Rio and the sequence on global warming. Maybe Paris did more, but basically nothing new.

Feels a little goalpost moving for me. 

I remember people being upset in 2016 over Rio’s climate change stuff. 

I understand that most of us here agree with these political statements, and are not put off by them, but they are political statements. With as fractured as western politics are (both in US and France), this presents a new a difficult challenge for organizers. We need to be sensitive to that, even if we think the complainers are terrible bigots.

[Michelle]

4 hours ago, illustrado said:

This painting has been parodied by alot of people and genres that it lost all its meaning as a religious art. People are just ‘insulted’ because it involves the gaes. 

Imagine if the artistic director decided to do a reenactment of an Islamic painting or setting … imagine that for a second. I’ll wait. 

[fusilli]

The cauldron rendition was magic and trully defined French spirit for innovation. Right that makes you forget about all those weird segments. Some of them, however, were very original like the rock-on-the-castle one, oh and the floating horse.. wow!

Bravo Paris!

 

[LatinXTC]

58 minutes ago, Bear said:

why are you worried? our ceremonies are taking place in a stadium, so the risk of a Paris repeat is pretty much non-existent (no offense to the French here)

Probably not the location of our OC that he's worried about but more of the lack of depth of this country's history and unique culture compared to France, which if so I don't think will be a problem. Both Paris and London had an enormous amount of history and culture to choose from but they decided to focus less on it and I think their delivery on what they presented sucked, paris mostly because of the area they chose for their OC. 

I'm hoping LA's oc is more like the ceremonies of the 2000s rather than look like concerts, which is what closing ceremonies usually are.

[Rob2012]

OK, the morning after the night before...

I think what we have is a very weird mix of contradictions. A ceremony "made for TV" says the first item on GamesBids homepage. Interesting that's how @GBModerator framed it. I can see why he feels that's where the compromises came after sitting in the rain not seeing much for a while, but watching on TV it felt like it was "made for the city" with huge compromises made in terms of snappiness, continuity, pacing etc. The boats were great as an idea, but slowed everything down, and the weather screwed up the grand vistas of the city. So in the end, a concept that pleased nobody.

The second contradiction is this political thing I've seen has blown up here this morning. Thinking back on it, ok we had the drag dancers and the obligatory gay skit - almost de rigueur now. The Last Supper thing looks affectionate and playful rather than in any way malicious and I have no desire to get into religion - I didn't even spot it live tbh. But the artistic elements were mostly...quite traditional - albeit with modern twists - weren't they? A bit about the French revolution, a bit with golden statues of luminaries emerging from the water, some cabaret from Lady Gaga, Celine singing and a Montgolfier balloon, France's Republican Guard, the can-can, lots of Debussy, Ravel, Saint-Saens, a big girl wrapped in a tricolor booming out La Marseillaise (the only bit enhanced by the rain). It was almost a checklist of what I might've expected from France. I suspect if it were in a stadium we'd be thinking exactly that. I also think some of the set pieces got "lost" with such a huge backdrop.

As I said in the live thread, I would've been fine with much more of it in front of the iconic (I hate that word, but it absolutely applies here) backdrop of the Eiffel Tower. That setting was spectacular. The light show was spectacular, the cauldron was beautiful, how the flame got there was slow and another victim of the whole concept (and rewinding a bit, I'm still not sure what I make of the Chevalier/parkour torchbearer). Ditto the flag getting into place, the mechanical horse was wonderful, but my God it took its time.

Overall, I find it hard to go above 6/10 on this one. Bits I enjoyed, but as a concept it didn't work. I'm so sorry to say that. Ambition hit up against reality....hard.

Edited July 27, 2024 by Rob2012

[Rob2012]

Oh yes, and the less said about the bloody minions, the better.

Edited July 27, 2024 by Rob2012

[Rob2012]

Another verdict just landed:

"Today....I feel wet"

Edited July 27, 2024 by Rob2012

[Scotguy II]

I applaud Paris 2024 with doing something different from the rest and trying to include more people than ever before but for me whilst there was parts that were good, the whole thing in general unfortunately like i thought, just did not work.

i may be a ceremony traditionalist, but there is something truly magical about stadium theatre ceremonies, especially ones that can tell a story well, ie Sydney 2000.

parts of the Paris ceremony were good, and i cant help but think how amazing they would have looked in a stadium. i do agree fully with @Rob2012 the Tower area was stunning and most of the ceremony would have been better done here, with the river being used to transport the flame to its final destination. Melbourne 2006 shows this well.

Parts that worked were too drawn out and lost my attention, plus i would have liked to have seen alot more french artists and torch bearers - really no need for Serena Williams, Nadal i get due to the french open dominance but still.

The cauldron i like, not my fave, but defiantly the best since London.

THe highlight of the whole show for me was Celine Dion. That performance was stunning, made my heart race and you could see how emotional it was for her also, just pure raw perfection.

So for the Cauldron and Celine alone i will give Paris 2024 6/10

Will be interesting to see the difference in the closing ceremony being in the stadium.

 

[kevzz]

My verdict on the ceremony after sleeping on it. This is a classic example of sounds good on paper, bad in reality.

The Good:

• The opening montage has so much promise, showed us a flavour of Paris
• The terraced water stage dancing, there is something reminiscent of Athens water drumming scene with water splashing around
• French Revolution scene, a proper set piece.
• La Marseillaise sung on top of Grand Palais by Axel Saint-Cirel. Great shot and noble pose holding onto the French flag. 
• The lyrical solo ballet dance on a rooftop by Guillaume Diop.
• Silver horse running on the river, though it did go on forever.
• Real white horse crossing the Trocadero bridge, with the Eiffel Tower in the background and all the flag bearers following behind. This to me is my favourite scene of the entire ceremony. There is something really touching with the simplicity and setting of this scene. It can only happen in Paris. 
• Celine Dion spectacular finale will go down in history as one of the iconic Olympic scenes.

The Bad:

• Everything else.
• The whole production lacks structure and flow. Live scenes constantly being interrupted by pre-recorded scenes randomly. It feels like there is an utter lack of preparation and rehearsing as to how the whole show should come together. 
• Shoddy camera work. Too many rookie mistakes e.g camera man appeared in shots, shaky and random camera angle being shown. Too many long distance camera shots due to river location.
• The ultimate logistical nightmare on show. Too many filler scenes because of the time it takes to travel from one place to another. The silver horse on river, the torch on the boat to Louvre, and the torch run to the balloon cauldron. All these scenes are dragging out for too long killing off all sense of anticipation.
• Cauldron concept is good but design is awful. Why just a plain silver balloon? Electric flame defeats the purpose of the Olympic flame. Why are there no crowd along the final torch route from the Louvre to Tuileries; made more stark by the empty Louvre courtyard? The final torch bearers changeover is too quick, and there is no mention of their names on the screen.

Ultimately, it's the worst opening ceremony for me. Which is really sad because I expected so much from the French and there's so much promise in the concept. The image below sums it all up for me.

 

 

 

[JMarkSnow2012]

6 hours ago, Olympics2028 said:

In 2012, there was a video segment that snubbed the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

And, funnily enough, the 1900 Olympics in Paris (as well as the obvious 1930s one)!

[JMarkSnow2012]

6 hours ago, LatinXTC said:

I just realized the reason why I recognized this instantly is because I remember seeing this in the 2000s and made it my fb cover photo for awhile. 

If somebody else has already postred this link to a treasure-trove of Last Supper parodies, my apologies:

55 Pop Culture Parodies of 'The Last Supper'

[dreamyeyes12]

5 hours ago, mr.bernham said:

Glad you made this point. At least the Paris vision was executed, however ham-fisted it ended up being. Tokyo was doomed games all around. I really hope the IOC throws them an olive branch and awards them 2036. 

Tokyo’s was doomed because of the incompetent people in Japan like Hiroshi Sasaki, Yoshiro Mori and old problematic men at Dentsu. They treated Mikiko Mizuno like trash and they sidelined her, after she presented her original plans for Tokyo 2020/21 OC to the IOC. Mind you, Mikiko Mizuno was the person who was in charge of Tokyo’s handover presentation at Rio closing ceremony, and she originally was suppose to direct Tokyo’s OC and CC if there was no covid. Because of how Mikiko was treated, how she resigned, and how bad Tokyo’s opening and closing turned out, Japanese people started hating Sasaki and Mori even more now because of how they treated Mikiko. Not to mention that Dentsu has received alot of hate as well along with Mori and Mr.Sasaki for how they kicked mikiko out and made the ceremonies poor. At least for Paris, I truly apporeciate the concept of them of trying out different things for the opening ceremony.

[kevzz]

49 minutes ago, Scotguy II said:

i may be a ceremony traditionalist, but there is something truly magical about stadium theatre ceremonies, especially ones that can tell a story well, ie Sydney 2000.

I just watched back all the previous ceremonies on Youtube. After last night, it is even more apparent now that stadium ceremonies are so much more powerful and intimate. Nothing can beat that gathering of people and emotion in one place. Everything can be controlled much better. I am sure an outdoor city ceremony can work, but it really needs proper logistic planning. I think Paris gave it a go and it didn't really work. I would be open to other city doing that again, provided they really think it through and learnt the lessons from Paris.

Cities that I think can work well with a city ceremony: London, New York, Toronto, Buenos Aires, Singapore, Barcelona and Rome.

[Aussie bum]

I wrote a whole list of why I was so disapointed by the ceremony but its all been said really. I had such expectations and I was so, so disapointed. I'm glad the French are happy with their show thats what really counts but it really was a massive missed opportunity.

Just heard it cost 3 x the cost of London's opening which I still can't believe. Fingers crossed for the closing!

[kevzz]

4 minutes ago, Aussie bum said:

I wrote a whole list of why I was so disapointed by the ceremony but its all been said really. I had such expectations and I was so, so disapointed. I'm glad the French are happy with their show thats what really counts but it really was a massive missed opportunity.

Just heard it cost 3 x the cost of London's opening which I still can't believe. Fingers crossed for the closing!

I feel the same that it’s such massive missed opportunity. Paris is probably the best city to do an outdoor opening ceremony because it’s such a photogenic city. Everything is there. It’s such a shame they really blew it this time. 

[FYI]

Quote

 The image below sums it all up for me.

The weather was beyond the organizer's control, though. Can't fault them for that.

Quote

Cities that I think can work well with a city ceremony: London, New York, Toronto, Buenos Aires, Singapore, Barcelona and Rome.

Not New York, Toronto or Singapore. The very tall skyscrapers alone in those cities, would block all the views for everyone, on the ground & on TV.

[kevzz]

2 minutes ago, FYI said:

The weather was beyond the organizer's control, though. Can't fault them for that..

Not just the weather. There was never a whole floatilla of boats on the Seine. It’s always a single boat each time. And no packed crowd on both banks of the Seine. It’s all a pipeline dream when they released the vision image. 

[BigVic]

3 hours ago, kevzz said:

First image of the cauldron in daylight 

 

It is magical. Wish we can have a camera with the cauldron as what we had for Beijing

[FYI]

4 minutes ago, kevzz said:

Not just the weather. There was never a whole floatilla of boats on the Seine. It’s always a single boat each time. And no packed crowd on both banks of the Seine. It’s all a pipeline dream when they released the vision image. 

The weather may have still played a role in that & surely adjustments were made when the forecast called for rain. You wouldn't want a bunch of boats that close together in a river when the weather is that inclement. Especially when they really didn't know (at one point) exactly how much rain that they were going to get for the Opening.

[sebastien1214]

6 minutes ago, FYI said:

The weather may have still played a role in that & surely adjustments were made when the forecast called for rain. You wouldn't want a bunch of boats that close together in a river when the weather is that inclement. Especially when they really didn't know (at one point) exactly how much rain that they were going to get for the Opening.

No, the flow of boats was not influenced by the rain, it was planned like that. In fact it was difficult to do otherwise: it was not possible to have them parade on several parallel lanes at the same time because the parallel lanes were reserved for technical and rescue boats. As for the gap between each boat, it was the right gaps planned so that each boat could be presented for x seconds and also to synchronize with the planned scenes.

[FYI]

1 minute ago, sebastien1214 said:

No, the flow of boats was not influenced by the rain, it was planned like that. In fact it was difficult to do otherwise: it was not possible to have them parade on several parallel lanes at the same time because the parallel lanes were reserved for technical and rescue boats. As for the gap between each boat, it was the right gaps planned so that each boat could be presented for x seconds and also to synchronize with the planned scenes.

Then I guess Kevzz has a point, when he said it was all a "pipe-dream" then when they released the vision image for the OC.