Paris 2024 Ceremonies - Verdict

[sebastien1214]

3 minutes ago, FYI said:

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.

I have the impression that on the presentation images the perspectives are not well represented and it gives the impression of something much more cramped in terms of the width of the Seine. And for security reasons, it was necessary to reduce the number of spectators. The weather also does not help, let's admit it. And I would also have liked to see many more shots of the people who were at the windows of the buildings. We saw it once at the beginning and... that's it. Too bad because it looked great.

[FYI]

1 minute ago, sebastien1214 said:

The weather also does not help, let's admit it. .

Well, that's what I said before. But then you said the rain had nothing to do with it, that it was still planned that way.

I, for one, didn't even pay attention to that aspect of it when I was watching yesterday. But I guess when one is making the comparison to the OC renders, like Kevzz did, then you start to notice the difference from what actually did happen on the Seine.

[kevzz]

I imagined how the ceremony would be like if the weather was sunny yesterday with great clear sky with golden sunset. I do think the whole ceremony will improve by at least 50% even with all the other issues I mentioned earlier. The lasting image of the Paris ceremony is wet, grey and depressing. It feels very uncomfortable to watch everyone soaked in the rain throughout each segment.

I can imagine if the weather was great, those scenes will actually look so much vibrant on screen and the atmosphere will feel completely different. It's really unlucky with the weather but it also proves to show how important weather is in events like this. 

[Daze]

We talked about the formation/presentation of the rings yesterday. But what about the actual logo?

I mean, the whole ceremony was very female driven, but the logo was only shown after Dion finished her song as an on screen goodbye image.

 

[kevzz]

I really hope, and I believe it will be, that the closing ceremony and the Paralympic opening ceremony (a more compact, non-river city ceremony) will be better and a redemption to this!

[kevzz]

17 minutes ago, sebastien1214 said:

I have the impression that on the presentation images the perspectives are not well represented and it gives the impression of something much more cramped in terms of the width of the Seine. And for security reasons, it was necessary to reduce the number of spectators. The weather also does not help, let's admit it. And I would also have liked to see many more shots of the people who were at the windows of the buildings. We saw it once at the beginning and... that's it. Too bad because it looked great.

I think the presentation image shows the spectator seating being built on the river, off from the river banks hence making the river looks narrower. Not a bad idea, makes the river more intimate. But probably quite tricky to build and safety reason, hence they didn't do it.

[FYI]

That's why I don't like renders of any kind. They always make them look so "pretty" & special, but in the end, the finished product hardly ever looks as nice as those air-brushed concept images.

And despite the crowd reduction from 600K to 300K, that still shouldn't have made that much of a difference, cause 300K is still quite a significant number. It was still much larger than any other Olympic OC.

[Olympian2004]

6 hours ago, Sir Rols said:

Forgettable????? Quelle Horreur!

“Hymn d’Amour” is absolutely iconic - one of Piaf’s greatest - and could hardly be more “Paris”. It’s been in my head all day.

I think Celine’s performance was worth every cent of her $2 million.

I might start a separate thread for the music in the next day or so. I’;d love to talk more about it and hope people post clips of the various songs. The whole soundtrack of the ceremony was one of my highlights.

Céline Dion's performance and that very song have also got stuck in my head. Very iconic indeed - and so moving. One should bear in mind that Piaf wrote that song in memory of the love of her life, the boxer Marcel Cerdan, who had died in a plane crash on the Azores Islands the year before. So that song carries a lot of weight already, even more so considering that Céline Dion's love of her life, René Angelil tragically died a couple of years ago, and considering her serious health problems in the past few years.

Here in Germany, the ceremony was broadcast by main national broadcaster ARD and sports station Eurosport. And the Eurosport commentator Sigi Heinrich broke into tears during Céline's performance. It was so moving that I finally broke into tears as well, when watching the re-broadcast on Eurosport. And Sigi Heinrich said a really beautiful and touching thing, commenting on her performance: "The world is not beautiful at the moment - but we can improve it a little bit." Eurosport probably had the much lower ratings last night than ARD, but if it hadn't, this could become an iconic moment in German TV history. I have never heard a German sports commentator openly crying before. That truly shows the power of Céline's performance and the overall staging of the cauldron lighting.

For all users who can avoid the geoblocking and understand German, I will now post the recording of the Eurosport broadcast. The relevant part is starting at about 4:01:00. 

 

[Australian Kiwi]

4 hours ago, kevzz said:

First image of the cauldron in daylight 

 

Call me a traditionalist........ but I just don't like a cauldron that is not located in or near the athletics stadium. 

[Ikarus360]

Okay, seems like this ceremony really didn't let anyone indifferent. And that was to be expected, since we knew how this was gonna be three years ago. I already knew this was gonna be a "You love it or hate it" scenario.

I will say, I applaud Paris for being daring and breaking the molds. In all honestly, after Beijing and London, I feel we peaked in Olympic ceremonies. After that, i felt it was just a rehash of same old ideas over and over, and getting cheaper. I won't make comparisons with Tokyo because of the special situation it had to go through (even though it was also thanks to their own incompetence like @dreameyes12 explained above). Anyways....I wanted something different to shake up things, and sometimes if we don't dare, we always stay in the same old spot, just like how Moscow , LA and Barcelona had to crawl so the next ones would walk.

However, like many already said in this thread, when you get too ambitious, you crash at the wall that is reality. Doing such a massive show in the open was inevitably going to have many elements which were going to make it a logistical nigtmare. Thankfully, security was not one of them and all the doomposting about a terror attack never happened. Unfortunately, the unforgiving weather (though I ended up embracing it in the end as a part of "being a different show") and inexperience in doing such a kind of show plus the lack of enough rehearsals did played their part, which has lead us to this.

Now, i'm going to try to be brief and get to the point:

Opening Segment - Ça Ira

• It was fun to see the french poking fun at themselves and making a reference to the fact the show wasn't gonna happen at the stadium. I also appreciate that they gave the spotlight to Zidane (was a bit worried at first it was limited to just this prerecorded scene but thankfully we saw him later at Trocadero). Also, seems like using kids as protagonists in your ceremonies is a must.
• The mysterious masked character which would dominate most of the show was an interesting character which helped connect all the next segments. I've always liked when a ceremony does this. Shame we never found out about their identity.
• The transitions were used very well here, though its a shame that wasn't the case for most of the show.
• The Tricolor fireworks over the Austerlitz bridge was an iconic moment for me. The golden decorations in the bridge were a nice nod to antiquity and to the old Paris games from 1900 and 1924.
• Now...the Parade of Nations in boats. this was something we were all waiting to see how it would work in reality. For me, in normal conditions (such as not having rain pouring heavily) this would have worked perfectly. Sadly, due to the unforgiving weather, while some athletes shoved it off and seemed to be genuinely happy of being there (Spanish delegation lol) others looked kind of miserable and were obviously trying to force their smiles. I feel the whole thing of mixing artistic sections with the parade kind of dragged off the focus from the athletes, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
• Water effects over the Seine reminded me heavily of Melbourne 2006 which was a nice detail.
• The can can dance number with Lady Gaga....I did liked it, but why Lady Gaga? Surely you could've have brought a french singer to do it instead. It felt more like they had to bring her there yes/yes because of the deal with Tokyo's (where I understand she was suppossed to be in the opening if Covid never happend)

Synchronicite

• Now we arrive to one of the things most people have complained about this ceremony. Many segments which were pretty good, but dragged way too long than they should have lasted, which ultimately hurted their impact considerably. It was nice to see references to Notre Dame being rebuilt and the Gold Medals, but i felt this dance was going nowhere and lasted too long than it should have. It would have been nice if they added something more in between which would have made things more interesting.

Liberté

• One of my favorite parts of the show. Absolutely loved the reference to Les Miserables here. I remember many joked in social media and other forums about how the would show up a Guillotine scene in the Opening. Never expected the madmen would go on and do it, showing up all those beheaded aristocrats singing through the windows.
• Gojira performance was pretty neat. Used to be a big fan of rock/heavy metal during my youth so this scene was an absolute banger. The scene with the boat (which i understand is a reference to Paris symbol) was pretty neat too.
• I felt indifferent to the segment with the actors in those multicolor outfits, but the forming of a heart over the skies of Paris was a nice detail.
• Aya Nakamura performance with the republican guard (liked this touch, reminiscing of all those Bastille Day parades) was pretty cool.

Fraternité

• While I loved the idea of the Louvre paintings gaining life and how they moved through the prerecorded scene, I thought just having cardboard cut-outs when the boats passed was a huge missed opportunity. It would have been neat to have actors dressed as characters from the paintings waving up in the distance to the athletes.
• Nice little piano scene. A bit dampered because of the rain but like i said earlier, I learned to embrace rain was a part of this show.
• The time travel little segment with references to "A Trip to the Moon" and "The Little Prince" was very cute.
• ...*sigh* and then there was the Minions segment. I know Illumination is a french studio and blablabla. But a country which produced popular and beloved characters such as Asterix or Barbapapa could have chosen something much better than this. All just to please the uneducated masses. Not a fan of this part and I rather not talk about it much.

Sororite

• Axelle Saint-Cirel performance of the French anthem was pretty good. The arrangement from Tokyo's handover was perfect and i'm glad they kept it mostly the same.
• I didn't like the golden statues, though. It was unnecesary to drag the anthem performance like this. Specially when you could've used ACTUAL performers instead of just cheap statues without life. Like the Louvre segment. I thought this was a wasted opportunity.

Sportivite

• Kind of indifferent to this segment. I feel this is where the weather started getting more unforgiving. The islands themed up as Versailles where the acrobats performed was a nice idea but I feel it could have been done much better as most of the time they weren't doing much at all.

Festivite

• ...Well, and now we've reached the part which I feel mostly everyone, not just in this forum but also in the world disliked the most about this ceremony, both for valid and also political reasons which everyone already mentioned and which i sincerely don't want to comment because i'm frankly tired of this whole Culture War i have to deal with everyday in social media.....anyway..... Fashion parades are also something we know Paris about and it was going to be in the ceremony yes/yes, but dear god....it dragged way too longer than it should have. A lot of the time spent in this segment could have been focused in other type of performances or, hell, even prerecorded scenes would have worked just fine. But this part lasted way too long than expected and I was just starting to cringe too much it was audible in the whole house.
• The masked man did saved this segment a bit when he performed his little dance over the parade. It was amazing that he didn't tripped even a single time despite all the heavy rain.
• Imagine performance wasn't....bad. Everyone knows my views about using this dreadful song and forcing it into the program, but I was indifferent to this performance. Maybe because at least we were warned about it in time.

Solidarite

• One of the most iconic moments of the show for me. The personification of the Olympic Spirit, riding through the waters of the Seine river with such an impressive music in the background, and referencing all the past olympics. It could had been a perfect segment....but again, and like we've already seen at this point, it suffered a lot of dragging. Even people with room temperature IQ realized this dragging was mainly to make time for all the athletes to reach the Trocadero in time, which ended up hurting this segment for me. Also, cutting off the last games so suddenly made me feel they got heavily desperate in the end to end the whole thing over.
• The transition to the Trocadero was very good and reminiscing of the Bastille Day parades, with  the horses leading the parade of the nations flag, and "Parade" sounding in the background.
• The idea of this performer carrying the flag instead of the usual 6 people was something i didn't liked much, honestly, but i get that given the small scenario it would had been hard to make.
• The flag upside down....jesus christ.
• Olympic Hymn was alright. Not the worst performance of it but i felt a bit indifferent about it. At least x1000 better than whatever the hell i heard in Beijing 2022

Solemnite

• Nothing much to say here that it has't been said already about our Olympic Champion 1976. Seeing the volunteers holding umbrellas over Estaniguet and Bach was embarassing to say the least.
• Nice transition to Zidane and the masked torchbearer. Handing it over to Rafa Nadal was one of the biggest surprises of last night, one which I actually liked.
• "Supernature" performance with the light effects in Eiffel tower was a very iconic scene for this ceremony, but again I felt it dragged too much and all just to give time for the torchbearers which were in the boat. Also that embarassing moment where one of them almost falls out.

Eternite

• Not gonna lie, seeing the torchbearers in the end running alone was kind of saddening. I know the whole idea was having the monuments/museums as backgrounds, and that there was heavy security. Still, without much people to cheer and watch this iconic moment, it wasn't the same for me.
• The choice for the final torchbearers was alright for me. Much better than Tokyo's which always felt like a last minute decision if you ask me.
• The Cauldron was a very innovative choice....i am not a big fan they used an electric flame, since it kinda defeats the purpose of the whole torch relay, but i understood the risks of having an actual fire in a Globe. The moment it started to ascend as Anthem to Love started playing was very touching and without the rain, i feel it would have had a bigger impact.
• And now, the most iconic section of this ceremony. Celine Dion, performing Edit Piaf immortal song atop of the Eiffel Tower. This was the only moment in the whole ceremony which made me feel actual emotional. Celine performance was flawless and perfect, and she delivered and made a lot of people forget about even some of the most cringe moments of this show.
• It was dissapointing to not use a firework show when the Bastille Day weeks ago did. Not sure if it was because of the weather or some other reason such as security.

Veredict:

I'll be a bit more merciful than some in this board, and i'll give it a 7/10.

It was far from being a perfect ceremony. We all knew beforehand this was a very ambitious project which was going to be a "you love it or hate it result". For me it was a very weird mix of both some of the best and worst moments i've seen in an Opening, alongside some which just didn't worked much in such a massive setting.

Despite everything, I think it was a refreshing breath of air. They promised us to give us something different, and they did. I have no problems with breaking the mold because, in all honesty, we've stayed in the same mold for way too long after Beijing and London. This was, for me, a "necessary evil" in order to bring back innovation into olympic ceremonies.

However, at the same time and because it had many flaws, I hope future hosts take notes of what transpired last night, and make sure of doing it better. Some probably hated it yesterday, but I think this ceremony could unironically gain cult status in the future if everything that i've explained before happens. I guess only time will let us know.

 

 

[Lester N]

Ear Itching Philosopies... in action... is all I can say.

[Olympian2004]

1 hour ago, Aussie bum said:

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

To me, it makes a lot of sense that this ceremony was so much more expensive. I mean, we had a "stage" that was 6 kilometres in length, and you need cameras, screens and other technical equipment, lighting, security, seating and amenities for the spectators and LOTS of personnel. This ceremony clearly was not the most sustainable ever in terms of financing. That reminds me of what a wonderful opening ceremony (still one of my favourites) Rio created on a much smaller budget - it had a budget that was 12 times smaller than London's and thus 36 times smaller than Paris'!

[Rob2012]

 

[stryker]

The torch lighting was impressive but the rest of the ceremony reminded me of a techno nightclub. I think this is definitely a one time deal. Can't imagine what we would have seen if Stade de France held the ceremonies.

[Olympics2028]

6 hours ago, Bear said:

oh my god shut up already

Why? I have an opinion, you have an opinion, everyone has an opinion. So what? If you'd rather put your fingers in your ears and go "na-na-na-neener," what's the point? You could have instead described why you think SoFi Stadium, with its covered top, will be fine, even though it will be the first location in Olympic history that won't have an opening to the sky.

Think of how many Olympic ceremonies have depended on the sky for the sight of people or things flying around, fireworks or whatever.

As for the cauldron for 2024, if it doesn't even use actual fire, it's more like a fake fireplace. That means the symbol of a flame lit in Greece and run in a relay race from Athens doesn't have a public connection point in Paris. That's a first since 1938. I may be wrong, but the flame, as in past Olympics, is still supposedly kept in a small container located somewhere in Paris.

As for no cauldron at a stadium, that's a first since 1928. So Paris is following a different format in over 90 years.

 

---> Wikipedia: The 1936 Summer Olympics torch relay was the first of its kind, following on from the reintroduction of the Olympic Flame at the 1928 Games. The Olympic flame was introduced to the modern Games in 1928 when it burnt atop a pillar above the stadium in Amsterdam. Four years later the same was repeated in Los Angeles. At both of these events the flame was lit on site at the stadium. On 20 July 1936 the Olympic flame was lit in Greece by a concave mirror made by German company Zeiss. <---

[Olympics2028]

FWIW, the 2024 games are reported as having sold more tickets than any others in Olympics history. So Paris is already making up for its formal opening presentation. The previous record holder, incidentally, was Atlanta 1996.

[Rob2012]

13 minutes ago, Olympics2028 said:

even though it will be the first location in Olympic history that won't have an opening to the sky.

First in Summer history. We've had plenty of very good indoor Winter ceremonies. And the EFTE covering of SoFi is transparent, so the sky will be seen. So hardly the same. This aspect doesn't worry me in the slightest.

My worry with LA is that it's spread across two stadiums. They'll need to take learnings from Paris and make sure it's more coherent. Not that you'd know, as you didn't watch it.

Edited July 27 by Rob2012

[dreamyeyes12]

1 hour ago, Ikarus360 said:

Okay, seems like this ceremony really didn't let anyone indifferent. And that was to be expected, since we knew how this was gonna be three years ago. I already knew this was gonna be a "You love it or hate it" scenario.

I will say, I applaud Paris for being daring and breaking the molds. In all honestly, after Beijing and London, I feel we peaked in Olympic ceremonies. After that, i felt it was just a rehash of same old ideas over and over, and getting cheaper. I won't make comparisons with Tokyo because of the special situation it had to go through (even though it was also thanks to their own incompetence like @dreameyes12 explained above). Anyways....I wanted something different to shake up things, and sometimes if we don't dare, we always stay in the same old spot, just like how Moscow , LA and Barcelona had to crawl so the next ones would walk.

However, like many already said in this thread, when you get too ambitious, you crash at the wall that is reality. Doing such a massive show in the open was inevitably going to have many elements which were going to make it a logistical nigtmare. Thankfully, security was not one of them and all the doomposting about a terror attack never happened. Unfortunately, the unforgiving weather (though I ended up embracing it in the end as a part of "being a different show") and inexperience in doing such a kind of show plus the lack of enough rehearsals did played their part, which has lead us to this.

Now, i'm going to try to be brief and get to the point:

Opening Segment - Ça Ira

• It was fun to see the french poking fun at themselves and making a reference to the fact the show wasn't gonna happen at the stadium. I also appreciate that they gave the spotlight to Zidane (was a bit worried at first it was limited to just this prerecorded scene but thankfully we saw him later at Trocadero). Also, seems like using kids as protagonists in your ceremonies is a must.
• The mysterious masked character which would dominate most of the show was an interesting character which helped connect all the next segments. I've always liked when a ceremony does this. Shame we never found out about their identity.
• The transitions were used very well here, though its a shame that wasn't the case for most of the show.
• The Tricolor fireworks over the Austerlitz bridge was an iconic moment for me. The golden decorations in the bridge were a nice nod to antiquity and to the old Paris games from 1900 and 1924.
• Now...the Parade of Nations in boats. this was something we were all waiting to see how it would work in reality. For me, in normal conditions (such as not having rain pouring heavily) this would have worked perfectly. Sadly, due to the unforgiving weather, while some athletes shoved it off and seemed to be genuinely happy of being there (Spanish delegation lol) others looked kind of miserable and were obviously trying to force their smiles. I feel the whole thing of mixing artistic sections with the parade kind of dragged off the focus from the athletes, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
• Water effects over the Seine reminded me heavily of Melbourne 2006 which was a nice detail.
• The can can dance number with Lady Gaga....I did liked it, but why Lady Gaga? Surely you could've have brought a french singer to do it instead. It felt more like they had to bring her there yes/yes because of the deal with Tokyo's (where I understand she was suppossed to be in the opening if Covid never happend)

Synchronicite

• Now we arrive to one of the things most people have complained about this ceremony. Many segments which were pretty good, but dragged way too long than they should have lasted, which ultimately hurted their impact considerably. It was nice to see references to Notre Dame being rebuilt and the Gold Medals, but i felt this dance was going nowhere and lasted too long than it should have. It would have been nice if they added something more in between which would have made things more interesting.

Liberté

• One of my favorite parts of the show. Absolutely loved the reference to Les Miserables here. I remember many joked in social media and other forums about how the would show up a Guillotine scene in the Opening. Never expected the madmen would go on and do it, showing up all those beheaded aristocrats singing through the windows.
• Gojira performance was pretty neat. Used to be a big fan of rock/heavy metal during my youth so this scene was an absolute banger. The scene with the boat (which i understand is a reference to Paris symbol) was pretty neat too.
• I felt indifferent to the segment with the actors in those multicolor outfits, but the forming of a heart over the skies of Paris was a nice detail.
• Aya Nakamura performance with the republican guard (liked this touch, reminiscing of all those Bastille Day parades) was pretty cool.

Fraternité

• While I loved the idea of the Louvre paintings gaining life and how they moved through the prerecorded scene, I thought just having cardboard cut-outs when the boats passed was a huge missed opportunity. It would have been neat to have actors dressed as characters from the paintings waving up in the distance to the athletes.
• Nice little piano scene. A bit dampered because of the rain but like i said earlier, I learned to embrace rain was a part of this show.
• The time travel little segment with references to "A Trip to the Moon" and "The Little Prince" was very cute.
• ...*sigh* and then there was the Minions segment. I know Illumination is a french studio and blablabla. But a country which produced popular and beloved characters such as Asterix or Barbapapa could have chosen something much better than this. All just to please the uneducated masses. Not a fan of this part and I rather not talk about it much.

Sororite

• Axelle Saint-Cirel performance of the French anthem was pretty good. The arrangement from Tokyo's handover was perfect and i'm glad they kept it mostly the same.
• I didn't like the golden statues, though. It was unnecesary to drag the anthem performance like this. Specially when you could've used ACTUAL performers instead of just cheap statues without life. Like the Louvre segment. I thought this was a wasted opportunity.

Sportivite

• Kind of indifferent to this segment. I feel this is where the weather started getting more unforgiving. The islands themed up as Versailles where the acrobats performed was a nice idea but I feel it could have been done much better as most of the time they weren't doing much at all.

Festivite

• ...Well, and now we've reached the part which I feel mostly everyone, not just in this forum but also in the world disliked the most about this ceremony, both for valid and also political reasons which everyone already mentioned and which i sincerely don't want to comment because i'm frankly tired of this whole Culture War i have to deal with everyday in social media.....anyway..... Fashion parades are also something we know Paris about and it was going to be in the ceremony yes/yes, but dear god....it dragged way too longer than it should have. A lot of the time spent in this segment could have been focused in other type of performances or, hell, even prerecorded scenes would have worked just fine. But this part lasted way too long than expected and I was just starting to cringe too much it was audible in the whole house.
• The masked man did saved this segment a bit when he performed his little dance over the parade. It was amazing that he didn't tripped even a single time despite all the heavy rain.
• Imagine performance wasn't....bad. Everyone knows my views about using this dreadful song and forcing it into the program, but I was indifferent to this performance. Maybe because at least we were warned about it in time.

Solidarite

• One of the most iconic moments of the show for me. The personification of the Olympic Spirit, riding through the waters of the Seine river with such an impressive music in the background, and referencing all the past olympics. It could had been a perfect segment....but again, and like we've already seen at this point, it suffered a lot of dragging. Even people with room temperature IQ realized this dragging was mainly to make time for all the athletes to reach the Trocadero in time, which ended up hurting this segment for me. Also, cutting off the last games so suddenly made me feel they got heavily desperate in the end to end the whole thing over.
• The transition to the Trocadero was very good and reminiscing of the Bastille Day parades, with  the horses leading the parade of the nations flag, and "Parade" sounding in the background.
• The idea of this performer carrying the flag instead of the usual 6 people was something i didn't liked much, honestly, but i get that given the small scenario it would had been hard to make.
• The flag upside down....jesus christ.
• Olympic Hymn was alright. Not the worst performance of it but i felt a bit indifferent about it. At least x1000 better than whatever the hell i heard in Beijing 2022

Solemnite

• Nothing much to say here that it has't been said already about our Olympic Champion 1976. Seeing the volunteers holding umbrellas over Estaniguet and Bach was embarassing to say the least.
• Nice transition to Zidane and the masked torchbearer. Handing it over to Rafa Nadal was one of the biggest surprises of last night, one which I actually liked.
• "Supernature" performance with the light effects in Eiffel tower was a very iconic scene for this ceremony, but again I felt it dragged too much and all just to give time for the torchbearers which were in the boat. Also that embarassing moment where one of them almost falls out.

Eternite

• Not gonna lie, seeing the torchbearers in the end running alone was kind of saddening. I know the whole idea was having the monuments/museums as backgrounds, and that there was heavy security. Still, without much people to cheer and watch this iconic moment, it wasn't the same for me.
• The choice for the final torchbearers was alright for me. Much better than Tokyo's which always felt like a last minute decision if you ask me.
• The Cauldron was a very innovative choice....i am not a big fan they used an electric flame, since it kinda defeats the purpose of the whole torch relay, but i understood the risks of having an actual fire in a Globe. The moment it started to ascend as Anthem to Love started playing was very touching and without the rain, i feel it would have had a bigger impact.
• And now, the most iconic section of this ceremony. Celine Dion, performing Edit Piaf immortal song atop of the Eiffel Tower. This was the only moment in the whole ceremony which made me feel actual emotional. Celine performance was flawless and perfect, and she delivered and made a lot of people forget about even some of the most cringe moments of this show.
• It was dissapointing to not use a firework show when the Bastille Day weeks ago did. Not sure if it was because of the weather or some other reason such as security.

Veredict:

I'll be a bit more merciful than some in this board, and i'll give it a 7/10.

It was far from being a perfect ceremony. We all knew beforehand this was a very ambitious project which was going to be a "you love it or hate it result". For me it was a very weird mix of both some of the best and worst moments i've seen in an Opening, alongside some which just didn't worked much in such a massive setting.

Despite everything, I think it was a refreshing breath of air. They promised us to give us something different, and they did. I have no problems with breaking the mold because, in all honesty, we've stayed in the same mold for way too long after Beijing and London. This was, for me, a "necessary evil" in order to bring back innovation into olympic ceremonies.

However, at the same time and because it had many flaws, I hope future hosts take notes of what transpired last night, and make sure of doing it better. Some probably hated it yesterday, but I think this ceremony could unironically gain cult status in the future if everything that i've explained before happens. I guess only time will let us know.

 

 

Defintiely agree with you on this. I also give it a 7/10 since it was a hit and miss ceremony for me but I enjoyed the ceremony nevertheless after being depressed with Tokyo’2020/21 and underwhelemed with Beijing ‘22, tho i did had quite expectations for it. I’ll admit, this is one of the ceremonies that I did find myself to be satisified with after the 2010’s ceremonies from Vancouver, to London (tho I liked the closing ceremony more), to Sochi’s, to Rio’s and PyeongChang’s. But Overall, Beijing’ 08 will always live in my head rent free

[BigVic]

It is an event on a grand scale and never before attempted. I'll rate it a 7/10 after the two pandemic Ceremonies of Tokyo 2020(1) and Beijing 2022. Thankfully the ceremony went off without incident from start to finish despite the rain 

[hektor]

I was there, on one of the seats in front of the bike islands.

i had never felt so miserable in a long time, it reminded me of the SLC 2002 closing ceremony but the misery lasted longer… I decided to hold on and stay till the end. But this is the first time I considered leaving a ceremony. A lot of people left…

The ceremony was as expected. I knew that it would not be made for spectators (or athletes) but for TV, The Seine is 7 km long and at best you can see 500 m of the river from one given spot so…

i suspect that even the VIPs at Trocadero did not see much.

so quite a concept: pay a hefty sum for a ticket to watch the Ceremony on a big screen (not big enough given the distance from one river bank to the other) and with an awful sound.

i will rewatch on TV and I am sure some pieces are sumptuous and others disgusting

i don’t regret to have gone there, I wanted to experience this despite I knew how it would be (except the rain)

i was at both Albertville 1992 ceremonies. I remain a big fan of what Decouflé did.

 

Edited July 27 by hektor

[JMarkSnow2012]

2 hours ago, Olympian2004 said:

That reminds me of what a wonderful opening ceremony (still one of my favourites) Rio created on a much smaller budget - it had a budget that was 12 times smaller than London's and thus 36 times smaller than Paris'!

Maybe. Rio 2016 remains the only modern Olympics not to have published an official report.

[guilherme b]

1 minute ago, hektor said:

I was there, on one of the seats in front of the bike islands.

i had never felt so miserable in a long time, it reminded me of the SLC 2002 closing ceremony but the misery lasted longer… I decided to hold on a stat till the end. But this is the first time I considered leaving a ceremony.

the ceremony was as expected. I knew that it would not be made for spectators but for TV, The Seine is 7 km long and at best you can see 500 m of the river so…

i suspect that even the VIPs at Trocadero did not see much.

so quite a concept: pay a hefty sum for a ticket to watch the Ceremony on a big screen (not big enough given the distance from one river bank to the other) and with an awful sound.

i will rewatch on TV and I am sure some pieces are sumptuous and others disgusting

i don’t regret to have gone there, I wanted to experience this despite I knew how it would be (except the rain)

i was at both Albertville 1992 ceremonies. I remain a big fan of what Decouflé did.

 

 

You are not alone

 

 

https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2024/07/1082300/rainy-paris-olympics-parade-dampens-many-spectators-spirits

 

 

 

 

[Olympian2004]

Just now, JMarkSnow2012 said:

Maybe. Rio 2016 remains the only modern Olympics not to have published an official report.

Really? I didn't know that. I took the figures about their opening ceremony budget from this news report:

Who needs money? Rio's Olympic opening ceremony had a conscience (usatoday.com)

[hektor]

In previous games the OCOG had contingency plans like a poncho or something in a small ‘survival’ kit prepositioned at each seat. Here nothing. And no poncho for sale at the concessions.

Edited July 27 by hektor

[Rob2012]

3 minutes ago, hektor said:

In previous games the OCOG had contingency plans like a poncho or something in a small ‘survival’ kit prepositioned at each seat. Here nothing. And no poncho for sale at the concessions.

It's not like the weather had been great all day, or that the rain wasn't predicted. Think I would've taken a coat.