The good news? After a week’s worth of controversy, nobody seems to be talking about the opening ceremony at the 2024 Paris Olympics anymore. The bad news? Sunday’s closing ceremony could very well change that.
But after the opening ceremony was criticized by many for imagery that was construed as anti-religion and anti-American, the executive director of the closing ceremony is determined to not let his presentation suffer the same fate. In fact, Thierry Reboul says that he’s already revised the closing ceremony multiple times — “umpteenth” times, to be exact — after receiving death threats following the opening ceremony.
“You have to live with it and file a complaint, show that you won’t let yourself be pushed around or intimidated,” Reboul told The Guardian of the death threats. “But they forced us to have to reread the entire show for the umpteenth time to be sure that there is no possible misinterpretation, that we are not made to say what we do not want to say.”
The most controversial scene from the opening ceremony centered on what many interpreted as a reimagining of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” featuring scantily clad drag performers. Olympics organizers apologized following the outcry, but insisted the scene — which was titled “festivity” — wasn’t intended to mock “The Last Supper” but was rather a depiction of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine.
“The idea was to create a big pagan party in link with the God of Mount Olympus — and you will never find in me, or in my work, any desire of mocking anyone,” the ceremony’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, said, according to CBS News.
Regardless of the intent, the messaging clearly didn’t land with many, sparking yet another battle in the ongoing culture war, especially in the United States. Understandably, the event’s organizers are taking extra precautions to make sure the closing ceremony doesn’t elicit a similar reaction — at least from those who didn’t swear off watching the rest of the Olympics altogether following the opening ceremony.
