It’s too hot to do anything but stay home these days (37°C today and probably for the rest of the week), so I decided to make a video about the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony in order to add some context to three parts of that ceremony, two of them that are having people speak at the moment.
Here is the video, and below, I’ll add some of the pictures included in the video and some of the songs I’m referencing.
Zizi Jeanmaire
You can also see her perform the song on French TV in 1982 when she was 58. It may be my first memory of both her and the song itself.
Marie-Antoinette at the Conciergerie
If any of you missed the opening ceremony and want to know what the hoopla is all about:
Philippe Katerine and the Last Supper
If you missed it:
Philippe Katerine sings “Nu” (“Naked”):
The Feast of the Gods by Jan van Bijlert
I wish I had spent more time talking about this painting, but my history-of-art-fu is a bit rusty to improvise an analysis in a video. Maybe I should talk more about it in written format? I may try if I find the time.
In the meantime, while everyone, myself including, is saying that the ceremony is not lampooning Da Vinci’s Last Supper but that, instead, it is referencing this painting, some people may think that this painting eerily looks like The Last Supper.
Indeed, it does.
And that’s why this whole story is much more complex and much more layered than one may think at first sight.
The keyword is “intertextuality” (look it up if you’re not familiar with the term.)
But in short, The Last Supper has been referenced and even lampooned countless times since pretty much the day it was made public. The issue that some people have here, concerning this latest iteration, is not that The Last Supper is being lampooned. Their issue is totally with who is doing the lampooning.
This time the keywords are “homophobia” and “transphobia.”
Photo credits:
- Three of them are screenshots from the opening ceremony.
- The Feast of the Gods is in the public domain.
- I’m having trouble finding the author of Zizi Jeanmaire’s black-and-white picture, but it comes from this website.
- While quite famous, I’m also having trouble finding the name of the photographer who took the “truc en plumes” picture. It was the cover of Paris Match dated January 13th, 1962. I found it there.
Alright, that’s all for today. If you liked what you read and saw, please:
Discover more from liminal web
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Thanks for the context, David (and the video links)! I only got to see bits, but it looks like a really wonderful, meaningful, and well-executed opening ceremony.
It was pretty nice, indeed.
I never care for them and at first I only watched to spend time with my daughter, but from the moment Marie-Antoinette’s head starting singing “Ça ira!” I couldn’t not pay attention.
What was great about it is all the research and all the references that it included. It definitely was the most “cultural” opening ceremony ever.