PARIS:
Opening ceremony choreographer Thomas Jolly on Sunday denied parodying the Final Supper within the extravagant launch of the Paris Video games after non secular teams criticized what they felt was a “mockery of Christianity.” Video games organizers, nonetheless, apologized, saying there was “no intention to point out disrespect to any non secular group.”
Paris Olympics organizers mentioned Sunday they had been “actually sorry” for any offense brought on by their daring and quirky opening ceremony, however denied “any intention to point out disrespect to any non secular group.”
Some Catholic teams and French bishops condemned what they noticed as “scenes of mockery and mockery of Christianity” in Friday’s parade choreographed by theater director Thomas Jolly. Criticism targeted on a scene involving dancers, drag queens and a DJ in poses harking back to depictions of the Final Supper, the ultimate meal Jesus is alleged to have had together with his apostles.
“There was clearly by no means any intention to point out disrespect to any non secular group,” Paris 2024 spokeswoman Anne Descamps advised reporters on Sunday. “If folks had been offended, after all we’re very, very sorry,” she added.
Jolly additionally denied taking inspiration from The Final Supper for his practically four-hour manufacturing that passed off in torrential rain alongside the River Seine. The scene, supposed to advertise tolerance of various sexual and gender identities, additionally featured French actor Philippe Katerine showing practically bare and painted blue as Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and pleasure.
“The concept was to have an enormous pagan pageant linked to the Olympian gods,” Jolly advised BFM on Sunday. “You’ll by no means discover in my work any want to mock or denigrate anybody. I needed a ceremony that might unite folks, that might reconcile, but additionally a ceremony that might affirm our republican values of liberty, equality and fraternity,” he added.
In one of many ceremony’s different notable moments, a girl holding a bloodied severed head destined for execution, French Queen Marie Antoinette, appeared in a window of the Conciergerie, a constructing the place she was imprisoned after the French Revolution of 1789. She was later guillotined alongside along with her husband Louis XVI.
“We definitely weren’t glorifying this instrument of dying that’s the guillotine,” Jolly added.
Descamps mentioned Paris 2024 commissioned a survey from the Harris Polling Group that confirmed the French had been overwhelmingly constructive in regards to the opening ceremony.
US broadcaster NBC mentioned the procession was the most-watched Olympic begin since London in 2012, whereas German broadcaster ARD reported it was the most-watched in 20 years, based on Worldwide Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams.
Have one thing so as to add to the story? Share it within the feedback under.
