Thomas Jolly can finally breathe. The opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games are now behind him. Appointed artistic director of Paris 2024 in 2022, he can therefore take stock of his colossal work.
In an interview with Monde Published on September 12, Thomas Jolly believes that this adventure can be seen as “a marathon with, at the end, four hurdle jumps”. It must be said that “since the end of July, we have had to put on a ceremony every two weeks”, with 20,000 people having to coordinate.
No Zidane in a helicopter
And the challenge proved complex with “an incalculable number of obstacles” ranging from the budget to security and the stability of the Seine quays. “We succeeded,” he rejoices despite the rain on July 26, the day of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Thomas Jolly even admits to having “cried all day long.” “But, in reality, this rain gave us immediacy. We were all, public, technical teams, athletes, under the same unifying water. It brought us together.”
The artistic director also had to resolve to abandon certain ideas such as “Zinedine Zidane flying over the Seine […] because it is forbidden to fly a helicopter over the audience at low altitude.” But his “most bitter disappointment was above all the lack of texts.” Coming from the theater, he would have liked to “perform Molière or the speech of a poet, a poetess, in front of the National Assembly.” The show was intended to address “the entire planet. Not everyone would have understood.”
The artist also returns to the legislative elections, with a second round on July 7, and, at the time, the prospect of an RN victory. “If Jordan Bardella had been prime minister, I would not have changed anything in the content. In any case, it was too late,” he explains. “But this anxiety-provoking political context probably influenced the reception of the spectators. They were even more sensitive to the joy, the appeasement and the feeling of unity that we wanted to spread.”
An end on “a hymn to love”
Faced with the controversy over certain sequences on July 26, Thomas Jolly also assures that he is not “proselytizing” even if “of course it was political.” “In all the scenes, different bodies appeared, diversity, women and men in makeup or costumes. Theater was everywhere, the question of genders too.” Recalling that kings powdered themselves and considering that Joan of Arc was “one of the greatest transvestites in our history,” he believes that “our culture is made of this fluidity of genders.”
The goal was not to seek “provocation” because he “does not seek to harm anyone.” He also recalls having concluded the ceremony with the words of Edith Piaf: “God unites those who love each other.” “Not to highlight the Catholic religion. But to end with a hymn to love.”
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