In an interview with Mondethe artistic director of the Olympic Games claims the “political” dimension of his staging choices and recognizes that gender issues “were everywhere” in his ceremonies.
As the athletes’ parade in the streets of Paris rekindles the Olympic flame one last time in the hearts of Olympic spectators, the artistic director of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Thomas Jolly, spoke in an interview with Monde. The opportunity for him to make a first assessment, hot off the press, of these ceremonies which have made the director known throughout the world. The artist and man of the theatre has notably claimed the political dimension of his choices, despite the controversies they have aroused.
To those who were shocked by the opening ceremony in particular, Thomas Jolly responds: “Of course it was political, even if I don’t proselytize”.
“Gender Fluidity”
Adding that according to him, “Our culture is made of this fluidity of genders” mentioned throughout the ceremony: “My mission was to say who we are. In all the paintings appeared different bodies, diversity, women and men made up or in costumes. The theater was everywhere, the question of gender too. The French kings powdered themselves and wore heels. Wasn’t Joan of Arc, one of the greatest transvestites in our history, condemned because she was dressed as a man?”
The director believes, however, that the criticism of Philippe Katerine’s performance, naked on a bridge in Paris, is not a matter of “controversy”, but of the “wave of hate”.
Also readParis Olympics: Behind the scenes of the opera show that Thomas Jolly imagined for the closing ceremony
So, avoiding criticism, he congratulates himself on having been able to create unity: “Many people have written to me to tell me that they felt represented and that they felt part of a greater we. Universalism emerges stronger from this dialogue between the common and the singular.”
«Tom Cruise, I have nothing to do with that”
In this interview, Thomas Jolly still describes his adventure as a «marathon» which concluded “with, at the end, four hurdle jumps” – that is to say the four ceremonies, opening and closing, of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. He regrets, however, not having been able to prevent certain surprises of these ceremonies from being divulged in advance: “We failed to keep Lady Gaga and Celine Dion’s names secret. It’s a shame.”he says, believing that these spoilers are the result of a “pernicious will” from those who “thought we wouldn’t make it”.
Thomas Jolly also mentions the collision with the legislative elections and the period of political uncertainty that followed: “I worked in this noise as well as in the din of political news that caught up with us. I did not escape the climate of suspicion and worry”he says.
Finally, he confides some behind-the-scenes secrets: he would have liked to have Zidane fly over the Seine in a helicopter, but it is forbidden to fly at low altitude above the audience. As for Tom Cruise’s appearance at the closing ceremony… “It was a carte blanche from Los Angeles 2028. I have nothing to do with it”.
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