FRANCE 2 – TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 10 AT 9:05 PM – DOCUMENTARY
There you have it, the Paris Games are over. Unless… By the magic of the Naudet brothers, you only have to watch the last two episodes of the documentary series At the heart of the Games to once again get excited, laugh and vibrate. With formidable emotional efficiency. For five months, from D-100 to the closing ceremony of the Paralympics on September 8, the two directors, their cameramen and their technical teams had access to the behind the scenes of the Games, i.e. approximately 150 days of filming and 1,200 hours of rushes, which are added to the hours of competition.
From this dense raw material, they released two episodes on the preparations, “The Gamble of the Games” and “The Final Straight”, on July 22 (still available on France.tv), with the first episode in the form of a prologue, “Paris, the Secret History of Victory”, on France’s winning the organization of the competition.
Since then, the Olympic wave has swept everything away. The public has responded with a popular fervor that few predicted. “Sous le ciel de Paris” (the only episode we were able to watch, the last one is still being edited) gives a magnificent account of this.
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From the very first sequence, Tony Estanguet appears thus… exhausted, on the morning of July 26, the day of the opening ceremony. With a closed face, he telephones Teddy Riner, still in bed, to offer him the role of the one who will light the cauldron. “What do you expect from me, to shut my mouth?”asks the judoka. ” Exactly. ” Then Tony Estanguet calls Marie-José Pérec to make her the same proposition. His voice sleepy, the athlete sobs into the phone: “No one has ever given me such a gift.” The film has been going for two minutes, and the first shivers are already running down the spines of the viewers. Even before the credits.
Gédéon and Jules Naudet do not hold back on any subject. They return, in particular, to the acts of sabotage committed against the SNCF, to the “Olympic Games-bashing” and to the rain, on this day theoretically the one when it rains the least of the year in Paris. But it is going to rain, exactly from the beginning to the end of the ceremony, no more no less. Bringing tears to the eyes of Thomas Jolly, artistic director of the four evenings.
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Rain is omnipresent in this episode, built from short sequences, which follow one another at a sustained pace and without chronological constraints. This allows us to move on to the victory of the French rugby sevens team, experienced through the eyes of the mother of Antoine Dupont, the captain: a mother who whistles, two fingers in her mouth, who laughs, sings and kisses her « gosse ».
Quality of plans
Then return to July 26, at 5:40 p.m. Thomas Jolly is then “in shock”. Before diving alongside Léon Marchand, on July 28, the day of his Olympic victory in the 400m medley, seen by journalist Alexandre Boyon, commentating for France Télévisions. The close-ups, the camera that “turns” at the same time as the swimmers once they touch the wall, Marie-Jo Pérec, seized: we are struck by the quality of the shots selected.
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Artistic bet? The cycling events in the broad sense (arrival in Montmartre, BMX at the Concorde, race on the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines ring) are presented to the music ofBy bicycleperformed by Yves Montand.
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Back to July 26, at 6:25 p.m. As the dozens of buses chartered for the occasion take the athletes to the banks of the Seine, next to the Ministry of Finance, the cameras embark with them for never-before-seen sequences.
The two opening ceremonies are treated in parallel. Tomer Margalit, an Israeli wheelchair dancer, tells the makeup artist about her life. Before Zinedine Zidane appears in the audience on July 26 at 7:45 p.m. The cameras are also present at the security PC, where there is “no planes near the capital.” Then to Tahiti, where “Tigrou”, Kauli Vaast, won gold ahead of Bernadette, the “Tigress” of the Tahiti Surf Club.
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If the officials are not forgotten, from Emmanuel Macron to Anne Hidalgo, cap on her head, the anonymous are valued, such as the thirty technicians of Ottobock, who adjust and repair, free of charge and with a smile, the prostheses, chairs and running blades of the para-athletes. All is well. In front of the guillotined head of Marie-Antoinette who intones “Ah, it’ll be fine, it’ll be fine.”Thomas Jolly finds his smile again.
At the heart of the Gamesepisodes 4 and 5, by Gédéon and Jules Naudet (Fr., 2024, 2 × 52 min). On France.tv until April 25, 2025.
