Opening Ceremony Queer Artistic Director Says Intention Was Not “To Mock Or Shock”
Yeah right! https://deadline.com/2024/07/olympics-opening-ceremony-artistic-director-intention-mock-or-shock-1236024601/
Thomas Jolly, the artistic director of Paris’ grandiose Olympics opening ceremony, has defended the show in the face of a backlash and accusations of “wokeism” and mocking Christianity.
Jolly told an official Olympics press conference on Saturday that his intention had not been “to be subversive, mock or shock.”
His intention was rather, he said, to capture France in all its diversity.
“My will is to say we are an immense ‘we’,” he said, adding: “In France, we have the right to love each other, as we want, with whoever we want, in France we have the right to believe and not to believe. In France, we have many rights.”
This blend has not gone down well in some quarters, even if the ceremony has been mainly applauded in France.
One scene in which a group of drag queens including Nicky Doll and stars of Drag Race France sat along a fashion catwalk in a configuration that appeared to mimic Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper has drawn particular ire.
Republican politician Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House, called the scene “shocking and insulting”.