Anyone would think the end of the world had arrived. France opened the Olympic Games, as all nations do, with a tribute to its culture and its past: the Enlightenment, controversial literature, sexual freedom and of course, the Revolution. And it’s this rebellious version of France – which has historically captured the imagination of an admiring world – that was showcased in the rain on Friday night.
Paris always simultaneously challenged and fascinated the prudish elements of Protestant Anglo Saxons across the water. Immortalised in Baz Lurhmann’s lavish film of the same name, the Moulin Rouge shocked British society. The risqué establishment still exists and its dancers performed on the banks of the Seine, their high kicks revealing garters and knickers to the whole wide world.
The Last Supper was the last resort!
But the performatively outraged were horrified at what was thought to be a representation of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper, by what they saw as drag queens defiling Christian art. That drag queens can also be Christian notwithstanding, this painting has also been reproduced with Homer Simpson standing in for Jesus amongst many other representations, but funnily enough, their ire was absent for that.
One intrepid deviance-sleuth spotted what he claimed to be a testicle popping out of a pair of shorts, but it turned out to be a tear in a pair of tights, and his outrage was sadly wasted. Especially as the official X account of the Olympic Games noted that the scene was a depiction of Dionysus showing the “absurdity of violence between human beings”. This was a theme throughout with doves flying out of the opening doors of the Cathedral St Denis and a floating performance of John Lennon’s Imagine.
Then a character in bright blue, wearing flowers around his head, exploded the heads of culture warriors. The fact that it depicted Dionysus – the Greek God of wine, a cheeky nod to the Greek origins of the Olympics and the French association with wine, but also the god of fertility, insanity and religious ecstasy – was utterly lost on them.
Revolting history!
As the words ‘Ça Ira’ (it’ll be fine) flashed across the screen, a headless woman in 18th-century attire appeared in a window staring out at the River Seine. One guy on Twitter was so triggered by actual history that he didn’t want to have to explain the story to his children. The woman, a representation of Marie Antoinette, the famous wife of Louis XVI who was executed along with him in 1793, was seen looking out at the world from her actual place of imprisonment in the 18th century. Ça Ira was the title of a revolutionary song.
The French Revolution which set in stone the principles of the rights of man and of the citizen in its constitution of 1789, ended the notion of absolute monarchy in France, putting the nation above any individual. This rocked the European establishment to the core as it abolished feudalism in France and swept away the privileges bestowed upon the aristocracy and the clergy.
Inspired by the American Declaration of Independence of 1776, Article 1 of the French Declaration of the Rights of Man adopted in 1789 stated that men are born equal and remain free and equal in rights. It established freedom of religion, speech, and of the press and introduced a means tested system of taxation.
Paris has always welcomed diversity, so why the outrage?
The world was serenaded from a Paris rooftop by French mezzo soprano and descendant of Guadeloupian parents, Axelle Saint-Cirel, with a breathtaking rendition of La Marseillaise. Also Aya Nakamura, Mali-born Queen of French pop, strutted out in a dazzling gold outfit to perform with the orchestra of the French Republican Guard who danced along to her chart-topping songs.
But the presence of ethnically diverse performers displeased members of the constantly outraged! WOKE! They cried! Had they forgotten that it’s Paris?
Beautiful Paris which welcomed black performers from the USA. From Josephine Baker to Nina Simone, Ada Smith and Louis Armstrong, there were no tradesmen entrances for them. Early 20th-century France treated them as equals and projected them to fame. Baker became the highest-paid performer in Europe at a time when she couldn’t order a cup of coffee in a hotel back in her native St Louis.
Gay Pareee is still shocking to some
Others who sought refuge in the beautiful arrondissements of the nation’s capital include Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde. A writer and wit of exceptional talent, he was sentenced to the maximum penalty of two years hard labour for the crime of gross indecency for homosexual acts, which he served in unbelievably harsh 19th-century British prison conditions. Upon his release in 1897, he moved to Paris, where homosexual acts had not been a criminal offense since 1791. It continued to be illegal in England until 1967, in Scotland until 1980 and in Northern Ireland until 1982.
Gay people from across the globe, from Russia to Iran to Nigeria, could watch the opening of the Olympics on Friday and see a celebration of people like themselves.
France made the Olympics gender equal
The opening ceremony of what aims to be the first gender-equal Olympics in history, unveiled new statues of ‘heroines of French history’ which will be donated to the city to increase representation of women in the city.
The honoured women included amongst others Olympe de Gouges who fought, and died for female equality during the Revolution, and Simone Veil, a holocaust survivor, female right campaigner and President of the European Parliament, who advocated for women’s reproductive rights. Veil’s efforts contributed to France becoming the first nation in the world to grant constitutional protection to the right to abortion in 2024.
Vive La France!
The best of France was on display on Friday. Not the far-right underbelly of the recently quashed Rassemblement Nationale, the racists and socially conservative faux Christians who seek to exclude and to divide, but the flamboyantly outrageous, open and sexy Republic of France with a rich and varied history, a small of part of which was depicted to the world in various pastiche performances along the banks of the Seine.
France can still shock it seems but I, for one, felt proud to call myself French on Friday night.
Vive la République! Vive la France!
More from Ann Moody:
- The WEF should be scrutinised, but enough of the ‘world domination’ stuff
- The strange disappearance of Belle and Sangita
- Special economic zones in the UK – ideology over public interest?
