PARIS — In a luxurious hotel room on the 16th floor, overlooking the heart of Paris and the iconic River Seine, Thomas Jolly prepares for the grand spectacle that will herald the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“At first I was overwhelmed. I wondered how I could create a show where everyone can feel represented as part of this great union,” admits Jolly, the actor and director who was asked two years ago to lead the artistic direction of the opening and closing ceremonies . “This responsibility was ambitious, complex, but wonderful for an artist.”
More than a billion people are expected to attend the opening ceremony on July 26. But Jolly, 42, is no stranger to major projects in France, where he’s producing a 24-hour Shakespearean tetralogy in 2022 and reviving favorite musical “Starmania.” He has won three Molière Prizes, France’s highest theater prize.
Now he is tasked with sharing France with the rest of the world in a parade expected to last almost four hours.
“France is a story that never ceases to be constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed. It lives, it continues to live,” Jolly passionately explained in an interview on Friday. This dynamic, he says, is fueling the country’s reputation for protests and strikes – expressions of France’s ongoing reexamination of its identity and values.
Behind Jolly there is a bustle, with construction workers on the banks of the Seine, closed to the public, working on the locations for the upcoming ceremony. At one point, Tony Estanguet, the head of the Paris 2024 organizing committee and who is also giving interviews at the hotel, joins Jolly on the balcony, away from the media frenzy. Cigarette in hand, Jolly gestures animatedly towards the Seine as they discuss the final details, Estanguet nodding in agreement.
Last year, France hosted the Rugby World Cup. The opening ceremony, created by Oscar-winning actor Jean Dujardin, who played a beret-wearing baker in a portrayal of 1950s France, was criticized for being too stereotypical and outdated. While she acknowledges the clichés, Jolly is determined to play with and subvert these stereotypes, believing that opening ceremonies often tell the story of a country.
“When we watch ‘Emily in Paris’ or ‘Amélie Poulain’, we know that this is not quite the real Paris. We are going to play with all those clichés, but we are also going to challenge them,” says Jolly, who also directs the Paralympic ceremonies. “Paris is also a vibrant youth. Different cultures meet on the street.”
The opening ceremony will be attended by around 300,000 people, most of whom are invited, with organizers aiming to celebrate inclusion and diversity. The original plan was to hold a 100% free ceremony, with millions of people watching the parade from the riverbanks. These ambitions were scaled back by the French government, which feared security threats in a city that suffered major extremist attacks as recently as 2015.
“An opening ceremony has never been held outside a stadium. There is no model; it is absolute creation,” said Jolly, who acknowledged the challenges of such a feat. He envisioned a gigantic ballet in twelve acts with hundreds of dancers stationed on the many bridges spanning the Seine, while boats floated down the river carrying the Olympic athletes to the Eiffel Tower.
Jolly remains tight-lipped about what will ultimately happen during the ceremony. Rehearsals will be held in secret locations throughout France, but no full rehearsal will take place before the actual date. The mystery has sparked much speculation, with some of the most daring theories positing the use of submarines in the Seine and appearances by pop stars such as Celine Dion, Lady Gaga and French-Malian singer Aya Nakamura.
“I’ll get fired if I tell you anything,” says Jolly with a cheeky laugh. “All I can tell you is that it will be very meaningful for the artists who will perform.”
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Follow AP coverage of the Olympics at https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
