UPDATED: Thomas Jolly, the inventive director of the opening ceremony of the Summer season Olympics, has filed a second grievance on Aug. 3, together with two organizers of the occasion, Alexandre Billard and Thierry Reboul, alleging dying threats, swiftly prompting the crime unit (BRDP) to launch a brand new investigation, in keeping with the Paris prosecutor’s workplace.
In keeping with nationwide newspaper Le Parisien, among the dying threats cited verses of the Quran, saying that the “Allah’s punishment will fall down on the organizers in Saint Denis.” The closing ceremony will happen on the Stade de France, situated in Saint Denis, on the outskirts of Paris. Billard is the joint managing director of the occasion planner company Ubi Bene, whereas Reboul is the chief director of the Olympic ceremonies.
Jolly beforehand filed a grievance on July 30, the identical day that the DJ of the ceremony, generally known as Barbara Butch, additionally filed a grievance for cyber harassment.
Whereas the opening ceremony has been broadly praised for its originality and innovation — and is the primary in trendy historical past to be hosted outside — it has additionally been the topic of backlash from the Catholic Church in addition to from outstanding conservative figures like Rob Schneider and Candace Cameron Bure, who objected to a scene which appeared to riff on Leonardo Da Vinci’s portray “The Final Supper.”
Jolly advised French outlet BFMTV final weekend that the section was the truth is not impressed by “The Final Supper,” and was as an alternative a tribute to Greek mythology, however it has continued to stoke controversy.
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke out in assist of Jolly, whereas visiting an Olympic web site on the Invalides. Macron was quoted by information outlet AFP saying “nothing justifies that an artist be threatened. The French had been very pleased with this ceremony. France gave the face of what it’s — it confirmed its audacity and it did so with the liberty it wanted.”
In his grievance, Jolly stated he was the “goal of on-line threats and slurs criticizing his sexual orientation and his wrongly-assumed Israeli origins,” in keeping with the prosecutors workplace.
Butch, who took half within the scene that seemed to be impressed by “The Final Supper,” introduced earlier this week on Instagram that she had been “the goal of an especially violent marketing campaign of cyber-harassment and defamation.” Butch additionally told Le Parisien that she has obtained antisemistic slurs and swastikas, in addition to homophobic, sexist, fat-phobic insults, and even heinous messages urging her to commit suicide.
Reacting to the controversy over the obvious parody of “The Final Supper,” Jolly advised French information channel BFM TV that the scene which unleashed a torrent of hate speech was meant to boost consciousness “of the absurdity of violence between human beings,” and denied he had been impressed by the Da Vinci’s non secular portray.
As an alternative, Jolly stated the concept was to “have a grand pagan pageant related to the gods of Olympus.”
“It was fairly clear, it’s Dionysus who arrives on the desk. Why is he there? As a result of Dionysus is the Greek god of festivities (…) and wine, and is the daddy of Sequana, the goddess of the Seine river,” he stated.
Jolly is now busy making ready the closing ceremony which can characteristic a Tom Cruise stunt, together with “world-famous performers.”
