The opening of the Paris Olympics was crazy and wonderful — and made bishops angry. Here’s why

PARIS (AP) — Paris: The Olympic gold medalist of naughtiness.

Revolution ran like a high-voltage wire through the mad, beautiful, rule-breaking opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, which used the French capital to dazzle, bewilder and sometimes even poke a finger in the eye of a global audience on Friday night.

That Paris held the most flamboyant and diversity-celebrating opening ceremony came as no surprise. Anything less would have been a betrayal of the pride the French capital feels in being home to humanity in all its richness.

But still. Wow. Paris didn’t just push the boundaries. It abolished them altogether, hammering home the message that freedom should know no boundaries.

A nearly naked singer, painted blue, made thinly veiled references to his body parts. Blonde, bearded drag queen Piche crawled on all fours to the thumping beat of “Freed From Desire” by singer-songwriter Gala, who has long been a forceful voice against homophobia. There were the beginnings of a ménage à trois — the door was slammed on camera before things got too sweaty — and the end of an intimate embrace between two men who danced, hugged and held hands.

“In France, we have the right to love each other, as we want and with whom we want. In France, we have the right to believe or not to believe. In France, we have many rights. Voila,” said the daring show’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly.

Jolly, who is gay, says she was bullied as a child for being feminine, which made her realize early on how unfair discrimination is.

The amorous atmosphere and the brutality were too much for some.

“Know that it is not France that is speaking, but a left-wing minority ready for any provocation,” posted far-right French politician Marion Maréchal, with the hashtag “notinmyname.”

Let’s take a closer look at how Paris both awed and shocked.

A 21st-Century Update of Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘The Last Supper’

DJ and producer Barbara Butch, an LGBTQ+ icon who calls herself a “love activist,” wore a silver headdress resembling a halo as she kicked off a party on a pedestrian bridge over the Seine, above parading athletes — including athletes from countries that criminalize LGBTQ+ people. Drag performers, dancers and others flanked Butch on either side.

The scene was reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper, which depicts the moment when Jesus Christ announced that an apostle would betray him.

Jolly says that wasn’t his intention. He saw the moment as a celebration of diversity, and the table where Butch played her tunes as a tribute to partying and French gastronomy.

“My wish is not to be subversive, nor to mock or shock,” Jolly said. “I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion and not at all to divide.”

Still, critics couldn’t undo what they saw.

“One of the main performances of the Olympics was an LGBT mockery of a sacred Christian story – the Last Supper – the last supper of Christ. The apostles were portrayed by transvestites,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova posted on Telegram.

“Apparently in Paris they decided that since the Olympic rings are multi-coloured, they can turn it all into one big gay parade,” she added.

The Bishops’ Conference of the French Catholic Church deplored what it described as “scenes of mockery and ridicule of Christianity” and said: “Our thoughts are with all Christians of every continent who are hurt by the indignation and provocation of certain scenes.”

LGBTQ+ athletes, however, seemed to be having a great time. British diver Tom Daley posted a photo of himself reenacting the iconic scene between Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio from “Titanic,” but with the roles reversed: he stood on the bow of the boat with his arms outstretched, while rower Helen Glover held him from behind.

Is that a revolver in your pocket?

When a giant silver dome rose to reveal singer Philippe Katerine, reclining on a crown of fruit and flowers, nearly naked and painted blue, spectators thought he was not Papa Smurf, but Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstasy.

But if they don’t speak French, they might not have noticed the brutality of his lyrics.

“Where do you hide a gun when you’re all naked?” he sang, pointing to his crotch. “I know what you’re thinking. But that’s not a good idea.”

“No more rich and poor when you’re naked again. Yes,” Katerine continued.

Decades after Brigitte Bardot sang “Naked in the Sun,” this reminded Paris that everyone starts their life in their abortion costume. Where is the shame?

Parisian museums are filled with paintings celebrating the human form. Gustave Courbet’s “Origin of the World” hangs in the Musée d’Orsay. The 16th-century “Gabrielle d’Estrées and One of Her Sisters,” showing a bare-breasted woman pinching another woman’s nipple, hangs in the Louvre.

France in all its colours

Dressed in a golden suit, French-Malian pop star Aya Nakamura confidently stepped out of the hallowed doors of the Institut de France, a prestigious bastion of French language, culture and dedication to freedom of thought. Even without a note being sung, the message of diversity, inclusion and black pride was loud.

The world’s most listened-to French-language artist was the target of fierce attacks from far-right activists when her name surfaced as a possible performer at the show earlier this year, with Paris prosecutors opening an investigation into alleged racism against the singer.

Nakamura performed with musicians from the Republican Guard of the French Army, who danced around her.

Au revoir, narrow-mindedness and stifling traditions.

Away with their heads!

When London hosted the 2012 Summer Games, it paid tribute to the British monarchy by giving Queen Elizabeth II a starring role in the opening ceremony. Actor Daniel Craig, in his role as James Bond, was shown visiting the head of state at Buckingham Palace before the pair appeared to parachute out of a helicopter above the stadium.

The French love to tease their neighbours across the Channel and, perhaps not entirely coincidentally, they chose a completely different, utterly irreverent approach.

A recently beheaded Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France before the French Revolution of 1789, was pictured holding her severed head and chanting, “The aristocrats, we hang them.” Then, heavy metal band Gojira tore the Parisian night apart with a screeching electric guitar.

Freedom: Who does it better than the French?

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AP journalists Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Jim Heintz in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed.

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For more coverage of the Paris Olympics, visit https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games.