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Highs, Lows, and Whoas of the 2024 Olympic Closing Ceremony


From severed heads and bloody streamers to “the individual.”

HIGH — “The Individual” TikTok is always warning me not to venture into the Paris catacombs without a guide, but the beginning of the Opening Ceremony sent precocious children to run down there unattended. What at first seemed like a very rickety version of the cancan suddenly gained new context as the show continued into a grand citywide interpretive dance celebrating the re-construction of the Notre-Dame cathedral. “La Marseillaise” is a rousing, catchy tune about spilling the blood of your enemies on a battlefield and putting “invented kings” in chains, and the opening ceremony featured an operatic performance of it by Axelle Saint-Cirel from atop the Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées dressed like Marianne herself.

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