From Leos Carax to ‘Call My Agent’ Creator, Paris Olympics Opening Promises An Expansive Vision of France

variety.com:

Ben Croll With this year’s Olympic Games Opening Ceremony just days away, odd sights and rumors now swirl around Paris. On Monday, as the French press guessed at surprise performers – with Celine Dion, Lady Gaga and Dua Lipa among the names heard often – local cameras caught glimpse of a grand piano, hidden below a tarp, being floated down the Seine.

And though Paris 2024 organizers remained tight-lipped about any and all cameo performances, the emblematic waterway itself is set to play a starring role at Friday’s affair.

Running just under four hours, the open-air pageant will play as a nautical cruise, following 85 boats – each carrying an Olympic delegation – on a four-mile parade through the City of Light’s main artery.

Setting off from the Pont d’Austerlitz and culminating at the foot of the Eiffel Tower, the nautical event will make use of the city’s historical sites and locales, staging twelve living tableaus, overseen by French theatre director Thomas Jolly and brought to life by 3,500 actors, dancers, and musical performers. “For the first time in the ceremony’s history, the athletes will [take part in the artistic show] by passing through the tableaus,” says Jolly. “Right from the start we wanted to overturn the traditional structure that kept the artistic show, the athlete procession and the protocol as three discrete elements.