五輪開会式不快なら「申し訳ない」　組織委、宗教嘲笑の意図は否定

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】パリ五輪の大会組織委員会は２８日、奇抜な開会式で不快な思いをした人がいるなら「本当に申し訳なく思う」と謝罪した。一方で、宗教に対して「敬意を欠く」意図はなかったと強調した。（写真はパリ五輪の開会式。パフォーマンスを披露する米歌手のレディ・ガガさん）
　演出家トマ・ジョリー氏（４２）が芸術監督を務めた２６日の開会式をめぐっては、一部のカトリック系団体や仏国内のキリスト教会司教らから「キリスト教を嘲笑する場面」があったとの批判が出ていた。
　批判が集中しているのは、ダンサーやドラアグクイーン、ＤＪがイエス・キリストの「最後の晩餐」を思わせるポーズを取ったとされる場面。
　組織委の広報担当者はこの日、記者団に対して「いかなる宗教団体に対しても敬意を欠く意図は決してなかった」とし、「不快になった方がいたとしたら当然、本当に申し訳なく思う」と話した。
　ジョリー氏は、最後の晩餐をモチーフにしていないと主張している。
　多様な性への寛容を訴える意図があったこの場面では、全身を青く塗ったほぼ全裸の仏アーティスト、フィリップ・カトリーヌさんが銀の皿に乗って登場。
　その姿はギリシャ神話の酒の神「ディオニュソス」を模していた。ディオニュソスは、セーヌ川の女神セクアナの父とされる。
　ジョリー氏はニュース専門局ＢＦＭに対して「オリンポスの神々につながる、多神教の一大パーティーを開くというアイデアだった」と説明した。
　開会式ではまた、マリー・アントワネットが１７８９年のフランス革命後に投獄された牢獄「コンシェルジュリー」の窓に、切断された自身の頭を抱えた女性が登場するという演出もあった。
　マリー・アントワネットは夫のルイ１６世と共にギロチンで斬首された。
　ジョリー氏は「処刑道具のギロチンを賛美する意図は全くなかった」と釈明した。
　一方、組織委が委託した調査会社ハリスによる世論調査では、フランス国内の回答者の８６％が開会式を肯定的に捉えていることが示された。
　最も印象に残った場面としては、カナダ・ケベック州出身の歌手セリーヌ・ディオンによる、エッフェル塔でのパフォーマンスが挙げられた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/07/29-17:11）

Paris Olympics organisers said Sunday they were really sorry if any offence was caused by their daring and quirky opening ceremony while denying any intention to disrespect religion after complaints from French bishops.
Some Catholic groups and French bishops have condemned what they saw as scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity in the parade on Friday choreographed by theatre director Thomas Jolly.
Criticism has focused on a scene involving dancers, drag queens and a DJ in poses that recalled depictions of the Last Supper, the final meal Jesus is said to have taken with his apostles.
Clearly there was never an intention to show disrespect to any religious group, Paris 2024 spokeswoman Anne Descamps told reporters on Sunday.
If people have taken any offence, we are of course really, really sorry, she added.
Jolly, 42, denied taking inspiration from the Last Supper in his nearly four-hour production, which took place in driving rain along the River Seine.
The scene, intended to promote tolerance of different sexual and gender identities, also featured French actor Philippe Katerine, who appeared on a silver serving dish, almost naked and painted blue.
He was meant to be Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and pleasure, who was father of Sequana, the goddess of the River Seine.
The idea was to do a big pagan party linked to the gods of Olympus, Jolly told the BFM channel on Sunday.
You'll never find in my work any desire to mock or denigrate anyone. I wanted a ceremony that brings people together, that reconciles, but also a ceremony that affirms our Republican values of liberty, equality and fraternity, he added.
In one of the other striking moments of the ceremony, a woman holding a bloodied severed head and intended to be executed French queen Marie-Antoinette appeared in a window of the Conciergerie, a building where she was imprisoned after the 1789 French Revolution.
She was later guillotined along with her husband Louis XVI.
Certainly we were not glorifying this instrument of death which is the guillotine, Jolly added.
- 'Proud' -
Reactions were mixed towards the unprecedented ceremony, the first time a Summer Olympics has opened outside of the main athletics stadium.
A poll by the survey group Harris, which was commissioned by Paris 2024 organisers, showed that 86 percent of respondents in France held positive views on the ceremony.
Quebec-born singer Celine Dion, who brought the curtain down with a solo performance from the Eiffel Tower, emerged as the most notable feature of the parade when respondents were asked what they remembered.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday that the ceremony had made our compatriots extremely proud.
But the racially diverse cast of performers and the prominence given to women and LGBT+ performers upset some conservative critics, who dismissed it as woke.
A spokesman for France's far-right National Rally party, Julien Odoul, called the ceremony a ransacking of French culture, while Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called it a giant gay parade.
American broadcaster NBC said the procession was the most-watched start to an Olympics since London in 2012, while German broadcaster ARD reported it being the most watched in 20 years, according to International Olympic Committee spokesman Mark Adams.
Around 300,000 spectators watched from the river banks, often at a cost of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of euros.