French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed support for Thomas Joly, the artistic director of the Olympic opening ceremony, who has faced fierce criticism from conservatives and has filed a complaint with police alleging he has received death threats and online harassment. Paris prosecutors have opened an investigation into Joly’s claims, diverse He definitely did.
Jolie filed a complaint on July 30, the same day that the event’s DJ, Barbara Butch, filed another complaint of online harassment. While the opening ceremony was widely praised for its originality and innovation — the first in modern history to be held outdoors — it was also the subject of backlash from the Catholic Church as well as prominent conservative figures like Rob Schneider and Candace Cameron Bure, who objected to a scene that appeared to be inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper.”
Joly told French channel BFMTV over the weekend that the piece was not actually inspired by “The Last Supper” and was instead an homage to Greek mythology, but it has continued to stir controversy.
“Nothing justifies threatening the artist. The French were very proud of this concert. France showed its true face – it showed its audacity and did so with the freedom it needed,” Macron was quoted as saying by AFP while visiting the Olympic site at Les Invalides.
In his complaint, Jolie said he had been “the target of online threats and insults criticizing his sexual orientation and falsely assumed Israeli origins,” according to the prosecutor's office.
Butch, who appeared to be in the scene inspired by “The Last Supper,” announced earlier this week on Instagram that she had been “the target of a very violent campaign of online harassment and defamation.”
Her attorney, Audrey Meselati, said Butch had been threatened with death, tortured and raped, and subjected to numerous anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist and fatphobic slurs. “Barbara Butch condemns this vile hatred directed at her and at what she stands for,” the attorney said.
Responding to the controversy surrounding the parody of The Last Supper, Jolie said the scene that unleashed a torrent of hate speech was intended to raise awareness of “the absurdity of human violence” and denied it was inspired by the religious painting by Da Vinci.
Instead, Joly said, the idea was to “have a big pagan festival associated with the gods of Olympus.”
“It was very clear that it was Dionysus who had come to the table. Why was he there? Because Dionysus is the Greek god of celebration and wine, and he is the father of Sequana, the goddess of the Seine,” he said.
Jolie is now busy preparing for the closing ceremony, which will be held at the Stade de France and will include a dramatic scene from star Tom Cruise, along with “world-famous artists.”
