But why did they show us Marie Antoinette’s beheading?

As Protagon reminds us, since the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, the hitherto miserable opening ceremony has been transformed into a spectacle intended to introduce/advertise the host city/nation of the Games, first to stadium spectators and then to a global television audience.

The celebrations were thus enriched by the presentation of some important moments from the history and culture of the city/country where the Games will be held, according to the organizers’ choices. The choice is made starting from stereotypes (positive) and moving on to themes that are an expression/advertisement of the city and country to the world audience. For example, the opening of London saw James Bond accompanying Queen Elizabeth, Mr. Bean playing keyboards to the tune of Vangelis Papathanasiou’s “Chariots of Fire” conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, and Eric Idle from Monty Python singing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”.

All these are elements of modern mass culture that are recognizable, although they are original to the time of their appearance, without any negative reference to any scenes, and far removed from historical moments such as the many severed heads of the Wars of the Roses or the execution of Charles I of Cromwell, which left England without a king for a few years, because the spirit of the Olympic Games includes – if only for a while – avoiding tensions and manifestations of violence, in favor of the competition of the Olympic Games. Different events. This puts many points in the history of different countries out of place.

Now, why, of all the world-historical elements that make up the French Revolution, did they choose at the ceremony in Paris to show the beheading of Marie Antoinette? It is worth wondering. I wonder what they did not show and what they did show.

Well, after mentioning the guillotine, when the Marquis de Favre was informed of his death sentence (French Revolution era) his last words were: “I see that you have made three grammatical errors in the text of the resolution.The opening ceremony, which chose to remind us of this dimension of French history, did much more than that.

The choice to show the French Revolution as a synonym for the beheading of Marie Antoinette, with heavy metal music playing in the background, focused on the French Revolution as the guillotine. But this was exactly the version of the French Revolution as presented by the Restoration after the defeat of Napoleon! In other words, today’s France shows us the image of the Revolution as presented by its enemies! And since some seem happy to see Marie Antoinette beheaded as a symbol of the coup, let us remember that immediately after her execution, many of the leaders of the Revolution were executed, first the Girondins and finally Robespierre himself. . And not only.

Moreover, since the guillotine was chosen as an element of French history and culture worthy of being celebrated at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, we should not discriminate and remember the founder of modern chemistry, Lavoisier.

Lavoisier was one of the victims of the French Revolution, and was criticized for accusing the famous Marat, who hated him for personal reasons (it seems that Lavoisier criticized – rightly – his thesis), under the impression that Lavoisier had inherited the profession of tax collector for the king.

The famous mathematician Lagrange, a contemporary of Lavoisier, commented on his execution, saying: “It took only a moment to cut off this head, but it may be 100 years before another like it appears.”

But the revolutionaries who were in power during the years of terror did not share this opinion. Thus, when some other scientists, at his short trial, tried to defend Lavoisier by pointing to his important scientific work, the judge uttered the grand phrase: “Democracy does not need scientists”!

These events (which the ceremony reminded us of, intentionally or by mistake) by referring to the guillotine, were of course in conflict with the spirit of the Enlightenment that preceded it, as well as with the importance that the publication of the Encyclopédie had in the ideological preparation of the French Revolution. In addition, they did not highlight in the ceremony the positive dimension of the famous trilogy “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”, which had provoked uprisings and revolutions in many countries (which also contributed to the Greek Revolution of 1821).

On the other hand, there are ways to treat such topics in a gentler and more intelligent way, using (dark) humor (which, of course, is lacking in the overt heavy metal music). So there is a skit with Marie Antoinette (Miss Piggy) and the French nobility singing (pure irony) the disco song “Stayin’ Alive”! So Miss Piggy did a much better job than the organizers of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, regarding one of the most important, but also difficult, historical moments in France.

YouTube video with puppets:

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