Long awaited by our southern neighbours, the handover between Paris and Los Angeles ultimately “weakened the atmosphere” of the closing ceremony, according to the American press, which hopes that the next host city of the Summer Olympic Games will aim for something more grandiose.
“After all the images of France – the Eiffel Tower, Versailles – moving the event to a beach hut painted with ‘LA28’ seems like a serious disappointment,” wrote the journalist from Paris New York Times Sarah Lyall.
The closing ceremony, admittedly less grandiose than the opening one, was based on a theatrical atmosphere and flamboyant costumes, like the artistic director Thomas Jolly. There was also Tom Cruise’s stunt, who, jumping from the roof of the Stade de France, delighted the crowd. But the American actor quickly left, followed fictitiously by a short film that took us to California.
There, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre performed live from Long Beach. But the pop music critic of New York Times Jon Pareles “wonders what LA 2028 was thinking that reduced them all to beach entertainment.”
“Aesthetically, it felt like walking out of a dark movie theater after a mysterious foreign film and into the bright lights of a noisy American shopping mall,” the Los Angeles Times.
” Unfortunately, […] A bizarre video montage of LA 2028 filmed thousands of miles away [a] “really killed the mood,” laments another journalist from New York TimesJenny Vrentas. Some spectators, disappointed to have to settle for a film, reportedly left the stadium before the end of the show. “I’m not sure these clichés are the best that the United States or Los Angeles has to offer.”