Review of Fixing France: How to Repair a Broken Republic by Nabila Ramdani (Hurst Books, 2023)
The recent opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics was quintessentially French. A comic drag performance had a vaudeville character, the polyamorous kiss evidence of a living libertine tradition. The golden statues rising out of the ground were a tribute to radical and revolutionary women from French history like the Communard Louise Michel, the philosopher and feminist activist Simone de Beauvoir, and the politician Gisèle Halimi.
Gojira, one of France’s most famous bands, paid homage to the revolution itself with a performance that included a decapitated Marie Antoinette. Oh, and of course there was the strangeness of the dancing Smurf.
The ceremony occurred against a backdrop of political turmoil, as Emmanuel Macron has instituted what some of his critics call a “cold coup.” Although the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance was the largest force following the recent legislative elections, France’s self-styled Jupiter has refused to accept their nomination for the post of prime minister. In the meantime, the old government has officially resigned, but is continuing to govern as though it remains in place.
The spectacle of the ceremony, directed by left-wing artist Thomas Jolly, was not well received by everyone. The tableau of Marie Antoinette outraged the reactionary right, and the drag performance was interpreted in conservative quarters as a decadent provocation to Christian morality (they…
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Auteur: Olly Haynes
