Mega Thread RIO 2016 - General Discussion Thread for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games (3rd Aug to 21st Aug)

[Speedie41]

Thanks REH. You reminded me. What chance we get the Macarena? Or I Go To Rio? Copacabana?

Nope we get the Brazilian National Folk Song instead!

 

[MisterMarcus]

Ch7 basically saying "Brazil has had financial problems, so this will be a lo-fi version of an opening ceremony".

 

[deedog2]

ads

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Mild nudity

 

[brucetiki]

Goon bags to start the ceremony?

 

[brucetiki]

Yep.

So many other sports australians don't get to see because of the swimming obsession. Disappointing really. Though perhaps with the digital channels we may get better variety this time

There's also the app where you can watch whatever sport you want for $20 (or free for Telstra subscribers I believe)

Well worth the investment if you don't want swimming week 1 and athletics week 2.

 

[GreyCrow]

Will they show the slaughter of the Indos? Or will these be benevolent overlords?

 

[Gavin Excell]

There's also the app where you can watch whatever sport you want for $20 (or free for Telstra subscribers I believe)

Well worth the investment if you don't want swimming week 1 and athletics week 2.

Ok thanks

I.do like the athletics though

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Ch7 basically saying "Brazil has had financial problems, so this will be a lo-fi version of an opening ceremony".

That should be low tech. Amazing what you can do with a few ropes and good lighting.

 

[Gavin Excell]

Will they show the slaughter of the Indos? Or will these be benevolent overlords?

Benevolent

 

[Bomberboyokay]

This stuff is missing all the blood.

 

[Gavin Excell]

When it comes to opening ceremonies only modern dance can showcase a host nations history

 

[Gavin Excell]

This stuff is missing all the blood.

Some . ropes though

 

[Juddism]

not too bad..good on em for doing the best with not much.

 

[brucetiki]

When was the last time the Opening/Closing ceremony venue for a Summer Olympics was not also the athletics venue?

 

[Bomberboyokay]

Hey they skipped the military dictatorship years!

 

[Gavin Excell]

West side Story set

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Seeing as we have 4 hours to go some of you might like to read this story from Wired about famed film director Fernando Meirelles, best known for his depiction of Rio’s favelas in the great Oscar winning movie - City of God which last time I checked was on SBS's On Demand service.

Why City of God’s Director Took On Tonight’s Opening Ceremony

FORGET THE LAST-SECOND upsets and histrionic losses. The greatest spectacle of the Olympic Games occurs well before most athletes even begin competing: the opening ceremony. Rio de Janeiro chose an unexpected partner to create this symbol of Brazil, which will be seen by three billion people: Fernando Meirelles, best known for his grim depiction of Rio’s crime-ridden favelas in City of God.

Sure, the director who created a vision of the city that Roger Ebert called “breathtaking and terrifying” might seem like the last person you’d name your visual ambassador to the world. But given the state Brazil finds itself in lately—and the erosion of the uneasy peace the government brought to the favelas during the 2010 World Cup—Meirelles may just be the person most well-suited to tell a story of national pride, while acknowledging the country’s problems.

A Blockbuster Event on an Indie Budget
No one knows for sure what Meirelles has planned, although Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen reportedly will be involved, possibly in some sort of assault scene. Brazil has endured economic and political upheaval in the seven years since the International Olympic Committee selected Rio. Today the country faces an outbreak of Zika and its worst recession in a century, and in the lead-up to the Games, some wondered how bad things might get. None of this is lost on Meirelles. In fact, it might be what he’s best at. “He has a proven track record of looking at ugly subject matter and rendering it elegantly,” says Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz, a film historian at the University of Colorado.

The IOC would not make Meirelles available for this story, but he has said that his budget is less than one-tenth what London spent on Danny Boyle’s ceremony in 2012 and less than one-twentieth of the $100 million that Beijing needed in 2008. “It does not make sense to be extravagant in this moment that the country is facing,” he said in a story the IOC posted about his team preparing for tonight’s event. “It will not be a high-tech ceremony, it will be high-concept.”
...............
http://www.wired.com/2016/08/olympics-2016-opening-ceremony-director/?mbid=social_twitter

 

[GreyCrow]

Will the favela slums get a run?

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Now that's a Girl from Ipanema

 

[The_Todd07]

Playing to Gisele's strengths
Walking and looking stunning

 

[Gavin Excell]

Girl from impanema. Alright!

Now that's a Girl from Ipanema

Yeah its great!

 

[Bomberboyokay]

 

[funk44]

I wish there was more dancing

 

[Plugger35]

Where's Barry Manilow and Peter Allen?

Not a bad Opening Ceremony so far, a pity Basil is commentating though.