Olympic Weekend: Her Majesty, Mrs Urban, and Mr Bean
Saturday, July 28, 2012 at 11:00PM 
Please tell me you're watching the Olympics.
Like many non-sports people of the world, it's the only time I'm ever interested in sports but interested I am. All in! I love that famous film directors often get to direct the Opening Ceremonies and though I can't say that I think Danny Boyle did a memorable job or anything (Zhang Yimou's 2008 spectacle is a *really* tough act to follow), I did enjoy the comic touches. Always love seeing Daniel Craig suited up as James Bond and the evening's best moment had to be Queen Elizabeth's stunt double hilariously leaping out of a helicopter in that grandmatronly pink dress and the Queen's own sense of humor about herself to say yes to all this slapstick in the first place.
Who knew she had a sense of humor?
You'd never know it to look at her. Her Majesty never looks anything less than miserable (I died at her reaction to that ghastly children's choir) If she had said no, one must assume that Danny Boyle had Dame Helen Mirren backstage with costume on, ready to step in like an eager understudy.
My other favorite bit was Mr. Bean's total boredom while playing the Chariots of Fire theme song on the keyboard and his resultant jogging fantasy. It's probably not cool to admit that Mr. Bean cracks me up but he does.
Most of us watch the Olympics on the telly but look who was happy to be in the bleachers!
Love you, Nicki Kidman! You are a true Olympian in our hearts and an actual Gold Medalist to The Film Experience! xoxoxo
Call me maybe?
What are your favorite Olympic moments so far? I live for gymnastics and they keep cutting away from it. ALSO: any suggestions on how to get better gymnastics coverage are welcome -- I feel like I literally ONLY saw the US athletes tonight and I have no idea how their competition is doing or what they look like. I watch the Olympics because its global. I need other countries in the mix. Please and thanks.
Reader Comments (23)
I liked the ceremony though I would have liked a grand emotional moment that I didn't get.
I liked seeing Rowling reading Neverland and Brannagh delivering that Tempest speech but I needed some Winslet and/or Dench and/or some other film persona to be there.
PS: It's "Her Majesty" not "Her Royal Highness" ;)
I think it would be nice if AAMPAS or Cannes or Sundance awarded some recognition to QEII for her role in a short feature.
James T -- i didn't know this but you're right. The things the internet can teach us about other countries. I have corrected.
My favorite Olympic moment is any time Alexandre Desplaite is on screen. I've been having a kind of one sided Same Time, Next Year relationship with him since the 2004 games.
*Alexandre Despatie*
Will -- somehow I missed Alexandre tonight and I feel the same. I don't understand how to watch the Olympics this year and NBC isn't helping me. I want to see the things they're not showing me!
Nat: They have like 6 channels showing Olympic coverage during the day, so it's a huge task trying to keep track of where anything is. Though, I was watching men's gymnastics tonight and the NBC announcers really weren't informing me of what was at stake and who they were even competing against in this round.
In fairness to Boyle, he had less than half the budget of Yimou's spectacle.
I think the male divers JUST got to London. So I don't think we've missed any Alexandre, Nathaniel. Thank god.
Alexandre Despatie's loss at the finals in 2008 has to my most heartbreaking Olympics memory. Never seen a guy so sad to lose, but I can't wait to see him go all the way this time. Team Despatie FTW!
Hell yes, Amir!
I FOUND THE OPENING IN 2008 TO BE IMPRESSIVE BUT OTT AND COLD/CLINICAL AND WITHOUT HEART ANF HUMOURLESS,UK WAS WARM AND HAD A REAL SENSE OF BRITISHNESS PAST AND PRESENT AND FUTURE,A MARVELLOUS OCCASION,YOU CAN FEEL IT IN THE UK,ABOUT TIME BRITISH TRIUMPHS WERE CELEBRATED.
Mark - Lol @ "about time British triumphs were celebrated". Those Brits sure are historical underdogs, aren't they? ;-)
I am pretty much in tears when they do anything about John Orozco's story (US male gymnast) and I usually hate the human interest stuff.
Also, many of these gymnasts butts are bonkers.
"It's probably not cool to admit that Mr. Bean cracks me up but he does."
:O Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast? :p Mr. Bean is an icon, I grew up watching him and he has always and still is HILARIOUS!!!
Ugh, you Americans :p.
I absolutely love the Olympics, "Call Me Maybe" and male swimmers in tiny speedos. Not in that order.
I was at the dress rehersal for the Opening Ceremony last Wednesday and I have to say that the opening 20 minutes was a spectacular thing to witness live. Seeing it on television, you just didn't get the same propulsive intensity that was built throughout that whole piece - when the five rings came together, the stadium went mental and it was one of the most amazing experiences I have had.
I'm not British, though I have lived in London a couple of years, but I'll take Boyle's subtly radical humanism (that opening was hugely political but you have to know the history of Britain to understand it) over China's dead behind the eyes proficiency any day of the week. I will admit though that the opening was geared much more towards a domestic audience than in international one. It did the trick however by amost single handedly changing people's perception of the Games .
LOVED the Opening Ceremonies though I was quite disappointed at the lack of Doctor Who, being that the show has been a cultural mainstay in the UK for decades and is finally achieving international recognition thanks to the rebooted series. The opening "industrial" section was REALLY impressive. And yes, hats off to QE2 for appearing in the short Bond section. Love her to bits!
But yes, the coverage is SO confusing, outside of tennis always being on Bravo. And I do wish they would follow the international crowd more in the qualifying rounds, but I guess they think the domestic audience at large could care less at this point. They'll get to them, I'm sure.
I love the way the Queen is so committed to setting a good example. She showed that no matter how serious you are about your work/sport you need to keep a sense if humor and perspective about it.
The time difference is a wonderful thing. There's 5 or 6 hours difference between EST? So if you watch it live in the morning, starting early, you get all the competitors. Yesterday, in men's gymnastics, I saw teams US, China, Japan, Germany, Ukraine, etc. the Brazil single competitor on the rings was stunning! But the NBC nightly recaps will focus on the day's US competitors.
Some viewers in Washington State also watch the Canadian channels. They have less participants, do tend to cover the leaders in each event, regardless of nationality. You might get the Canadian channel, CTV in NY.
I have to agree with those who preferred this year's opening ceremony over the Beijing one - the London opening ceremony was just a lot warmer and more fun, though I would have enjoyed seeing more celebs (especially more great British musicians like Elton John, David Bowie, Adele). I was also disappointed at NBC's cuts to the ceremony - apparently they cut a tribute to the victims of the 7/7 London terrorist attacks, which is inexcusable, and they seemed to cut other random things as well (I think there was a portion that involved feeding ducks in the pastoral part at the outset that we didn't get to see), plus their commercial breaks were oddly edited.
I am really looking forward to watching women's gymnastics, which starts tonight - supposedly we have a good chance to win the team gold for the first time since Atlanta.
I just loved the opening ceremony, Kenneth Branagh and J.K. Rowling, wow! When Daniel Craig turned up, I sincerely thought the Queen would be Dame Helen, only to realise that she was one step even more authentic than that. :D
My favourite moment so far has just happened, with Áron Szilágyi winning the first gold medal this year for Hungary with superb fencing. :o) My absolute favourite event is gymnastics, and I love swimming and diving, too. Oh, and being in (almost) the same time zone as the Games is also an advantage (over the last time, for example :-)).
The 7/7 tribute was incredibly moving, the choreography and music for that section were superb. Shame on NBC for editing it out.
I know most people here just want to see the US athletes but not showing all the athletes made US miss what sounded like a terrific performance by the British gymnastics team. All we got to see was the US teams meltdown. Would rather have watched Team GB .
I know most people here just want to see the US athletes but not showing all the athletes made US miss what sounded like a terrific performance by the British gymnastics team. All we got to see was the US teams meltdown. Would rather have watched Team GB .