From Britney Spears to Lionel Messi, the cultural and sporting year – Liberation

Britney Spears finally free

November 12. One happy end and a miracle. A few months ago, when the mobilization on the Internet and in the street was in full swing, no one would have dared to hope that Britney Spears, tortured idol of the star system now aged 39, would really get rid of the guardianship of her father who kept her for thirteen years in an infantilizing limbo, without having the right to dispose of her body, her destiny, or the fortune she generated since the beginning of her spectacular career, there over twenty-five years old. Finally, Judge Brenda Penny will have heard, through the activists of the #FreeBritney movement, and also from the mouth of the artist herself, how archaic and scandalous this situation was; she released her from her father, to replace him with an accountant that Britney Spears chose, and from her obligation to work to run the lucrative business that this guardianship was fueling. The verdict also concludes an unexpected media sequence, supported by two documentaries produced by the New York Times and Netflix, which uncovered the deep workplace sexism in pop music at all levels of the business, from the media to the recording studios. Long live free Britney. OL

James Bond: going out can wait

October 6. Patience and length of time, etc. The historical and wealthy producers of the James Bond film franchise, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, had to postpone the release of the last episode three times, due to Covid, Dying can wait. With its budget at 300 million dollars (and 66 million burnt for the canceled launch in April 2020), MGM had in secret, according to Variety, tried to approach various streaming platforms to land a deal that could have convinced the Broccoli-Wilson duo to change their old school theatrical release strategy. Cary Joji Fukunaga’s film finally records attendance records with 730 million dollars in revenue worldwide. The trend in Hollywood has been on the contrary either to dump the content on the platforms (Soul from Pixar on Disney+), or in parallel theatrical-streaming operation like Warner films on HBO Max (Wonder Woman 1984, Dune…). The number of films broadcast in streaming between 2019 and 2020 has tripled in the United States and cinemas have seen their exclusive window reduced from 75 days yesterday to 17 today (30 if the film is a hit). D.P

Daft Punk put down their helmets

February 22. We thought many times that their music could be heard more and more in French variety: Angèle, P.R2B, Juliette Armanet, La Femme… not to mention what’s going on from LA to Seoul. During this time, the heroes Thomas Bangalter and Guy de Homem-Christo, without tearing each other apart, lost the sacred flame. In a video soberly titled Epilogue and recycling the final scene of their feature film electrome, Daft Punk announced the end of his adventure. A bewildering epic that will have taken these two little Parisians keen on indie rock from raves to the stars of Hollywood, and with a single gesture changed the face of pop, house and the way in which one can exist in the music. Slightly traumatized, we wished them good luck. But to be honest, ten months later, we haven’t quite recovered. OL

Pinault settles in Paris

May 22nd. Impenetrable (no one knows what to do with it) for decades, the Bourse de Commerce, retyped with tact and with the erection of a circular concrete passageway by the architect Tadao Ando, ​​has housed, since May, the staggering art collection contemporary of François Pinault. All the artists who matter and are now too expensive for public institutions to afford are included. Without forgetting the others, whom, by taste or flair, the billionaire propels to the top of his picture rail prescribers. A good collection of offshore and big game fishing. Conveniently located between the Center Pompidou and the Louvre, the flagship of the Pinault Collection, which has set up two Venetian counters over the past ten years, attracts nearly 3,000 visitors a day. Fills its subscriber book (nearly 30,000) and significantly changes the map of the artistic offer in Paris. In the right direction ? Faced with this unsurpassable rival in terms of financial power, public institutions can only collaborate, that is to say follow the momentum of another, rather than trace the wake. Thus a co-exhibition of the American artist Charles Ray, strongly defended by Pinault, is already scheduled for next year, at Beaubourg and at the Bourse de Commerce… J.L.

Benzema sees life in blue again

May 18. A smoking gun: by recalling in May a Karim Benzema whom he had dismissed from the France team for five years and the affair of the sextape blackmail targeting Mathieu Valbuena, the coach of the Blues, Didier Deschamps, became the one who forgives, and no longer the one who condemns without judgment the greatest French striker of his generation. The court sentence, however, ended up falling on November 24: one year in prison suspended and a fine of 75,000 euros for complicity in the offense of attempted blackmail, the Madrilenian having appealed. In blue, Benzema will have had time in a few months to leave the imprint of a peaceful player, as discreet behind the scenes as he is influential on the pitch and we cannot help thinking that by filing his teeth (shut- you and play), the tricolor staff deprived themselves of a sharp eye and an authority that could have stemmed the tricolor fiasco of the last Euro, Deschamps’ men having been released (3-3, 4-5 on shots in goal) from the round of 16 by the Swiss National Team. G.S.

From now on, Messi is Paris

August 10. The Great Circus. Journalists who applaud the player in the middle of a press conference, others who declare their flame on Twitter (“it’s our first time”) and a pharaonic presentation at the Parc des Princes which, far from constituting the introductory remarks of the business, was in truth the heart of it since nothing else was seen afterwards. Pushed out by the bankruptcy of a club, FC Barcelona, ​​where he alone weighed (between 70 and 105 million euros annually, according to estimates) a third of the payroll, Lionel Messi committed with the Paris-SG. On August 29 in Reims, during the first minutes of the Argentinian with the jersey of the vice-champion of France (number 30), Kylian Mbappé scored the two goals of the Parisian victory (2-0): welcome, man, but t ‘re at home… Lionel Messi will open his Parisian goal counter on September 28, against Manchester City in the European Cup, but will wait until the 14th day and the end of November to score his first goal in Ligue 1. And will go, calm, to seek his seventh Ballon d’Or a week later. He will push the lights when the mood takes him, no doubt about it. It wasn’t for this fall. G.S

In Tokyo, the Olympics behind closed doors

July August. First postponed for a year due to Covid, then threatened with cancellation, the XXXII Summer Olympiad was finally maintained in a sluggish Tokyo. Exorbitant cost, preparations undermined by the state of health emergency, distrust of the population: the Japanese organizers will not have been spared. Pressed by the IOC, they had to decide on draconian measures: competitions behind closed doors, and a strict health bubble where athletes and the media were prohibited from mixing. Strange Games, marked by the surprise victory of Italian sprinters in the 4x100m and the unexpected withdrawal of gymnast Simone Biles, plagued by mental health problems. Aside from team sports, judo and fencing, the tricolor delegation disappointed, winning only 33 medals including 10 gold. Not reassuring, three years from Paris 2024. R.Mé.

Find our retros of the year: the dose race, 2021 internationally, the political and social year, Covid in 2021 and the words of 2021.