This is an opera production, but it’s also a glimpse into what’s in store for us at the Paris Olympics this summer. Thomas Jolly, an award-winning director, was chosen to be the artistic director of the Olympics, and when you watch this film it’s easy to understand why.

The film follows the more than year-long preparations for staging “Romeo and Juliet” by composer Charles Gounod. The film moves between the costume rooms, auditions, rehearsals, and the endless coordination between decor, lighting, singers, and orchestra. Jolly directs, but he is also the star of this movie, an innovator who knows how to inspire an audience with colorful scenes (one reviewer called it a combination of opera and rock opera, almost a musical). When challenges arise, Jolly manages to find a creative solution, either using humor or impatient outbursts. He even dares to cut the line (written by Shakespeare!) in which the couple asks God’s forgiveness for committing suicide, because, in Jolie’s opinion, it’s not 21st-century material.