PARIS — When a parade of black-robed figures files solemnly by, each wielding a long, narrow black scepter, or spear (it was hard to tell), and then carefully mounts the walls of a giant reflecting pool and begins to dip the sticks into the water — and all this happens on the same day that Jacques Chirac ’s death is announced in France and impeachment picks up steam in the United States and probably something equally dire happens in Britain — well, it might be natural to assume you were about to see some sort of elaborate funeral rite. Or an exorcism.

And when those very same figures lift up their scepters, or spears, and begin, oh so gently, to pull them apart and whoosh them through the air, it might be natural to hold your breath.

But when out of series of intricate loops come giant, iridescent … soap bubbles (soap bubbles!), floating every which way, dancing on the wind, it is impossible not to laugh.