Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Best soccer film ever?


Last night in Edinburgh the film Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait was screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. (It was shot before the infamous head butt.)

Training 17 cameras solely on footballer Zinedine Zidane, over the course of a single match between Real Madrid and Villareal, we see the legend in action and in repose, following him around the pitch. Sometimes at the centre of action, more often waiting, watching - while, in voice-over, the footballer himself broods over what he can and cannot remember from his matches. Magnificently edited, and accompanied by a majestic score from Scottish rock heroes Mogwai, this is not only the greatest football movie ever made, but one of the finest studies of man in the workplace - an ode to the loneliness of the athlete, the poise and resilience of the human body.

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