Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle
Encyclopedia
Zidane, A 21st Century Portrait is a documentary
film
in which the main subject is French
football
player Zinedine Zidane
.
The film is a documentary focused purely on Zidane during the Spanish Liga
Real Madrid
vs. Villarreal CF
game on April 23, 2005 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium
and was filmed in real time
using 17 synchronized camera
s. During the last minutes of that match, Zidane was sent off as a result of a brawl.
The film bears a remarkable similarity to Football As Never Before (aka "Fußball wie noch nie"), a documentary made in 1970 by acclaimed German filmmaker Hellmuth Costard about Manchester United footballer George Best
. In this experimental film
Costard used eight 16mm film cameras to follow Best, in real time, for the course of an entire game against Coventry City.
The film was featured at the 2006 Edinburgh International Film Festival
, where the film's creators Douglas Gordon
and Philippe Parreno
were interviewed by Ranald Leask from STV.
post-rock
band Mogwai
provided the soundtrack to the film, at the request of Douglas Gordon. After seeing some footage of the film with a remix of "Mogwai Fear Satan" playing in the background, they agreed to do it.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
in which the main subject is French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
player Zinedine Zidane
Zinedine Zidane
Zinedine Yazid Zidane is a retired French footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. Zidane was a leading figure of a generation of French players that won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 European Championship...
.
The film is a documentary focused purely on Zidane during the Spanish Liga
La Liga
The Primera División of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional , commonly known as La Liga or, for sponsorship reasons, Liga BBVA since 2008, is the top professional association football division of the Spanish football league system...
Real Madrid
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol , commonly known as Real Madrid, is a professional football club based in Madrid, Spain. The club have won a record 31 La Liga titles, the Primera División of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional , 18 Copas del Rey, 8 Spanish Super Cups, 1 Copa Eva Duarte and 1 Copa de la...
vs. Villarreal CF
Villarreal CF
Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. , usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or just Villarreal, is a Spanish Primera División football club based in Vila-real, a city in the province of Castellón within the Valencian Community...
game on April 23, 2005 at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium
Santiago Bernabéu Stadium
The Estadio Santiago Bernabéu is an all-seater football stadium in Madrid, Spain. It was inaugurated on 14 December 1947 and is owned by Real Madrid Club de Fútbol. It has a current capacity of 85,454 spectators....
and was filmed in real time
Real-time (media)
Real time within the media is a method of narratology wherein events are portrayed at the same rate that the audience experiences them. For example, if a movie told in real-time is two hours long, then the plot of that movie covers two hours of fictional time...
using 17 synchronized camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
s. During the last minutes of that match, Zidane was sent off as a result of a brawl.
The film bears a remarkable similarity to Football As Never Before (aka "Fußball wie noch nie"), a documentary made in 1970 by acclaimed German filmmaker Hellmuth Costard about Manchester United footballer George Best
George Best
George Best was a professional footballer from Northern Ireland, who played for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team. He was a winger whose game combined pace, acceleration, balance, two-footedness, goalscoring and the ability to beat defenders...
. In this experimental film
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
Costard used eight 16mm film cameras to follow Best, in real time, for the course of an entire game against Coventry City.
The film was featured at the 2006 Edinburgh International Film Festival
Edinburgh International Film Festival
The Edinburgh International Film Festival is an annual fortnight of cinema screenings and related events taking place each June. Established in 1947, it is the world's oldest continually running film festival...
, where the film's creators Douglas Gordon
Douglas Gordon
Douglas Gordon is a Scottish artist; he won the Turner Prize in 1996 and the following year he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale...
and Philippe Parreno
Philippe Parreno
Philippe Parreno is an Algerian artist and filmmaker, born in Oran, and currently living in Paris, France. Parreno's work primarily revolves around the interrogation of the nature of an image, as well as the modes of its exhibition.-Life and work:...
were interviewed by Ranald Leask from STV.
Soundtrack
ScottishScottish people
The Scottish people , or Scots, are a nation and ethnic group native to Scotland. Historically they emerged from an amalgamation of the Picts and Gaels, incorporating neighbouring Britons to the south as well as invading Germanic peoples such as the Anglo-Saxons and the Norse.In modern use,...
post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
band Mogwai
Mogwai
The word mogwai is the transliteration of the Cantonese word 魔怪 meaning "monster", "evil spirit", "devil" or "demon".-Mogwai/Mogui in Chinese culture:...
provided the soundtrack to the film, at the request of Douglas Gordon. After seeing some footage of the film with a remix of "Mogwai Fear Satan" playing in the background, they agreed to do it.
External links
- Football As Never Before at the Goethe-InstitutGoethe-InstitutThe Goethe-Institut is a non-profit German cultural institution operational worldwide, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations. The Goethe-Institut also fosters knowledge about Germany by providing information on German...
- UK release review by Brian Elliott of DVD Reviewer
- Match Recap at Soccer Spain