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Wednesday, October
3
Saturday, October 6
Monday, October 8
Admission: Free, $10 minimum
Showtimes: 8 and 10:30pm; Saturday at 7:30pm
reservations
are recommended
Hello, soccer/football fans who also happen to be video art fans.
These screenings are your apotheosis!
To everyone else this is a beautiful rendering of The Beautiful
Game. A chance to luxuriate in the essence of sport, humanity,
and art(ifice).
From kickoff to final whistle, 18 cameras concentrated their
focus on the legendary Zinedine Zidane, hero of the 1998 World
Cup and personal hero, headbutter, Golden Ball winner of the
2006 World Cup.
The film is an existential meditation with an occasional
soundtrack by the band Mogwai. The film was co-directed by Douglas
Gordon and Philippe Parreno.
Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian had
this to say about the non-festival Cannes Film Festival entry:
Only last week, I was writing sceptically about video artists such
as Douglas Gordon, creator of 24-Hour Psycho. The time has come
for me to eat my words, because Gordon, working with Phillipe Parreno,
is responsible for the most enjoyable movie of the festival so
far - sadly, presented out of competition.
Zinedine Zidane: A 21st-Century Portrait is based on a gloriously
simple and audacious idea. To train the camera on the great footballer
over the course of a single match: 90 minutes, in real time. On
the ball, and mostly off the ball: just Zidane. Gordon occasionally
inserts TV coverage clips for context but otherwise the camera
remains on Zidane and his face, as gaunt and impassive as an Easter
Island statue, massively dignified in the deafening cauldron of
noise. He runs; he frowns; he pants; he spits. He is always watchful.
Occasionally, he bursts into action.
But even more poignantly, an IMDB contributor
from London (of course) had this pitch-perfect summation:
90 minutes of Zidane playing football, the camera on him mostly,
hardly any dialogue, and the football is sort of peripheral.
It was hypnotic and absorbing, like a modern dance (quite a good
sound track) Zidane watching, Zidane bursting with suppressed
energy and anger, Zidane running, Zidane arguing with the ref,
Zidane smacking other players, Zidane being fouled.
The sound track changed constantly, the raw of the crowd, Zidane
scuffing the grass with his boot, Zidane yelling, the thud of
22 pairs of football boots. He hardly talks, smiles rarely, seems
to not care about the game, then suddenly does care passionately,
maybe a little bit too much, as that got him into trouble at
the world cup.
Thank you, Martin Tougher. Your words resonate.
And thank you Mr. Gordon, Mr. Parreno, and Mr. Zidane.
Pretense is not a bad word and meditations should never be.
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