Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
An intriguing premise for a full-length feature, the idea behind Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait is simple. Back in April of 2005, Real Madrid–replete with Zinedine Zidane, arguably the world’s finest footballer at the time–played Villareal in the Spanish league. At that game, seventeen cameras were all trained on Zidane. There is no commentary like a traditional documentary, there is only the sounds from the stadium, Zidane's breathing and an instrumental music soundtrack.
The film? At heart, it’s 90 minutes of following the great man around a football field. Yet it’s fascinating, and a not-entirely-comfortable compilation of the day’s news that’s interspersed at half time, the focus is purely one man playing a game of football. It’s by no-means perfect but there are moments in Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait when the visuals and the music make sublime viewing. You’d be hard-pushed to find any other film that does anything even vaguely similar. It’s also backed with an excellent soundtrack from Scottish post-rock band Mogwai.
The 2006 World Cup, of course, gave Zidane’s career an ending it never really deserved. And while Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait isn’t a dish that everyone’s going to warm to, those that do will surely be left reflecting on one of football’s greatest geniuses, rather than one mad moment in Germany. Turner Prize-winning artist and filmmaker Douglas Gordon teams up with French artist Philippe Parreno to create an experimental work glorious in its simplicity.
Watch the full film @Top Documentary Films
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