Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (Douglas Gordon & Philippe Parreno, 2006)

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The Invunche · #1 Post by **The Invunche** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 4:08 pm

I'd watch this, if I had any respect for the guy.

Subbuteo · #2 Post by **Subbuteo** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 4:20 pm

The Invunche wrote:I'd watch this, if I had any respect for the guy.

Your loss, the guy is mesmerizing, and I hate football!

#3 Post by **Matt** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:22 pm

I think it sounds fascinating from a formal perspective: 17 cameras (using various film and video formats) follow a single player for the duration of an entire soccer match. I don't care a whit about soccer (football, whatever) and I'd love to see this. Added bonus: the cinematorapher is Darius Khondji.

Here's the website with a trailer

Yilmaz, how can you have been waiting "ages" to see this? The film was only shot just over 16 months ago. I have food in my refrigerator older than this film.

#4 Post by **zedz** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:51 pm

Matt wrote:I think it sounds fascinating from a formal perspective: 17 cameras (using various film and video formats) follow a single player for the duration of an entire soccer match. I don't care a whit about soccer (football, whatever) and I'd love to see this. Added bonus: the cinematorapher is Darius Khondji.

I can't remember the name of it, but I remember seeing (late 80s? early 90s?) an experimental film that optically printed broadcast footage of a soccer match so that the ball remained stationary dead centre of the frame for the duration of the game, with players and world swirling and zooming around it. This sounds like a diluted, but still intriguing, version of that.

(By the way, if anybody can identify that film, please do so!)

#5 Post by **TomReagan** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:02 pm

As a bona fide football nut, I have been looking forward to this for some time as well. The World Cup and its attendant drama (Wayne Rooney / Christiano Ronaldo, Zidane's Golden Ball controversy, "You're the One For Me, Fatty" Ronaldo's 15th, diving and more diving, etc.) certainly added to my overall impatience.

The idea of rendering Zidane's actions / reactions somewhat abstract by isolating him from the context of the field (or at least severely limiting it) is enough to more than pique my interest.

On a tangentially related note, I had a co-worker joke -- during a rather dry meeting -- that if the numbers did not start shaping up, yours truly would have no alternative but to go "all Zidane" on their asses.

godardslave · #6 Post by **godardslave** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:44 pm

davidhare wrote:Matt quite honetly Zidane is hot enough to watch whistling dixie!

do you ever get your mind off sex? :p

The Invunche · #7 Post by **The Invunche** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 11:40 pm

What racist taunting?

Polybius · #8 Post by **Polybius** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 12:28 am

If half of what that prick was reported as saying to Zidane is true, he's lucky to just get off with a headbutt and not a stone asskicking. Look at him flopping in that still. He looks like he studied the Lee Harvey Oswald assasination footage for months just to get the perfect facial expression.

Next time you watch the film, note that Zidane is laughing it off and starting to run up the field (pitch, for our purists) and then he suddenly hits the brakes. It's like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon. Something was said that changed the tenor from ribbing and joking to slander. That seems obvious, to me.

And, yes, this seems like a brilliant idea for a film.

The Invunche · #9 Post by **The Invunche** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 12:58 am

And half of it isn't true. There's was no racist taunting. See people think something horrible was said because of Zidane's response, but the guy is a hothead with a history of viciously attacking other players. Everybody who follows football knows this.

The Italian player had been pulling at Zidane's shirt all through the game and Zidane said something like "you're gonna have to wait until after the game to get my shirt". To which the Italian responded "I'd rather have your sister". I believe that's perfectly within the bounds of regular trash-talking and I'm pretty sure I've said worse things to people on this board.

Zidane is no persecuted minority, but he plays the part.

The Invunche · #10 Post by **The Invunche** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 6:35 am

The fact that there's racism in sport doesn't prove The Italian player said anything racist to Zidane. All you guys are doing is repeating the guesses that were in the press the days after it happened.

All the Italian said was "I'd rather have your sister".

Not wanting to become odious (as tho I could) but honestly invunche you have a total black spot with anyone who's Muslim.

That's erroneous, not odious. Unless of course you have any proof.

The Invunche · #11 Post by **The Invunche** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:08 am

I must be racist because I don't like Zidane's actions? I don't get it.

dx23 · #12 Post by **dx23** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 8:04 am

According to Materazzi (the headbutee), he only replied to some trash talking Zidane started by saying "I prefer your sister" according to ESPN.

The Invunche · #13 Post by **The Invunche** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 8:07 am

Exactly.

#14 Post by **Matt** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:22 am

Polybius wrote:Next time you watch the film, note that Zidane is laughing it off and starting to run up the field (pitch, for our purists) and then he suddenly hits the brakes. It's like a Wile E. Coyote cartoon. Something was said that changed the tenor from ribbing and joking to slander. That seems obvious, to me.

It looks like a fake-out to me. Zidane had already decided to headbutt him as he was walking alongside him. He ran ahead, making it look like he was just laughing it off and then, zotz.

Also, the Italian's side-nod head gesture as he says whatever his taunt was seems to indicate that it was a witty rejoinder and not an unsolicited comment. Total overacting, though, how he crumples up like a little girl after Zidane butts him.

Of course, it's now impossible to talk about Zidane without mentioning this incident, but I'm glad the film itself will blithely ignore it.

GringoTex · #15 Post by **GringoTex** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 12:20 pm

Watch Zidane singlehandedly destroy the greatest team in the world to godlike choral music!

Polybius · #16 Post by **Polybius** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:05 am

dx23 wrote:According to Materazzi (the headbutee), he only replied to some trash talking Zidane started by saying "I prefer your sister" according to ESPN.

Those are the uncorroborated claims made by Materazzi himself, just in the last week. I'm a little puzzled as to how that's supposed to be treated as the definitive word.

I don't want to derail the thread here, and I have no real dog in this hunt, but I'm a little loath to accept the long-afterwards word of one person who has fish to fry and an image to try and repair. At least not as completely and implicitly as some people here seem to be prepared to.

The Invunche · #17 Post by **The Invunche** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 7:38 am

No one is forcing Zidane to keep his mouth shut.

Fletch F. Fletch · #18 Post by **Fletch F. Fletch** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 9:27 am

TomReagan wrote:As a bona fide football nut, I have been looking forward to this for some time as well. The World Cup and its attendant drama (Wayne Rooney / Christiano Ronaldo, Zidane's Golden Ball controversy, "You're the One For Me, Fatty" Ronaldo's 15th, diving and more diving, etc.) certainly added to my overall impatience

I too am a big football fan as well. Incidentally, has anyone seen Goal! yet? Complete cliche-ridden story and dialogue but still enjoyable to watch if only for the dynamically shot match sequences. Also, Zidane has a brief cameo as well as other big names in the sport.

essrog · #19 Post by **essrog** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 5:24 pm

There have to be other people who think it's irrelevant whether or not Materazzi called Zidane's sister, mother or grandmother a terrorist slut. It was the closing minutes of the championship game of the biggest sporting event in the world -- if you're one of the best players in the world and your team's best chance to win, you don't do anything that might get you ejected, especially in reaction to verbal abuse as opposed to physical. Hell, if Derek Jeter had a pitch thrown at his head in Game 7 of the World Series, charged the mound and got ejected in a Yankees loss, you could be damn sure even the New York fans would turn on him. (And that's after a physical threat.)

If Materazzi did use the "terrorist slut" epithet, he's loathsome, but Zidane is still a selfish hothead.

The Invunche · #20 Post by **The Invunche** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:17 pm

davidhare wrote:The critical point is that the penalty (if that's the correct term) for the headbutt resulted in France losing the Cup! This clearly predicates a major provocation for such a stupid action on Zinadine's part.

That would be true if Zidane didn't have a history of losing his temper. It's not even the fist time he's gotten thrown out of a World Cup game for violence.

Polybius · #21 Post by **Polybius** » Wed Sep 13, 2006 11:53 pm

essrog wrote:If Materazzi did use the "terrorist slut" epithet, he's loathsome, but Zidane is still a selfish hothead.

I don't really have any serious disagreement with that. It was neither the time nor place. The proper response would have been some variation on "When the whistle blows, you should run."

I simply object to Materazzi being accorded the benefit of the doubt, when it's clear that he has a history as a miscreant and (as I originally asserted, couched in qualifiers) that if he said what he's thought to have said, that a simple headbut was too good for him.

#22 Post by **kinjitsu** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 12:11 am

Materazzi breaks silence on Zidane

"I was tugging his shirt, he said to me, 'If you want my shirt so much, I'll give it to you afterwards,' I answered that I'd prefer his sister. It's not a particularly nice thing to say, I recognize that. But loads of players say worse things. I didn't even know he had a sister before all this happened."

Forza Italia!

dx23 · #23 Post by **dx23** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 8:25 am

kinjitsu wrote:Materazzi breaks silence on Zidane

I posted the same news from ESPN.com but somebody here dismissed it.

Eclisse · #24 Post by **Eclisse** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 8:46 am

Zidane used to play in Italy. After he left to play on Real Madrid (in Spain), his sister,who works for him(manager or something),stayed in Italy. She is quite well-known. I think, at some point she even tried to be a model...

#25 Post by **kinjitsu** » Thu Sep 14, 2006 2:07 pm

dx23 wrote:I posted the same news from ESPN.com but somebody here dismissed it.

Not dismissed entirely.