zidane: a 21st century portrait (2006)

Zidane, doin’ work. Experienced or remembered in “real time”. Perhaps this might be as good as any time to visit this stunning piece of experimental filmmaking, now it seems that Real Madrid is back in the fray of zealous overspending and “acting stupidly”. French midfielder Zinedine Yazid Zidane, Real #5 between 2001 and 2006, he who inked on the dotted line of the most expensive transfer at that time, is a most fascinating subject matter of course, and not just for his prodigious talents. This veritable genius is also an outlier of our contemporary world in so many terms, his languid elegance on the pitch able to singlehandedly elevate the game of football (or, soccer) to a wholly different level on occasions. Now Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait can be labeled in a number of ways, but it clearly doesn’t bother to be one of those promotional sports videos stoking the starmaker machinery. Filmmakers Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno used 17 synchronized cameras in their attempt to capture Zidane as some sort of serene existential character, the results of which are possibly unrecognizable to the sports star himself. The game itself (Real vs. Villarreal, y’all), set to a mesmerizing score by Mogwai, seemingly transforms into a theatre of Gauguinesque wonder, the action short-circuited with the luxury of the cameras’ almost uncomfortable sympathy for Zidane’s every unhurried motion, his stealthy twists and turns, his fluid movement into space. The calm breaks when Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait descends into a minor brawl, in which Zidane momentarily loses his cool, and the filmmakers (and Mogwai’s music) boldly milk this to maximum effect, as a feat of infinite frustration perhaps. Magic is sometimes very close to nothing at all.