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Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle (2006)
Has more cinematic merit than you think
Whilst I would not recommend this film to many people I still feel that what it has to offer on a purely technical level is more than many, many films out there.
Let's start with the cinematography. In charge of the look is Darius Khondji, a DOP who I feel ranks as one of the greatest of all time. His painstaking attention to detail and often uncompromising perfectionism heightened my curiosity with this film because he would have had no control over the lighting. Which is a challenge for someone who usually has every lighting rig available at his disposal. His choices were limited to equipment and film stock, as well as the angles chosen to focus on Zidane. The result is beautiful. The colours, the framing, the movement. It is impeccable and compliments the concept of the film perfectly.
Then there is the sound and music. To say this is an immersive experience is an understatement. The diegetic sound and Foley work is so vivid that you feel part of the action. It is as close to being in a stadium such as the Bernabeu without actually being there. You hear Zidane every now and again ask for the ball, call a player, mention something to the referee. And as Zidane is so quiet, when he does utter a word for some reason you are compelled. When the ref makes a howler of a decision to give the opposition a penalty he eloquently says; "You should be ashamed." It's a wonderful moment, and it is these few seconds of drama that are sprinkled throughout the 90 minutes that keep you watching.
Mogwai's score is as beautiful as everyone has said, supporting the images and saving periods of the game where little is happening.
But the centrepiece is Zidane himself. I was born in 1983 so never got to watch Platini, Pele, Best or Cruijff. I would not dare call anyone the greatest player of all time because it is such a subjective and immeasurable claim to make. But having watched football for so long, I would have no hesitation in regarding Zidane as the greatest player I have ever seen. His vision, skill, control, strength. No player of his generation has ever come close to him. I have never seen someone so relaxed on the ball. He could beat any player, and more to the point would see passes no one else on the pitch would see. And when you consider his achievements, the World Cups, the goals (in World Cup and CHampions League finals) the infamous dismissals. Hell, he has seen and done it all.
So in this game, even at the end of his playing career, he is still beating players, setting up goals, and not once did he miscontrol the ball. Which is astounding. Every ball played to him, along on the ground or in the air, whether it was perfectly weighted or dished out to him too hard and a few yards away was controlled with such deftness. I couldn't actually believe it at times.
A number of Real Madrid players were under immense scrutiny during this period in the club's history. The Galacticos (Carlos, Beckham, Raul, Ronaldo and Zidane) were not winning any trophies and the press were quick to point out their waning powers. The performances were lacklustre and many questioned their passion having won all there is to win in football. Yet in this performance all I saw was Zidane running constantly, challenging for headers, being incredibly disciplined with his tackles and positioning, ordering players to mark, constantly asking for the ball. He may not have had the pace to beat players like he once did at Juventus and his early Madrid days, but when there was space to exploit he took the opportunity.
I agree there are dull moments, but it is the nature of the beast. I think it speaks wonders that in a relatively low profile game with average passages of football Zidane can still keep you intrigued. From the way he drags the tip of his right foot along the ground as he walks to the way he looks around for other players he remains compelling viewing. There are few, if any other players who could have achieved this.
The highlight for me came towards the end of the game. For well over an hour you saw the same stern, emotionless face on Zidane. He barely reacted to being fouled, or conceding a goal, setting up a goal. But then Roberto Carlos smiled at him and made a joke that made Zidane's face light up with such a beautiful smile. It is the most endearing moment in the film that could only be captured off the wall. It is so natural and revealing that it endears you. It is a lesson to all footballers. No matter what the stakes are in football the most important thing to remember is to enjoy yourself. It is just a game after all. And with this portrait of a magician, you realise just how beautiful it can be.
Boffo! Tinseltown's Bombs and Blockbusters (2006)
Could have been incisive but ends up forgettable
I found out about this 75 minute HBO doc in an issue of ASC. The article touted a bill of big Hollywood players; studio heads, producers and actors. I was intrigued so had to watch it.
I am very interested in how Hollywood works and read Variety/Screen/Premiere, and also check out IMDb's daily news. You get a sense of the workings of the big studios but rarely do studio heads lay it out on the table, and that is where you hoped Boffo! would be revealing.
Unfortunately it plays as some sort of AFI/Oscar ceremony montage of great Hollywood movies, past and present, with the interviewees giving very OBVIOUS quotes such as "rules are there to be broken" and "success and failure balances on a very fine line." Sure, if you're a fan of film, then surely you wanna hear anything Bogdanovich, Evans, Grazer and Guber have to say. But if you want to hear some revealing comments you better off sticking to the trades.
It seems the director wanted to avoid focusing on the flops. Heaven's Gate is not mentioned ONCE. Disasters like Cutthroat Island, Battlefield Earth, Gigli, The Avengers, The Postman and Town & Country are not mentioned, yet are prime material to devour and assess. You look at these films and the main reason they flopped was because of the egos behind them: Costner, Beatty, Travolta, Cimino, Harlin. Then you have the excess of Hollywood. The extravagance of their budgets and the ridiculous costs of marketing. Somehow these topics are barely talked about. Why not venture into The Cable Guy when Columbia went nuts and gave Carrey a 20 mill pay check and changed the film industry forever?
An interesting point was made that spending more money can sometimes be a safer bet, like with Troy. Sure, it cost one or two hundred million dollars to make, but it made back double because it seemed like a sure fire winner. Compare that with Training Day, Denzel winning the Oscar, costing maybe less than a third of Troy, yet not grossing nearly as much. But these passing comments are not delved into. It's almost as if there was no structure to the filming. Let's get as many big names as we can, ask them some questions, and see what we can get in the edit. It would have been more fruitful cutting the number of people in half and focusing on a few films as opposed to allowing them run riot with pointless anecdotes on the making of Jaws which any self respecting Hollywood fan would already know about! The importance of the script, of course, is mentioned. You know why? Because it's the first thing you learn at film school, because the most important part of a film is the STORY. Sure, there are exceptions. Bad stories have made lots of money, but in general, if you look at the most successful films in the history of film, you will see most of them consist of good storytellers telling good stories.
But it is all the other factors that Boffo! could and should have focused on.
There is a great moment when Morgan Freeman is asked about The Bonfire of the Vanities, and why it flopped (despite having the box office lifetime guarantee hallmark of Tom Hanks) and whether there was any sign during production. The great Freeman is very VERY delicate with his words, pausing for what seems like a whole minute before concluding; "when an airline crashes they say that it is mostly a series of mishaps...same thing." And that my friends is the closest you will get to any sort of directed criticism made in the entire film.
More prescient is the fact that Richard Dreyfuss harks on about the importance of the story and how filmmakers today have all this great technology but do not know how to use it. It just so happens he is conducting the interview, in glorious bloody makeup on the back-lot of Poseidon, 2006's first major summer SFX flop! So all in all a big disappointment, but still containing enjoyable nuggets if only because the likes of Clooney, Dreyfuss, Freeman and DeVito are as charismatic as ever!
On a side note, if anyone wants to see how stars should be lit then look no further. ASC member Stephen Lighthill did a sterling job and made everyone look fantastic.