Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
Dir: Douglas Gordon, Philippe Parreno
2006
**
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait is very unique documentary. I have to say I was expecting it to be a bit better after a few recommendations from friends who assured me that it didn't matter that I'm not much of a football fan. They were right and wrong in many respects. I think that if you are a passionate football fan you will love this film, I could only really enjoy it's cinematography. It's, at times, beautifully shot with some real magic moments, like when Zidane cuts his mouth after a header for instance. I can't really put my finger on it but it was at times, completely mesmerizing but then maybe that was a matter of being slightly comatose by concentrating and waiting for something to actually happen. The build up music was effective at first but I found it irritating and overused by the end. In fact, I got a little tired of the film after about 40 minutes. It starts off as an intense, real life, ground level experience and then, after a random 'Here's what else happened in the world that day' moment, it descended into some kind of overlong and flashy Nike advert. You can't fault the passion, but at 90 minutes, its painfully long and just a little bit dull.