Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2006)

Synopsis: Follow one of the greatest soccer players of the modern era for a full 90-minute match between Real Madrid and Villareal. Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parenno exquisitely train 17 different 35mm cameras on one of this century's most creative athletes, Zinedine Zidane. While cameras capture... Follow one of the greatest soccer players of the modern era for a full 90-minute match between Real Madrid and Villareal. Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parenno exquisitely train 17 different 35mm cameras on one of this century's most creative athletes, Zinedine Zidane. While cameras capture Zidane in "real time," Gordon and Parenno's artfully crafted debut feature is anything but a typical sports movie.

Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait is a rigorous and elegant update to the art of portraiture. In today's media-saturated world, relativity reigns over objectivity, and the division between personal and public realms often blurs. Gordon and Parenno show an awareness of the interconnectivity of all things and develop a subjective portrait of Zidane that seamlessly integrates his physicality, his internal world of memories and sensory perceptions, and his relative place in the media landscape.

In Gordon and Parreno's film, the soccer field becomes an almost unworldly place, a universe of its own unhinged from any conventional sense of soccer but profoundly integrated with Zidane's intimate visions and an athlete's phenomenal performance.
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