In moments of stillness, a composition of fast jukes and stutter-steps delight the eye. It's a lot of hurry-up and wait at first, but well worth it come the film's finish.
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10/27/08
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Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2008)
61 %
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Reviews Counted: 18
Fresh: 11
Rotten:7
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Theatrical Release:Oct 24, 2008 Limited
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... [More]
Director: Douglas Gordon, Philippe Parreno
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Reviews for Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
1 - 18 (sorted by date)
You learn little by way of hard facts about the adored French soccer star and famous head-butter Zinedine Zidane in the formalist exercise that bears his name.
10/24/08
Top CriticTo see everything boiled down to one man’s stillness and movement is a transcendentalist high, a concentrated dose of poetry in motion.
10/22/08
He's set apart not only as the piece's sole subject but because he's hyper-alert, continually responding to invisible forces, raptly focused on events beyond the frame.
10/22/08
Top CriticAn overblown nearly-real-time documentary-cum-"art installation."
10/21/08
Alternately hypnotic and irksome.
05/04/07
Top CriticWatching a single athlete for the duration of a game is an interesting concept, but Zidane is better in theory than in execution.
02/12/07
There's more filler than real action (much like any soccer match, in my opinion) and the film is a challenge to get all the way through for anyone without an interest in the game or Zidane himself.
01/25/07
The remarkably intimate camera work gives viewers the sense of being at this very big, very fast athlete's elbow throughout the 90-minute battle.
01/19/07
Top CriticIt mesmerises yet it also bores. It’s a fascinating experiment and a frustrating film.
10/28/06
Strangely enjoyable.
10/28/06
The stuff between goals can be agonizingly dull, but the film’s sensory impact is heightened by Mogwai’s menacing score and Darius Khondji’s dazzling cinematography.
10/28/06
It's both a revelation and a simple confirmation of everything you've ever believed, and an incredibly powerful, deeply emotional experience.
10/28/06
This 17-camera portrait of the artist as an ageing star still captures the magnetism and balletic genius of a player whose reputation will surely survive the naysaying of holier-than-thou commentators following his World Cup 2006 dismissal.
10/28/06
Zidane's charisma accumulates and the film becomes a hypnotic experience to which you must simply abandon yourself.
10/28/06
Absolutely hypnotizing.
09/14/06
The World Cup-winning god of French soccer, Zinedine Zidane, is brought crashing to the ground in Philippe Parreno and Douglas Gordon's ill-conceived documentary Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait.
05/26/06
Top CriticFor that narrow cross section of auds passionate about soccer and experimental cinema, docu Zidane, A 21st Century Portrait will rep a masterpiece; for everyone else, pleasure will vary.
05/25/06
Top Critic1 - 18 (sorted by date)
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