Strangely enjoyable.
Comment
10/28/06
Rate this Movie 
- Showtimes & Tickets
- Write a Review
- Read Reviews
- Add to List
- Get this Movie
- Buy Poster
- Visit Official Site
Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (2008)
61
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work
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
Get This Movie
Reviews for Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait
1 - 19 (sorted by source)
Alternately hypnotic and irksome.
05/04/07
Click to read the article
04/23/09
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.
10/27/08
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
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
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
Zidane's charisma accumulates and the film becomes a hypnotic experience to which you must simply abandon yourself.
10/28/06
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
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
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
Absolutely hypnotizing.
09/14/06
Watching 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
An overblown nearly-real-time documentary-cum-"art installation."
10/21/08
It mesmerises yet it also bores. It’s a fascinating experiment and a frustrating film.
10/28/06
To 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
For 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
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 Critic1 - 19 (sorted by source)
RT On Current TV
What’s Hot On RT
Fresh Links
Featured
MSN's Year in Review
Take a look at MSN's choices for the Top 10 films of 2009.
Moviefone's Year End Movie Poll
What were your favorites? Least favorites? The funniest and scariest? Moviefone wants to know!
Tarantino's Characters
Hollywood.com explores why QT's characters resonate so well with audiences.
Top 10 Movies of 2009
TIME chimes in with their own list of the best films released this year.
Top 20 of the Decade
Click through to see which movies BuzzSugar placed in their Best-of-Decade list!
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter
Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!
IGN RSS Feeds