Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle (2006)

Directors:

Douglas Gordon
Philippe Parreno

Release Date:

24 May 2006 (France)

Genre:

Documentary | Sport

Plot:

Halfway between a sports documentary and an conceptual art installation, "Zidane" consists in a full-length soccer game (Real Madrid vs. Villareal, April 23, 2005) entirely filmed from the perspective of soccer superstar Zinedine Zidane. |

Plot Keywords:

Soccer | Real Madrid | Soccer Match | Soccer Ball | Soccer Crowd

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

David Beckham	...	Himself
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Zinédine Zidane	...	Himself

Directed by
Douglas Gordon
Philippe Parreno

Produced by
Sigurjon Sighvatsson	....	producer
Anna Vaney	....	producer
Victorien Vaney	....	producer

Original Music by
Mogwai

Cinematography by
Darius Khondji

Film Editing by
Hervé Schneid

Production Management
Cristina Ecija	....	production manager
Olivier Gravenhorst	....	post-production supervisor
Sophie Mas	....	assistant production manager
Antoine Rabaté	....	post-production supervisor

Sound Department
Selim Azzazi	....	supervising sound editor
Nicolas Becker	....	foley artist
Damien Bera	....	foley engineer
Nicolas Bourgeois	....	assistant sound editor
Clément Cartallas	....	assistant sound editor
Clément Cartallas	....	sound recordist
Vincent Cosson	....	sound re-recording mixer
François Fayard	....	sound effects editor
Will Files	....	assistant sound designer
Jonathan Goc	....	assistant sound editor
Jaime Guijarro	....	assistant sound recordist
Scott Guitteau	....	sound editor
Alex Hudd	....	sound consultant: dolby
Tom Johnson	....	sound re-recording mixer
Erwan Kerzanet	....	sound recordist
Guillaume Leriche	....	foley engineer
Hubert Persat	....	sound effects editor
Cyrille Richard	....	sound editor
Randy Thom	....	sound designer
Mathieu Weber	....	boom operator
Alexandre Widmer	....	sound editor

Visual Effects by
Farchad Bidgolirad	....	research & development lead
Alain Bignet	....	digital artist
Delphine Blaineau	....	visual effects coordinator
Axel Bonami	....	digital compositor
Lucie Bories	....	digital compositor
Ronan Broudin	....	senior compositor
Thibaut Damade	....	assistant visual effects editor
François Dumoulin	....	digital artist
Rip Hampton O'Neil	....	technical director: Duboicolor
Philippe Huberdeau	....	digital compositor supervisor
Abdel Ali Kassou	....	I/O manager
Abdel Ali Kassou	....	imaging manager
Yann Larochette	....	digital compositor
Emmanuel Le Courbe	....	digital compositor
Didier le Fouest	....	digital colorist
Christophe Legendre	....	color grader
Sergeï Lourié	....	digital compositor
Jacquemin Piel	....	visual effects producer
David Poulain	....	digital compositor
Ghislain Rio	....	digital compositor
Frederic Thonet	....	visual effects producer
Guillaume Carniato	....	digital restoration (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Chas Bain	....	camera operator
Eric Bialas	....	camera operator
Andre Chemetoff	....	additional assistant camera
Pedro Doblado de Andres	....	second assistant camera
David M. Dunlap	....	camera operator
Roberto Fernández	....	first assistant camera
Andrés Garzas	....	second assistant camera
Javier Gómez	....	first assistant camera
Stuart Howell	....	camera operator
Sébastien Leclercq	....	first assistant camera
Joaquín Manchado	....	camera operator
Frédéric Martial-Wetter	....	focus puller
Michael McDonough	....	camera operator
Adolfo Morales 'Fofi'	....	first assistant camera
Giulio Pietromarchi	....	camera operator
Jorge Simonet	....	camera operator
Philip Sindall	....	camera operator
Gary Spratling	....	camera operator
Olly Tellett	....	assistant camera
Des Whelan	....	camera operator
Tim Wooster	....	camera operator

Editorial Department
Anne-Sophie Bion	....	additional assistant editor
Enrica Gattolini	....	first assistant editor

Other crew
Mercedes Barbod	....	location manager
Carmen Ruiz de Huidobro	....	production coordinator
Aditya Ezhuthachan	....	production coordinator: Los Angeles
Asia Jarzyna	....	production assistant: Madrid
Denis Pedregosa	....	production executive

Thanks
Glenn Kiser	....	special thanks
Randy Thom	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Anna Lena Films
• Kanzaman (production services)
• Naflastrengir
• Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (associate production)
• arte France Cinéma (co-production)
• Love Streams Productions (co-production)
• Canal+ (participation)
• Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) (participation)
• CinéCinéma (participation)
• Centre National des Arts Plastiques (with the support of)
• Programme MEDIA de la Communauté Européenne (with the support of)
• KanZaman Services (production services)

Distributors

• A-Film Distribution (2007) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• United International Pictures (UIP) (2006) (France) (theatrical)
• A-Film Home Entertainment (200?) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Artificial Eye (2007) (UK) (DVD)
• Kinowelt Home Entertainment (2007) (Germany) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Duboi
• Duran

Other Companies

• Ardmore Sound  sound re-recording
• Skywalker Sound  special thanks

Also Known As:

Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (International: English title)

Runtime:

France:90 min

Country:

France | Iceland

Language:

French | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Australia:G | Netherlands:AL

Filming Locations:

Madrid, Spain

Company:

Anna Lena Films

Zidane was a more than great football player, but really not a good documentary subject. At least not for one with an approach such as this one.

Just like every football fan, I have to say that Zinédine Zidane really was one of the best players of this and the last century. I would often watch a France game, purely because of Zidane and I wanted to see him do his magic. Even if the game wasn't very good and the team wasn't playing very well, Zidane would always show something special and amazing. His skill and touch was always amazing. Whenever he had the ball if was something special and you just knew something great could happen at any given moment. He doesn't look and move like a very technical player but he really was one of the most technical midfielder of the last few decades. He had a great and impressive but also very successful career, especially with his national team. Every world cup or European cup he participated in, he was one of the best players of the tournament and he won both the World- and European Cup with his country France. He played an important role in his country victories and eventual win of the tournaments, with his two goals in the 1998 finale against Brazil of course as his most memorable achievement. No way that a dumb head-but against Marco Materazzi in the 110th minute of the 2006 World Cup final against Italy, which also was his last game out of his career, should overshadow this great sportsman's career.

But as much as I adore Zidane as a player he really isn't a charismatic person or player to watch. His face doesn't ever show any emotions, which sorts of makes you wonder why the film-makers he was such a good subject for this cinematic movie-making approach. After about 30 minutes you've already had it with watching this movie. Most of the time he doesn't even run, he just walks and stands because obviously he isn't on the ball all of the time. After a while the approach of the movie becomes a real bore to watch.

It doesn't show anything of Zidane as a person and it also most certainly doesn't show anything of Zidane's qualities as a football player. Therefor what's the point of this 'documentary'? This movie only serves an artistic purpose. Although this also doesn't completely work out due to the subject Zidane. So it's a sort of vicious circle. The approach of the documentary doesn't really work out due to Zidane and Zidane isn't presented in his best or most insightful way due to the approach of the documentary. It doesn't do much credit to the exceptional great player Zidane was. On top of the, the approach from this documentary isn't even original. It was used before by German filmmaker Hellmuth Costard, for his documentary "Fußball wie noch nie", following Manchester United player George Best in real time, during a complete football match.

What was highly annoying to me was that most of the sounds were obviously put at a later stage underneath the movie. Some, if not all, sounds were obviously fabricated and recorded in a studio, even Zidane's own breathing and on pitch talking. Unless you believe he was really wearing a microphone during the match...The chanting the running on the grass, the kicking of the ball, all off these sounds sound so completely fabricated. It's like listening to a radio play at times.

Some of the trivial facts presented in this movie are really ridicules and don't serve a point at all, also not in the least because they have absolutely nothing to do with the subject of the movie.

If you want to see the qualities of a player you don't point several camera's just on his face. He should see a wider picture to get a clear view and understanding of his positioning, his passing, his control, his overview, knowing exactly the positions of your teammates and opponents, knowing when to give the right ball. After all, football is still a team sport, no matter how great as an individual you are. The game they follow him also isn't much special. It's just an average Primera Division game of Zidane's Real Madrid against Villareal, in which Zidane even gets send off with a red card before the end of the match. Also sorts of makes you wonder if the makers regret picking this one game to follow him.

Has some artistic value but overall really doesn't do enough credit to Zizou.

4/10