Zidane – a 21st century portrait

On Saturday night, back from the pub, I watched this amazing piece of football and cinema at the same time, Zidane – a 21st century portrait. I find the idea itself behind the movie to be great. The movie is the result of the editing of the footage taken by 17 cameras following just the French champion Zinedine Zidane during a match occured on the 23rd of April 2005 between Real Madrid and Villareal at Santiago Bernabeu.

Of course this is not one of the most exciting movies I have ever seen in my life, it’s not really entertaining as you don’t happen to watch the match, you pretty much understand what goes on and the focus moves from Zidane to the ball when there is a goal, but you mostly see just Zidane, even when is standing on one side of the pitch, hands on his hips. You mostly see him walking and standing and it’s not about him being a great football player, rather than a member of a team of 11 guys on his own in such a big (and boringly quiet for 90% of the time, I must say) stadium as the Bernabeu is. You rarely see him talking and interact with the others and rarely touch the football itself. And the last minutes of the movie couldn’t have been better, it’s like if it was preconceived… but I won’t ruin it for those who haven’t seen it yet.

You can still see bits of his skills, Zizou also performs an assistance for Ronaldo which alone should make you willing to watch this. The quality of the image throughout the whole movie is great and the soundtrack is amazing and couldn’t have been more appropriate. Mogwai, the Scottish post-rock band, have created a brand new album only for this movie. Here you get some taste of their music, which in my opinion is just astonishing. This is called “Hunted by a freak” and it’s included in Happy songs for happy people (2003)

Despite of the advices I received before watching it, I absolutely recommend this hour and a half of pure football loneliness, class and editing talent to whoever is so crazy like me to spend 90 minutes of their lives, maybe even more, every week just to watch a rolling ball over a green pitch.

Cannavaro

There are rumors that Fabio Cannavaro, captain of the Italian national team, former Juventus defender and at the moment with Real Madrid, is going to win the Ballon d’Or, the most important trophy awarded to footballers in Europe.

He has played a great World Cup last summer in Germany and a more than decent season in Italian Serie A 2005/06.

No one, of course, is worried about him being the filmmaker of a nice video – which can be found on Youtube, check it out, Cannavaro’s doping – shot just before the U.E.F.A. Cup final in 1999, in Moscow, when his former team, FC Parma beated French rivals Marseille 3-0.

Neither anyone is concerned about him having played for controversial Italian team Juventus. He played there and they won two titles, 2004/05 and 2005/06, without knowing that the Scudetto was going to be stripped out of their jerseys and the team relegated to Serie B. Surely someone could object that the players were not responsible for what happened. Problem is that Fabio Cannavaro was one of the players whose signings were the proof of the whole Juve corruption system.

from English newspaper Guardian:

Cannavaro is said to have deliberately underperformed at his former club, Inter, in order to facilitate a move to Juventus

Someone will also remember that Fabio Cannavaro, after the last match he played for Juventus in 2005/2006, a match they thought had brought them to the Italian Scudetto, when interviewed about the occurring scandal, said he doesn’t read newspapers neither watch television.

What’s happening shouldn’t worry too much football fans all over the world, though.

What about Zinedine Zidane being awarded as the most outstanding player of the 2006 World Cup in Germany? Did anyone forget this?