Star rating - 9/10
Zinédine
Zidane has never looked so majestic and
imperious as he did on a giant screen in a packed Albert Hall with Mogwai
playing their eerie soundtrack to this engrossing film live beneath his feet.
It's a
brilliant concept from directors Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno
- to follow one footballer on and off the ball for 90 minutes
of a game. And it becomes a totally mesmerising and intense experience. On a
practical football level, it proves once again just what a superb player Zidane
was. Giving everything he has for the whole match. Talisman-like he leads by
example and spurs his Real Madrid galactico team mates, including a youthful
looking David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo, to give nothing but their
best.
But more than
this, the experience of watching him in this particularly beautiful Wesleyan
chapel setting, up large and towering above the band, was sensational. He
becomes more than a footballer - something more balletic like Nureyev, crossed
with the amazing athleticism of a thoroughbred racehorse. Some of his own
thoughts on football and life are flashed across the screen during the match.
He gives everything he has - brooding and menacing for the match's entirety, he
smiles only once.
And of course
we all must have had in the back of our minds that infamous sending off in the
World Cup Final match that shocked the football world not long after this
one. Especially as he manages to get himself red carded too towards the
end of this match, although in much more inauspicious circumstances. The
atmospheric swirling music of Mogwai, rising to crescendos, then falling away
to nothing in parts, fits the film perfectly.
This was
undoubtedly another Manchester International Festival triumph, and my last MIF
event for another two years. What a brilliant festival it has been, possibly
the best so far. MIF15 will certainly have some work to if it is to better this
fabulous showcase for our wonderful city, with its hidden gems of venues, and ability
to attract world class performers, and thousands of visitors, to our
international cultural carnival. Thank you MIF for a wonderful fortnight - it's
been a blast.
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