The beautiful game

Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno's 2006 film, 'Zidane: A Twenty-First Century portrait' is a 90 minute football match between Real Madrid and Villareal in the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid, which took place on April 23rd 2005 in front of 80 thousand spectators and the millions watching on TV. 
   Seventeen synchronised movie cameras, that used different types of film, all in various positions and locations around the stadium, each one focusing on one player, the world class Real Madrid half back Zinedine Zidane.

   
   The piece was edited together by editor Herve Schneid, from all the different bits of piece, to ultimately make a single continuous 90 minute movie.
   The soundtrack consists of the Spanish commentator's televised account of the match, which runs intermittently throughout allowing for a narrative undertone of the piece, along with the roars of the crowd, sounds of contact form the field, heavy breathing, silence and music by Scottish band Mogwai.
   Statements made by Zidane appear in subtitles, giving you the ability to hear what he is saying during the match allowing the viewer to get a deeper understanding in to Zidane's thoughts during a game, which at a normal televised game you would otherwise not be able to hear or see.

   Zidane himself is depicted as entirely absorbed throughout the majority of the film obviously on the match.
   The final film opened at the Cannes film festival in 2006 and was projected in a stadium at the Basel Art Fair, and then shortly after went on to general release in Paris. Zidane is quoted as saying "you hear the crowd and you feel its presence. There is sound, the sound of noise." Then: "When you are immersed in the match, you don't really hear the crowd. At the same time you can almost chose what yo want to hear. You are never alone." All of the remarks allow for a of Zidane's inner life.