Teóricos da Bola

"For me, the finest film at Cannes was also about man in the modern workplace. Zinedine Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait was sublime, the only film to lift me out of my seat and inject that buzz of discovery for which Cannes is usually so cherished. It's the greatest film about football ever made (I admit the competition in that field is not strong) and one of the great films about sport. Directed by Turner-prize winner Douglas Gordon and French artist Philippe Parrono, it simply follows the French captain for 90 minutes during a match for Real Madrid against Villareal, though 17 cameras are trained on him under the cinematographic direction of Darius Khondji.

It's a classic portrait of a working man, and the viewer can foist multiple readings on its filmic canvas. As Zidane sets about his job, drowning in noise, concentration and sweat, I thought of the Sisyphean task of the footballer, the loneliness of the athlete, the musculature and poise of the human body and the power and fragility of the mind. There was no more soulful an examination of the human condition to be found at Cannes than in watching Zidane at work." - The Observer, 28/05/06