Julian Faraut | France 2018, 95 minutes |
5pm, Sunday 29 July | Elizabeth Picture Theatres
And so what on paper might be a standard sporting bio-doc, largely relevant only to tennis aficionados or fans of John McEnroe at the height of his powers, instead becomes a lovely meditation on time and movement, dedication and obsession, image and perception.
– Jessica Kiang, Variety
On the surface, this is merely one of the year’s best sports documentaries, one that focuses on tennis legend John McEnroe at the height of his career as the world champion, documenting his strive for perfection, frustrations, and the hardest loss of his career at the 1984 Roland-Garros French Open.
However Faraut also engages with the work of Gil de Kermadec, a filmmaker hired by the French national sport and training institute, INSEP, to develop ‘portraits’ of significant tennis players. It is Kermadec’s footage of the perfect McEnroe that Faraut draws on, exploring the kinship between tennis and cinema, whether capturing the body, performance, or finding the perfection shot.
English and French with English Subtitles
Courtesy of Film Constellation
Unrated 15 +