Winter Film Series: The Sporting Life

Thursday, March 8 at 7pm

The evening will feature two documentaries, the first of which will be Werner Herzog’s classic film The Great Ecstacy of Woodcarver Steiner, a meditation on the limits of physical human endeavors, containing extensive slow-motion footage of ski-jumpers crashing gracefully. The film has a delicate and soaring score by legendary ambient kraurockers Popol Vuh and is accompanied by Herzog’s inimitable narration.

The evening’s main feature will be Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait, the new documentary about the extraordinary French soccer player Zinédine Zidane.

From the Film’s website:

“Turner Prize-winning artist and filmmaker Douglas Gordon teams up with French artist Philippe Parreno to create a work glorious in its simplicity. The film was made by training 17 cameras, under the supervision of acclaimed cinematographer Darius Khondji, solely on footballer Zinédine Zidane over the course of a single match between Real Madrid and Villareal.

“Zidane himself recounts, in voice-over, what he can and cannot remember from his matches. Magnificently edited and accompanied by a majestic score from Scottish rock heroes Mogwai, this is not only the greatest football movie ever made, but also one of the finest studies of man in the workplace, an ode to the loneliness of the athlete and the poise and resilience of the human body.”

This film has generated significant interest and critical acclaim in Europe since it’s debut there last year, yet so far it remains little-seen in the United States. Due to popular interest, the Zidane film will be screened again at 9:30pm following the conclusion of our regular 7-9pm screening.