John McEnroe: In The Realm Of Perfection
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Movie Details
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- Trailer 1 (01:40)
Movie Info & Cast
Synopsis
Less a traditional sports documentary and more of a moving picture essay, this unique film is constructed using archival 16mm footage taken at Paris’s Roland Garros Stadium in 1984. That time and place is key: 1984 was best season of McEnroe’s career (he played 85 games and only lost three) – and yet his most bitter loss that season was to Ivan Lendl at the French Open at Roland Garros. The film observes a world-class athlete at the top of his game, in the midst of a massive set back – paying as much attention to McEnroe’s volatile personality as to his form and the geometry of his backhands. This is a portrait of genius, of the human body, of art performed on a clay court. It’s McEnroe under a microscope.
Cast
- John McEnroe
- Ivan Lendl
- Mathieu Amalric
Atom User Reviews
Metacritic
So it’s a sort of grace note that Julien Faurat’s unusual and absorbing documentary, John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, includes a snippet from the soundtrack of “Raging Bull,” probably the greatest and certainly the fiercest and most aestheticized of boxing movies.
What lingers, when this movie is done, are not the regular rallies, during which we survey the whole court, but those moments when we focus on McEnroe alone — on the dancing shuffle of his feet as he bobs and races for a return. Swap the sneakers for tap shoes and the dusty clay for a mirrored floor, and we could be watching Fred without Ginger, lost in the delirium of his art.
Faraut is able to conflate the cinema’s quixotic obsession with reality with the athlete’s similarly impossible dream of perfection. In its own playful way, his film celebrates the beautiful folly of both pursuits.
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