Hellmuth Costard's FOOTBALL AS NEVER BEFORE (Documentary Revival)

Hellmuth Costard's FOOTBALL AS NEVER BEFORE (Documentary Revival)
White Light Cinema at The Nightingale - Friday, 8pm
The most apparent truth conveyed in this film is that, for George Best, being a professional athlete was a serious, patient, isolating, and precise occupation. The more poignant truth is that the core of all rituals infused with mysticism is the interplay of rhythm and duration, syntax and meaning. Best is ostensibly the star of the film as he paces like a caged tiger while someone off screen sets up a free kick, jogs casually upfield as spectators yell insults, waits on the wing with his hands on his hips like a bored schoolboy, and sprints hard for a slide tackle while supporters chant sing-songy rhymes. All the while Costard's six cameras keep him in their sites, and use Best as a puppet in what is truly a remarkable attempt at making cinema that exists outside the language of narrative. Never do we get a cutaway, an insert shot, or a reaction. As the game unfolds in real time we are unaware of score or the flow, left alone with Best to ponder the action, save for the few moments when the ball comes to him and gets passed away. Despite the apparent voyeurism of the approach, this "actor" is not a star we get titillation from gazing upon, nor is the camera's eye that of the unseen "other." From our usual perch above the playing field we are alone with an image of Best and his shadow, surrounded by the field, and the constant sound of the crowd. All attempts to engage with the game are thwarted by the cameras' unrelenting focus on one individual, for a story needs characters, and characters need conflicts to keep us interested. Finally, with a few minutes left in the first half, there is a moment of tension. Best dribbles across the top of the box, and launches a missile across his body towards goal, only to summersault to the pitch. Emotion threatens to make an appearance as the crowd cheers Best's effort, but we are not allowed to share in it: we are not participants in this spectacle. We are participants in the ritual of cinema, but removed from the expected syntax of hero and exposition we cannot recognize the structure and rhythm. In a typical film we are presented with a plausible reality on the screen, and we can predict what will happen, or at least be surprised by it. In our lives we place these waking daydreams of narrative artwork into a category called illusion. But when a graphic appears to show the score still standing at 0-0, Costard reminds us that in cinema, reality is always an illusion. (1971, 105 min, 16mm on DVD) JH - Cine-File.info