Cinematic Sports Documentary: History, Politics, Aesthetics
A documentary set at the final of the 1984 French Open between tennis legends John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl at a time when the explosive McEnroe was the world's top-ranked player. Q&A to follow.
Julien Faraut’s John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection explores the tennis legend’s psyche and emotion on the court of the 1984 French Open. Through 16mm film, Faraut reimagines athletic performance as cinematic and aesthetic performance, blurring the boundaries between these two seemingly separate categories. McEnroe’s obsession and volatility are transformed into an aesthetic consideration of performance and emotion in one of the contemporary period’s most inventive sport documentaries. [95 min; documentary; English and French with English subtitles]
A Q&A will follow the screening.
“The are few sports docs quite like In the Realm of Perfection, and by the time it's over, you feel like you've spent 90 minutes inside the head of a complicated, talented master of his craft.” — Steven Prokopy, Third Coast Review
“Focused solely on McEnroe during his matches at the tournament, it is both a meditation on the psycho-dramatics of sports, its links to cinema and their shared relationship to time, and a pure celebration of the body in motion.” — Craig Hubert, Hyperallergic
“The only tennis documentary to set Sonic Youth's cyberpunk ode ‘The Sprawl’ to a technique montage, Julien Faraut's wonderfully original film mixes film theory, cryptic analysis, and multiple break(ing) points to form a coolly intoxicating examination.” — Craig Mathieson, The Sunday Age
Any film screened at IU Cinema may contain content that viewers find sensitive or upsetting. Visit our Audience Advisories page to learn more.
