Into the weekend: Materazzi is back

Recovering from the birthday hooley at JABS Mansion, I'm afraid the blog has been a bit spotty the last couple days (picking cheesies out of the carpet and scraping Orange Crush off the walls is a little time consuming).
So we're going straight into the weekend here, after watching all of about 30 seconds of this morning's Ryder Cup coverage on TSN -- "The Ryder Cup is underway!" said the excited announcer. Tiger put his tee shot into the water. Colin Montgomerie strode up next, looking more and more like good old Keith Appleyard, the crowd went nuts ...

BRIAN SNYDER/REUTERS

The glamour, the excitement, the shoes: It's the Ryder Cup.

And off that bit of excitement, that's enough golf, thank you. On to some links and the usual other stuff before the fumigators arrive:

One last look. Marco Materazzi, and his suddenly bulletproof, buttproof chest, has a new shoe commercial out in Italy.

One last read. The Guardian's Richard Williams has seen the Zidane movie that JABS has been all over, and likes it just as much. It opens in the UK next week:

Any conventional film about Zidane would include the astonishing 20-yard volley that won Real the European Cup final on its return to Hampden in 2003, plus the two he scored with his head in the 1998 World Cup final. It would examine, through the use of super-slo-mo, the technical tricks that were particular to him, such as the roulette, in which he deceived a defender by turning his body through 360 degrees, dragging the ball forward with the sole of his boot while in mid-pirouette, facing the way he had come. It would analyse the gift of balance that enabled this heavy-set man to move with such lightness and grace. It would investigate his childhood among north African immigrants in a poor quarter of Marseille; it would catalogue the transfers that took him from Cannes to Bordeaux as a teenager, then to Juventus of Turin and finally to Madrid.
This new film does none of these things.

That's undoubtedly why the guy in the Zidane shirt was among the few walkouts during last Friday's screening at the Varsity (oh, and one more link regarding a release of the film here in NA from one of the co-directors: "This film could certainly play on pay-per-view TV. But we're hoping for theatrical." Let's hope.)

One more film note. Katie Holmes to play Posh in a new Becks biopic? (Thanks to The Offside.)

Weekend assignment. Another tough question tackling the prickliest issues of the day, but that's what we do. Picking up where J.E. Skeets at The Basketball Jones left off, is Pryzbilla the highest Scrabble-scoring name in pro sports today?
UPDATE: Eagle-eyed reader John Richardson sends in this handy dandy score generator and an early entry that rolls into the lead: Wozniewski.

Sports around town. The OHL season is back on, and Brampton and St. Mike's play their home openers tonight. And on Sunday morning all over the place, it's the Scotiaback Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

Watching. Toronto at Calgary, Saturday, 7 p.m., CBC. Forget Ricky Williams. I wanna see Pinball in Coppley and Malcolm in Canali (good catch, Boatmen Blog).

Punters' corner. Ready or not, here's your recreational-purposes-only picks. After a second straight 2-3 week, it's time for a shakeup. I've brought in my dawg Jinks to make the choices, either kibble (visitors) or cookies (home):

BUFFALO (-5 1/2) over Jets. The dawg is nuts.
Cincinnati (+1 1/2) over PITTSBURGH. The dawg is hungry!
Jacksonville (+7) over INDY. The dawg is calming down, a little.
Chicago (-3) over MINNESOTA. Jinks barked on this one. Best bet, that.
N.Y. Giants (+3 1/2) over SEATTLE. This is pushing it. I'd never make this pick. Two in a row on the road? Plaxico would have something to say about that.

 

Nash and Straw go back to school

A couple of links hanging over from yesterday's e-mail box around the theme of Back to School:

First, there was Steve Nash's return to his Santa Clara alma mater over the weekend for a ceremony retiring his No. 11 with the Broncos -- and his, er, speech, which True Hoop's Henry Abbott has a problem with:

When PR professionals are making their pitch to Nash, vying to represent him, they will show him the video of that performance and explain how they could have helped him make it so much better without hampering his personality or honesty in any way. I'm no fan of slick, packaged, BS, PR-centric presentations, but I'm prepared to believe Steve might benefit from seeking out some kind of happy medium.

On one level, it's just Nash being the usual retiring, it's-not-about-me Canadian -- "but enough about me, let's talk about me -- I guess." But Henry makes a solid point. A few thought-out remarks would've been better than this lame effort.

And oh, there's this one, sent along from a reader -- Darryl Strawberry, available for school visits (bidding at $260 this morning). With his rap sheet, there would certainly be lots to talk about in the way of "valubable life lessons."

Zidane: Some thoughts

Friday's showing of Zidane: Un Portrait du XXIe Siècle (A 21st Century Portrait) surpassed my lofty expectations, and was the perfect example of why an annual like the Toronto International Film Festival keeps people coming back. You're never quite sure what you're going to get, good or bad, and this, happily, was one of the good ones.

This is a film that will likely not achieve wide release (so far, nothing in that regard) and I wonder how effective it would be on television's smaller screen -- not nearly as arresting, I reckon, as it proved on the Varsity's wide screen. While not trying to explain Zidane like a traditional documentary would -- there's not a world of dialogue, and about the only thing the great French star says is "hey" or "here" as he prowls the green -- it instead focuses on his every move during an April 2005 Real Madrid match at the Bernabeu. In the end, it's the portrait of the footballer at work, far more impressionist exercise than sports doc. At its best, it's utterly mesmerizing.

Robert Di Zio, a teacher and coach at Senator O'Connor, picked up one of the tickets on offer at JABS last week, and checks in with his "film-inspired observations" here:

In soccer, as in life …

We find the truly fascinated, fascinating.
We spend most of our time without the ball.
Be ready. Know it might be your moment; don’t be surprised when it isn’t.
Walk. Speed and power are effective only because they’re contrasts.
Never touch the ball twice when once will do. Don’t touch it once if none will do.
Give up the ball, trust. Don’t stop trusting when you don’t get it back.
Smile … but only when you mean it.
When you could swear ‘it’s about you’, give your head a shake, it’s not.
Worthwhile time is never remembered linearly.
Keep intermissions short, bad things happen when you’re not playing.
Spitting is forgivable only when you’re playing hard.
Play as if the final score is easily forgettable, because it is.

Film’s final caption:

(in soccer there is) “almost magic, then nothing”

untrue

“almost magic” is everything

I couldn't have said it near as well myself. Many thanks, Rob.

Winnah winnah chicken dinnah

The draw is complete for free tickets to Friday's screening of Zidane: Un Portrait du XXIe Siecle, and we have a couple of winners.

C'mon down, Robert Dizio and Michael Zawada!

Robert and Michael are on their way to the afternoon showing of the sports doc of the year, if not the century, and all they have to do afterward is send over a 50-word review/rave/rant for Monday's blog -- right fellas?

Here's Robert's email:

I need a powerful visual to help wipe out my 'new' lasting impression of the great Zidane and this film sounds like it just might do the trick. I'm a soccer nut; please don't hold my nationality against me.

There ya go, Robert, and try to stay upright when we get into the area (of the movie theatre, that is, heh. Little joke there). 

Thanks to everyone who put their names in, including a couple who were just a little late for the early afternoon (1 p.m.) buzzer. The fest is almost over, but there will be other opportunities coming up, I'm sure, to do the same sort of thing here at JABS Mansion.

Free fest tickets to Zidane

The Toronto International Film Festival is into its final few days, and I'm excited about what's still to come on my plate.

But enough about This Filthy World. As for Offside, it was very good and more's the pity that the morning timing, the late notice and the Typepad performance let us down the other day when it came to giving away some passes.

Reuters

Zidane: 'Perhaps the greatest film about an athlete ever made.'

But here's the last chance for that kind of thing. This is about Zidane: Un Portrait du XXIe Siècle (A 21st-century Portrait), one of my Flick Picks for sports lovers at this year's fest. And you can snag tickets - free tickets, yay! - to Friday afternoon's 3:45 p.m. showing at the Varsity. Friday afternoon, 3:45 - good timing, in this case, late enough that you can nip out early from the office/school/halfway house, and early enough to make happy hour yoga class parole dinner.

I've got a pair to give away to loyal readers, as we move toward the one-year anniversary of this tiny corner. The catch is that I'm going, too, but trust me, in these packed theatres -- and this show is SRO, I'm told -- just getting two seats together is a victory bigger than Italy at the World Cup. So you won't have to put up with me, other than the ticket handoff. But I would like you to submit a 50-word review/monologue/musing that I can pop in the blog on Monday. C'mon, you knew there was a catch.

Oh yes, the film. No head-butting here, but fascinating nonetheless from the sound of it -- A 90-minute (of course) doc that uses footage from 17 high-def cameras trained on Zidane during a 2005 Spanish League game. No interviews, no talk, just Zidane, doing his thang.

John Doyle, my old soccer-travelling pal from the Globe, had a review of this one today, and to say it was glowing is an understatement. It's subscribers-only, unfortunately, but here's a free lift: "The result is fabulous, perhaps the greatest film about an athlete ever made. It is not Zidane explained or exposed. It is Zidane the player scrutinized with an artist's eye for grace, beauty, physical tension and the subtlety of human drama."

Wow. I can't wait.

So here's the deal. Either email me or post a comment below (they won't be published) to indicate your interest. Early tomorrow afternoon I'll close the windows and do a draw here at JABS Mansion for the two tickets. Go to it, kids.

JABS Special Offer: Filmfest tix

(UPDATE: Typepad is having a bad day. I'm going to leave this up and open through Tuesday morning.)

Last week I ran over some Toronto International Film Festival movies with a sporting theme.

Today comes the next step: I've got three tickets to give away to Tuesday's morning screening of Offside, what looks like a pretty good film about a group of Iranian women who defy the edict preventing them from attending a World Cup qualifying match.

TIFF WEBSITE

Offside: Free tickets.

The time is not great: 11:45 a.m. at the Paramount 1 film/vidgame/Twizzlers emporium. And there's a catch (isn't there always?): You have to write a 50-word review to go in JABS the next day. 50 words, bang-on. Oh, and I'm going too, so there's yet another catch. But the coffee's on me, promise.

So either e-mail me, or send along your entry in the comments. I'll have a draw at the end of the day here in the office (4 p.m. or thereabouts), if/when I get more than the three entrants.

I'm also working on getting tickets for another film in the fest (can't say which one, but use your imagination) and offering them here because, well, we're coming up on the one-year anniversary of the blog -- a frightening thought, that -- and along with a couple of other ideas we're kicking around here at JABS Mansion, this seems a good place to start.

Meantime, via TIFFreviews, here's some links to Offside reviews:

From Deborah Young of Variety:

Even as it cleverly spotlights the absurdity of Iran's strict segregation policies toward the female sex, "Offside" also describes a surprisingly rebellious world of young people who are not ready to buy into their country's imposed social values. Apart from its filmic merits, pic should have a role to play abroad in shining a light on some little-known facets of Iranian society. It has not yet been cleared for release in Iran.

And from Aussie-based Heroic Cinema:

Jafar Panahi's Offside so brilliantly captures the emotion and intensity of the frenzied fan culture that surrounds the sport of football in Iran that I have all at once jettisoned my lingering grudge against the Iranian national team. "Get over it," I've been told. Now, thanks to Offside, I have.

Flick picks

It's time for an end of summer ritual: going through the list of films at the Toronto International Film Festival, coming up with a shortlist that gets culled again into an even shorterlist of films I never see.

So it's down to this from that overall whack of 352, according to TIFF -- reel 'em back to back, and it's almost as long as the Leafs' Cup drought -- I've come up with 23 and if I get to more than two of them, it'll be a good score. A week from today it all starts in what running pal and Star film guy Peter Howell calls "the critic's World Cup".

Reuters

Zidane: Caught on film, it's a must-see.

As far as sports flicks, looks like there's two surefire winners and a few possibilities that are worth a second look:

Zidane: Un Portrait du XXIe Siecle (A 21st-century Portrait). North American premiere. Seventeen cameras follow Zinedine Zidane around the pitch during a 2005 Real Madrid-Villareal game. Simple premise -- don't go in expecting any head-butts. Still, looks like a must-see.

Offside. North American prem. A comedy about Iranian women who defy the all-male soccer crowd rule, dressing up as men in order to get into a World Cup qualifying match. This is the other sports must on my list. Here's director Jafar Panahi in an interview (including clips) with openDemocracy:

openDemocracy: The film is very funny, and at times almost farcical. How important is humour to you in telling the story?
Jafar Panahi: I believe that it is the greatest insult to women that they have to deny their identity as women and have to dress as men to take part in society. So yes, there is humour, but it is bitter humour. You may laugh at it, but nevertheless you feel very sad that women have to deny their femininity to take part in a function where men can take part.

So there are my two top picks. Some others:

Paperback Hero. Early '70s Canadian film about a small-town Saskatchewan hockey star who can't let go. Okay movie, I recall, but cut from the same cloth as too many others of the era and frankly, I preferred the CanCon unclassic Face-Off for its Jim McKenny skating scenes, Derek Sanderson as Derek Sanderson, the sideburns, the tie-dye, but especially the moment in the coffee shop where an old man-fan cackles to George Armstrong: "God bless ya Armie. I hope ya have a 50-goal season."

White Palms. Gold medal winning gymnast Kyle Shewfelt is one of the co-stars in this one, about a Hungarian gymnast who comes to Canada and tries to get his groove back as a coach, with Shewfelt as his phenom. Could be okay. Could also be TV Movie of the Week fare.

Schuss! Not sure what to make of this one. It's about skiing. Maybe.