I went to see the film Zidane the other evening. The subtitle, A 21st Century Portrait gives the clue that it’s a film we might see, at the National Portrait Gallery (as was the film of Beckham sleeping–perhaps still is) or Tate Modern, as video art. Equally it might also have been seen on television within the remit of nature or wild life tv.
It’s not often that I have the sense of seeing “life” so evident in a human being without the mediation or protection of masks. The word pure comes to mind. Unmediated life: the physical, the emotional, intentionality, drive, thought. From brutal killer, to tragic hero, to vulnerability, even humour (that was a surprise–I smiled with him).
The football was in a way irrelevant–here was a portrait of what it is to live through the “game”, the “war” with him.
As I thought about it, I came to my image, my sense of Christ and the form of words that the early Church Fathers came to in their (admittedly very difficult) concept of Christ as being fully human and fully God; fully incarnated and fully spirit.
Here was a portrait that gives a taste of what was being described.
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