About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 2011)
PURE RACING SENNA (PG-13) There's a common belief that art and athletics don't mix. Yet, many writ ers and musicians have made significant work inspired by athletes in motion. Anyone who has watched Pele, Ali, Jordan or Messi do their thing knows how remarkable their creativity is. Hollywood regularly churns out sentimental entertainment about dim-witted yet lovable jocks or grizzled coaches looking for one more chance at glory. There's no mystery as to why. Boxing, baseball, football and soccer have to varying degrees engaging narrative structures, ready-made melodrama and fistfuls of conflict featuring colorful rogues. The majority of films made, though, aren't good. To get a rare film like Raging Bull or Bull Durham, you have to risk sitting through brain-freezing junk like Fever Pitch or The Legend of Bagger Vance. Most documen taries about sport are just as useless. They're nothing but hagiographies designed to keep you as far away from the subject as possible. That's why, when a great, insightful one comes along (Hoop Dreams, When We Were Kings), you pay attention. British director Asif Kapadia's Senna, focusing on the life and career of Formula One driver Ayrton Senna, is one of the best. Senna hailed from a wealthy Brazilian family. but earned his reputation as one of the finest racers alive on his own terms. He was hand some, charming and modest, and approached his sport with an artist's intuition for taking chances but the intelligence to know when to hold back. Kapadia's portrait of the man is psychologically uncomplicated (he loved God, country, his family and racing), but the film's core dramatic conflict comes in the shape of Senna's contentious rivalry with fellow driver Alain Prost—an intelligent, arrogant, con niving opponent who comes off as Senna's shadow self—and with the head of the racing federation, Jean-Marie Balestre. This is documentary filmmaking of the high est order. Eschewing the boring talking-head and reenactment for mat, Kapadia instead relies on dynamic archival racing footage, home movies and can did interviews with the man himself, investing in the powers of good editing and compelling storytelling to bring his fascinating and ulti mately poignant portrait of Senna to life. Fans of Formula One will find much to savor here, but more importantly, so will people who know nothing about racing or have little interest in sport. You just have to love great movies. Derek Hill Ayrton Senna Dream House » FUCfcSfclNNY - Cor\gf^oWior\s''Sod^/ < pvJ^cM n r\o logger "ft* i^brst Moji'eof Tk.ijoflv: ‘ is iW la1\*v\ you 9ol\ifc Wocx Wtth an eMless Sevi^ of-frtete. W*os an\ Miseirj Masaoe^.vg 06 ck pS^ck)loQ\CAl ‘Th/illtf- L\Gra \3 fAev\+a\ ir\eK+o-fi0v\ oJMe JlflTf ^ tXWrfng \nfl\t r\OlT\OA) I^IJ J||^) am twte 1fe Uosp) r"\ LbVe<eV\e May hfl\tC| or f r r\oV 0\o-ve, of y If-typ-Tf.~,t Uo*y &><«>'. 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