Football and cinema, cinema and football, two of the great passions of our time, have lived behind each other for a long time, but from that somewhat confusing encounter, of rivalry and strange symbiosis, an eleven capable of winning on any field also emerges. A film-loving line-up that aims to display the best possible football, when it arrives in theaters in Spain The worst team in the world, Taika Waikiki's new comedy, fiction adaptation of the documentary Next Goal Wins, which narrates the troubles of the American Samoa team, ranked last in FIFA, on a spiritual journey through the human twists and turns of football. There is only one rule: they have to play on platforms.
In the goal, Sylvester Stallone's hands: Evasion or victory (John Huston, 1981)
The White House of football. Maybe it is not the best, it is not even among the great works of the master John Huston, but it is the most legendary football movie in history. The unique meeting of a group of movie stars (Stallone, Michael Caine, Max von Sydow) with a combo of soccer players led by Pelé ends in an impossible match between German soldiers and Allied prisoners in the Paris of the Nazi occupation. A delirium with a real echo (the Party of Death in kyiv) culminated by The marsellesa, the beginning of the most beautiful friendship between football and cinema. Available on Filmin.
A right back who complies with the laws: black diamonds (Miguel Alcantud, 2013)
Unfairly little known film by the director of impulses, black diamonds poses, In addition to a compelling story of sub-Saharan survival and immigration in our country, a lacerating denunciation of a practice widespread by football representatives and clubs throughout Europe, which has its roots in African countries and blatantly contravenes sports regulations, which prohibit ( with few and well-defined exceptions) import underage soccer players. A law that is not complied with and that this well-documented fiction, a direct (and cool) jab at the bosses of FIFA and the dark powers of football, seeks to put at the center of the debate. Available on Filmin.
Long-distance left lane: I want to be like Beckham (Gurinder Chadha, 2002)
“No more football!” No more football. The cries of a displeased mother in front of a daughter who wants to be a soccer player are beginning to sound old, 20 years later. But among these scenes of affectionate and multicultural comedy about a young woman who seeks to fulfill her dream in the face of her family's refusal, there is an entire social revolution represented by Jess, the protagonist of Indian origin of the most charismatic film about women's soccer of all. time. I want to be like Beckham It transcended the limits of the friendly comedy that it is to become a symbol that has helped many women reaffirm their role as soccer players. Available on Movistar+.
The couple of central defenders of alternative cinema: Or soccer (Sergio Oksman, 2015) and The Second Game (Corneliu Porumboiu, 2014)
Or Soccer: After twenty years without seeing each other and an ocean between them, a father and a son whose only link is football meet to spend time together on site the month of the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. The reunion between the two during Neymar's truncated championship, which will cause national frustration in that country, is also an intimate revelation for Oksman and his father in this major documentary from its simplicity. Cult cinema in which genius springs from an intuition, Or soccer It is a miracle of cinema that turns football into a reason for life. Available on Filmin.
The Second Game: Porumboiu, one of the great directors of the New Romanian Cinema, is also the son of a professional referee who experienced the ins and outs of football during the dictatorship. Corneliu meets with his father and adds his comments to the television broadcast of a curious meeting, the last Dinamo-Steaua (the eternal derby) disputed days before the fall of Ceaucescu during Christmas 1989. In the middle of a snow storm, the team of the Ministry of the Interior (and the political police, the Securitate) faced that of the Romanian army (the dictator's favorite), and The truth of that rotten system is revealed between silences and whispers of an infamous 0-0. Available on Mubi.
He defensive midfielder: Shaolin soccer (Stephen Chow, 2001)
Be football, my friend. The echo of the legend of Bruce Lee overflows this crazy comedy that pays tribute to the truncated idol through humor and love of football and martial arts films. A multifaceted monument to kicks in the best tradition of cinema wuxia, to which Chow, director and protagonist of this film that arises from the Asian fury over the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, pays homage while mercilessly parodying. False fire backgrounds, supposedly tacky digital arrangements, extradiegetic dances and dances, digital balls with technology bullet time and kicks that form hurricanes. A rush. Available on Netflix.
At the forefront of social cinema, with Eric Cantona's 7: Looking for Eric (Ken Loach, 2009)
A small and irresistible football story by Loach, the master of social cinema, with a script by Paul Laverty, in which Eric Bishop, a humble postman desperate for his economic and personal problems, does not know how to face his emotional and vital situation, until Eric Cantona himself, a Manchester United legend, appears to him, a team of which our protagonist is a fan. The spirit? of the football star will guide and advise the other Eric, forming a perfect duo that is already one of Ken Loach's most optimistic films and a classic of football cinema, with nods to mental health in sport and in life. Available on Prime Video and Flixolé.
The midfielder who came from exile to win the Oscar: Start over (José Luis Garci, 1982)
Sporting de Gijón is the only football team with the Oscar award (in conflict with Racing de Avellaneda of The Secret in Their Eyes) thanks to Antonio Albajara (Antonio Ferrandis), the Nobel Prize in Literature exiled in the US who returns to his native Gijón, where he had been a great red and white midfielder as a young man, in this nostalgic drama, which is also the first Spanish film to win the statuette . Pure atmosphere of northern soccer, with sequences filmed in El Molinón and Mareo by José Luis Garci, a filmmaker who discovered to the public that soccer and cinema are two spare lives. Available on Movistar+.
As a center forward, the scorer of Spanish cinema: Eleven pairs of boots (Rovira Beleta, 1954)
The total movie about football in Spain. Our any given sunday fiftieth, who composes with The aces seek peace, Blonde arrow, The fan and The phenomenon the national-football altarpiece from the times of Francoism. The tough José Suárez plays the striker Ignacio Ariza, who triumphed in infra-football and who arrives in Barcelona to sign for Hispania (a transfer from Espanyol), who steals him from Barça. A problematic player, he falls into the temptations of the night, but he has a good background that ends up shining among great names on the ball (Ramallets, Biosca, Samitier, and many other cameos) and on the screen (Manolo Morán, Pepe Isbert), who play to iconic characters in this catalog of sociology of a country and its football. Available at Flixolé.
The 10 most iconic: Diego Maradona (Asif Kapadia, 2019)
Asif Kapadia (Senna, Amy), expert in achieving resounding montages through unique archive sequences crowned by relentless testimonies, he once again shows us the soul of one of the greatest geniuses of our time, perhaps the best footballer in history, the only one whose life can be told as a story with police overtones, Scorsesian soul and forceful rhythm. Based on some original and unpublished images focused on the Neapolitan period of Maradona (last name of the icon compared to the intimate Diego). What begins as a thriller style of One of ours, It ends in a great movie goal as a result of the macabre relationship between a brilliant soccer player and the city that stole his soul. Available on Mubi and Filmin.
And on the left wing, the player-coach with the greatest charisma: The Damned United (Tom Hooper, 2009)
Life on the bench, Edgar Neville would say. Nothing better than that electric chair in front of a locker room to know the ins and outs of a team, nobody better than a coach to tell football on screen. Because The Damned United It does so without showing hardly any moments of the game, an annoying issue that so often tarnishes the relationship between football and cinema. The perfect excuse is Brian Clough, legend of English football and media controversies, and the 44 days he spent at the helm of the best (and most hated) team of the early 70s, Leeds United, crowned by the talent of the factory. Peter Morgan (The Crown). Available on Movistar+.
The eleven titles have been chosen for their availability on the platforms, which is why some very original titles that cannot yet be seen are left on the bench, such as that work of art by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno designed to be projected in museums, with 16 cameras following to an icon: Zidane, a portrait of the 21st century; the troubles of a Buddhist monk boy to see his idol Ronaldo in The cup; the powerful portrait of the scourge of ultra fanaticism in football, the British ID Identification; the most recent recreations of historical football moments such as The miracle of Bern (the 1954 World Cup that Germany beat Hungary) or United (the tragic plane crash of Manchester United in Munich in 1957) or the first great documentary on football, avant-garde and youthful at the same time: Garrincha, joy of the povo. All of them would also deserve to be on this team that headlines extraordinary football movies.
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