‘John McEnroe: In The Realm of Perfection’ to Debut on Wednesday at Film Forum
On Wednesday, “John McEnroe: In The Realm of Perfection” will debut in New York at Film Forum.
Written and directed by Julian Faraut and narrated by Mathieu Amalric, the film revisits the rich bounty of 16-mm-shot footage and examines the left-handed tennis star John McEnroe, the world’s top-ranked player at the time, as he competes at Roland Garros during the 1984 French Open.
Close-ups and slow motion sequences of McEnroe competing, as well as instances of his notorious temper tantrums, highlight a “man who played on the edge of his senses.”
Far from a traditional documentary, Faraut probes the archival film to unpack both McEnroe’s attention to thesport and the footage itself, creating a lively and immersive look at a driven athlete, a study on the sport of tennis and the human body and movement, and finally how these all intersect with cinema itself.
“Vibrant…a fascinating essay on the kinship between tennis and filmmaking… Elegant, witty, and thoughtful… A lovely meditation on time and movement, dedication and obsession, image and perception… Imagines [McEnroe] as a true auteur of the tennis court,” said Variety’s Jessica Kiang.
After debuting at the Film Forum on Wednesday, August 22, the film will be shown at Laemmle’s Royal Theatre in Los Angeles, Calif. before expanding nationally.
For screeners or press inquiries, please contact Sydney Tanigawa at sydney@oscilloscope.net or Adam Walker at adam@filmforum.org.
