Gazza's Soccer School

Words cannot express the subversive delights of this short film, which cleverly masquerades as a "soccer" instruction video. However, under this bleak and common exterior lurks a classic example of 1990's post-modern parody and Godard-esque technique.

While football icon Gascoigne is portrayed as a drunken Northern English soccer yob, it is this one-dimensional exterior that in my opinion emphasizes the multi-faceted and cunning personality of this artistic genius. This is not a mere soccer instruction film: viewers should note the stunning Bazinian attention to detail on deep focus, perfectly illustrated by the amazing cinematography on the sequence "Part Two: Passing". At times the camera is almost rooted to the floor, and this short film recalls mid period Godard in its attention to rustic detail and long take.

I would thoroughly recommend the viewing of this video: it quite frankly is a disgrace that the Academy snubbed this film for an Oscar when it was released in 1991, but, as all educated film "readers" like myself know, since when did an Oscar mean anything?

A masterpiece of the suspense genre, full of Hitchcockian off-screen manipulation, and Gazza himself appears in his own film in a Hitchcock-esque cameo- see if you can spot the man during "Part One-Turning on the Ball". It's admittedly quite hard.

BUY THIS FILM IMMEDIATELY AND CONSIGN "PSYCHO", "CITIZEN KANE" AND "PULP FICTION" TO THE CIRCULAR FILE.