Germany, soccer World Cup 2006. One of the biggest sports events on earth with over one billion spectators glued to the screen or live at the stadiums. In the final, Italy beats France, while Zinedine Zidane is responsible for the biggest scandal of the championship. Afterwards, more people seem to be talking about this incident than about the World Cup itself. In Fred Poulet's film Substitute, none of these events play a dominant role. Although his film at first glance seems to be about the competition and one man's experience with it, it is in fact much more than simply an account of a story the public is already aware of. But it is also not an investigation into the secret machinations that go on in the background of such a big event, it doesn't postulate to enlighten and reveal to us the secret scheme of things. Although there are plenty of revelations, there won't be any explanations, and no easy answers to be found. What this film achieves on a minor level is maybe of more importance. In the style of a personal essay of say a Chris Marker, the inner and the outer world meet through the eyes of a protagonist who is struggling to stay in touch with the life around him and trying to make sense of it through the use of his camera. Vikash Dhorasoo, an important pillar of the french team during the qualifications for the championship, was on the pitch for just 16 minutes during the entire tournament. As a substitute, he filmed the moments that seemed important to him, and if he felt like talking about the circumstances and contemplating his fate the camera was often chosen as his dialog partner. In one scene Dhorasoo is talking about his fate looking into a mirror and filming himself - one of many attempts to grasp a reality that is beyond him. This concept of filming was established before the beginning of the World Cup by artistic director Fred Poulet who offered Dhorasoo the possibility of making a film about his life during the upcoming weeks. None of them knew what would happen beforehand, and the often improvised shootings underline the honest approach to a personal report. The movie begins and ends with Dhorasoo at his home. At first he - and thus also the viewer - is introduced to the super 8 camera and the way it operates. We see him how he sees us, and the look through the objective as the modus vivendi is established. What follows are hotel rooms, airports, soccer fields, and a talk with the neighbors by Poulet who has also filmed a small part of the material that was finally used (much more was actually shot). After the journey Dhorasoo and the viewer have become a bit older and wiser, exhausted from the experience and disappointed with the course of events. Although there has been a difference between the expectant protagonist and the viewer who already knows the outcome of the game, the shared experience of the film unites them. What remains is the film itself, and the unpredictability of life, which will continue.
Despite being a part of the film's main focus, one could complain about the over indulgence with the main character's problem of self-esteem or the many repetitions throughout the film. But what prevails is the richness of the material, a sense of wonder and increasing excitement as the camera replaces the ball and reveals a world outside of the soccer field in a system that opens up spaces of thought and experience rather than closing them of. Although it denies the viewer many of the usual pleasures of a narrative based documentary, the chosen substitute more than makes up for it. The film is about Vikash Dhorasoo as well as told from his perspective, and the movie he is making proves to be an important emotional support in the face of the exclusion from the soccer matches and the search for an adequate feeling of sense and belonging. But the title of the film offers yet another reading. For me the actual hero of the film and the main attraction were the super 8 camera and the film material itself. The grainy stock with the washed-out colors and the impossibility of keeping anything in focus was approached with a welcome carelessness and an attitude of exploration mixed with an attention to detail and a patient perseverance in the observation. The innovative editing counterpointed moments of contemplation and stasis with a a swift montage of "attractions" and the use of ellipses as a dominant principle in the narrative, creating an experimental poem of shadow and light in an exchange of rhythm and sound that was reminiscent of a number of avant-garde movements from the 20th century to which it owes a lot. The long traveling shot at the end of the film, when Dhorasoo keeps moving through a seemingly endless corridor after the last match of the competition, is exemplary of this approach to filmmaking that defies the external circumstances which bind us in our everyday reality, and emphasizes man's creative expression through art, and the possibility of achieving a different reality of our own. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.
Despite being a part of the film's main focus, one could complain about the over indulgence with the main character's problem of self-esteem or the many repetitions throughout the film. But what prevails is the richness of the material, a sense of wonder and increasing excitement as the camera replaces the ball and reveals a world outside of the soccer field in a system that opens up spaces of thought and experience rather than closing them of. Although it denies the viewer many of the usual pleasures of a narrative based documentary, the chosen substitute more than makes up for it. The film is about Vikash Dhorasoo as well as told from his perspective, and the movie he is making proves to be an important emotional support in the face of the exclusion from the soccer matches and the search for an adequate feeling of sense and belonging. But the title of the film offers yet another reading. For me the actual hero of the film and the main attraction were the super 8 camera and the film material itself. The grainy stock with the washed-out colors and the impossibility of keeping anything in focus was approached with a welcome carelessness and an attitude of exploration mixed with an attention to detail and a patient perseverance in the observation. The innovative editing counterpointed moments of contemplation and stasis with a a swift montage of "attractions" and the use of ellipses as a dominant principle in the narrative, creating an experimental poem of shadow and light in an exchange of rhythm and sound that was reminiscent of a number of avant-garde movements from the 20th century to which it owes a lot. The long traveling shot at the end of the film, when Dhorasoo keeps moving through a seemingly endless corridor after the last match of the competition, is exemplary of this approach to filmmaking that defies the external circumstances which bind us in our everyday reality, and emphasizes man's creative expression through art, and the possibility of achieving a different reality of our own. Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.
