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keep some perspective, but Owen works very well in our story. And it proves the point in a way, because after that match against Argentina he has become a worldwide superstar.”
Where previous films, including Hero which Maylam also directed, had big name actors sup- plying a commentary, the director envisages Striker! differently.
“What we’re doing this time is using an awful lot of live radio commentaries from around the world, because there’s that sort of excitement that you get from radio commentaries that you don’t get from television. We’re going to use them as sound effects, so we might have three or four dif-
ferent languages going on at the same time, with maybe some English commentary coming through as well. They’re very emotive, and do tend to high- light the skill factor.”
And skill has not been in short supply dur- ing the 98 World Cup, as players like Ronaldo and Bergkamp lit up individual games with a moment of brilliance. It is this kind of magic that clearly delights Maylam and brings out the foot- ball fan in him too.
“Seeing these guys under a microscope is fas- cinating,” he continues. “I was looking at some Ronaldo footage from the Chile game. And most of the time the Chilean defender who was mark- ing him was just chatting with Ronaldo. They were having a little laugh together. That to me was a little insight, something that you would never see on television.
“And also when you’ve got a camera on someone’s face, and it’s running at 50 frames a second, it tells you an awful lot. Like when
Baggio went up for that penalty in Italy’s first game, after he’d failed in the shoot-out at the end of the last World Cup. Imagine having a camera absolutely on his face, in slow motion, as he had to make the decision of whether or not he would take the penalty. His hands were on his knees he was staring at the ground, and all his team mates were milling around him.
“The look on his face before he took it, then when he did take it and scored, was incredible. The emotion is extraordinary sometimes and that’s something we can do in a movie that tele- vision can’t - taking the viewer inside the match, and putting them alongside these won- derful players.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
Striker!, was originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture Negative.