All language subtitles for John McEnroe In The Realm Of Perfection (2018)en

Initially,
the feet are parallel to the baseline.

As soon as the movement begins,

an Astonishing rotation
of the arm and forearm

turns the racket through more than
180 degrees on its longitudinal axis.

In the armed position, knees are bent

and the shoulder and arm line
is nearly vertical.

Relaxing the knees
and shifting the shoulders

helps increase the speed of the racket

as it begins to go down the player's back.

The undulation travels like a whipcrack
until the ball is hit,

with the arm not fully extended

nor the handle aligned with the forearm,

unlike most great servers.

The shoulders are not yet facing again
when the ball is hit.

The efficiency comes not only from
the speed with which the ball is hit

nor the speed or variety of placing,

but also from its unpredictable nature.

McEnroe's movement doesn't let
opponents guess where the ball will go.

What's more,
his speed in coming up close to the net

gives him angles to play with,

without even having to volley.

TECHNICAL SEQUENCES

So we were waiting, well, I was waiting...

for the signal to come through -

for the game to be over
and the players sitting down -

so the spectators would be moving.

So we were...
I was always a bit tense because it was...

it's the closest spot,

closest to the court,
closest to the players.

So we moved forward...

I set up my tripod.

I always filmed with a tripod, trying...

not to get in the way.

To be at the right height.
There I'm on the flowers,

which are just in front of me.

And we were surrounded by photographers...

who also had big cameras
with long focal lenses.

I think that's also what...

what you look for...

when you're filming.

The sort of ideal spot.

With no tricks, no big movements...

you describe a presence,

an action, a movement.

That's the spot, I think,
at Roland Garros.

Of course you don't see...

you don't see both players.

You don't see the match.

You don't see the rallies.

You just see one player.

Indeed, it seems
he's playing against himself.

You see the strength in tennis.

Game, McEnroe.

Two games all, first set.

In the range of shots
played beyond the baseline,

his strong point is never violence,
but variety.

His elastic defense
is only ever temporary,

always watching for a short enough ball
to give his best game.

This desire to vary rate and effects
in baseline exchanges...

is particularly visible at backhand

where slices and lifts alternate
almost systematically,

though the play situations
may not be any different.

This mix shows the attention
he gives to each shot

without ever taking the easy route
of a stereotypical movement.

That is probably one of the ways
he makes his opponents feel insecure.

As tennis began
to be broadcast more and more

and Roland Garros was seen worldwide,

with ever costlier television rights,

our little spot for filming those shots
for Gil's films

got smaller and smaller.

At one point,
the Federation even made him this offer:

"French television has 20 cameras
around the courts.

The Americans too.
Just use those pictures.

The television companies
will give them to you, just use them."

He was beside himself.

He said, "They don't understand
I don't do the same job.

They don't understand what I'm doing.

I'm making a film."

That made him really furious.

What he wanted was very precise.

I think he was more interested
in the players than the match.

It bore no relation
to live television coverage.

And indeed, I don't believe
Gil watched tennis on television at all.

He wasn't interested.

Sober and varied,

applied and imaginative:

People were bound to like McEnroe's game.

And the better placed the ball,

the more efficiently he hit it.

Drop shots were one of his major weapons.

Forehand, when his movement
gave away his intention,

it was already too late.

His attack position
suggested something quite different.

Backhand, the surprise was
if anything even more total,

since it was entirely unpredictable.

15-40.

Go and check. The mark is on the line.

It's in. No, the ball is in. Please.

15-40.

We count in points, games,

sets, and match.

The first point is called 15.

The second, 30. The third, 40.
And the fourth, game.

To win a game, you have to have at least
four points and a two-point lead.

The server's points
are always given first.

Love-15.

When each player has won a point,

the announcer says...

Fifteen all.

If each player has scored three points,
it is called deuce.

40 all!

The player who next wins a point
has the advantage.

They may go back to deuce
by losing the next point

or win the game by winning it.

To win a set, you must win six games
and be two games ahead.

When the players reach a score
of six games each,

a seven-point decider is played,
called a tiebreak,

to finish the set.

To win a match, women must win two sets

and men must win three sets,
at least at Roland Garros.

15 all.

30-15.

Quiet, please.

Please.

The photographers will kindly leave.
Thank you.

Five games all, second set.

I used to think,
I'll have a rest in the pit,

but you don't get any rest there.

In that hole,

you're careful about the balls,

you're a little bit afraid.

When we were shooting in 16-mm,

it was a place where we could
change our cassettes peacefully

in the changing bag, in the cool darkness.

It was less risky than outside.

The Arri SR made a lot of noise...

in that hole, that pit.

It was resonant, I felt a bit ashamed.

It wasn't that easy,
actually you had to impose yourself.

But I did have a bit of difficulty

because sometimes
the photographers could see

that I had nothing to do with photography.

I used to get ahead of things
before the matches.

I set the equipment up,

I plugged it in and well,
there were no problems.

I don't know why, but it was especially
the microphone's windscreen

which, I suppose, must have intrigued him.

There were often players
who would go after...

Not just him.

There were several players
that went after the crowd.

It was a nervous thing with them,

and that time it happened
that the windscreen intrigued him.

He asked the umpire,
who was just in front of me...

to put an end to the recording.

He replied
that it was out of the question,

I wasn't intruding on court,

and so there was no problem

that could make him forbid it.

And then he came back to it
two or three times,

then he blew up.

They tried to put a sound blimp
on the camera each time,

to cut the sound made by the reel spinning

at 120 images per second for slow motion.

They put on a sound blimp,

and sometimes over that
they put a coat or a jacket,

but the sound still came out.

Through the lens. So you heard...

on the court,

as soon as it was switched on
to capture a movement.

A 16-mm Arriflex High Speed
going at 120 images/second

makes a noise.

And when you're in
an entirely silent stadium -

since there is no noise
during tennis rallies -

you can imagine.

Game, McEnroe.

40-0.

30 all.

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

The codification...

of feelings on a sports ground

is pretty banal.

That is, they are positive feelings,
those of a fighting spirit.

But this player doesn't bring that,
he brings negative feelings.

And so, for some of the spectators...

it seems so out of line
with what we usually see

or expect to see on a sports ground,

that we're - and I think this explains
why we may even laugh sometimes -

we think it's someone
who is absolutely not under control.

Someone who is completely out of line
with feelings that will let him win.

Except that in fact,
those aren't pleasant moments for him,

but they were things
he managed to turn to his advantage.

And I'm not sure the spectators
could necessarily be aware of it.

Because the spectators will go along
with feelings of joy,

combativeness, fury...

Feelings considered to be positive:

personal achievement, pushing your limits...

The idea of personal achievement
thanks to anger or rage,

when you have the impression
a sportsman is exploding inwardly,

we say, "He's got a problem,
he can't win like that."

Yes, he could!

Most other players or athletes,
if they give way to feelings of anger,

soon become violent,

and it's very difficult to rev up...

and be in a storm of emotional agitation,

be filled with anger, rage,
and even violence,

and remain productive.

It is extremely difficult.

And coming back down again quickly

and remaining lucid
where strategy is concerned

is extremely hard.

Not only is it not exportable,

it's more or less destined to fail
in most cases.

Logically, an efficient model
is feelings under control.

In McEnroe's case,

it seems he can open the door
and let the lion out of the cage,

express himself, shout,

and remain efficient.

Logically impossible.

Deuce.

So when you are a perfectionist
and very demanding with yourself,

you tend to project

and expect others around you
to be just as invested as you.

So he feels a referee doesn't really know,

he's hesitant,

people are approximative,

amateurish, those that are around him,

including the referees
who are there to judge,

and that causes
almost uncontrollable rage.

How can I, who am so invested
and put in so much effort

and come here
with such a perfect performance,

be judged and deceived

by someone who just
isn't demanding enough himself,

not precise enough, not good enough?

That causes - for McEnroe
and a certain number of athletes -

feelings of injustice and anger,

and for McEnroe they weren't
necessarily under control.

Can you show the mark?

There. No, it's behind.

No, not you.

What's happening in that player's head,

we can't get to it.

It's a match against himself.

Perfectionists don't only play
against others, or a chronometer.

A real perfectionist is someone who seeks

something along the lines
of a culmination of performance,

be it the moves made,
the quality, everything.

So there's a struggle against oneself
which is very much there too.

Emphasis is sometimes put on a point
that may seem anecdotal,

but it comes barging into his own story,

in the match against himself,

little approximations -
a referee's approximations -

may lead him to lose control.

And it's true that theoretically,

as part of mental preparation
in particular,

sports people are taught
to think about the manageable factors,

that is to say all the things
they can manage themselves on court,

and let go of those they can't
in order to stay in the present

in such a way as to have
stable intensity and concentration.

McEnroe does seem to be
into ultra-control.

He has to control everything,
and if anything escapes him,

he flies into a fury.

Game, McEnroe.

McEnroe's art
is thus largely one of camouflage.

But it's also an art of sensitivity,

the right decision at the right moment.

So up to the net he goes,

after a lag time aimed
at weighing up if it is a good idea,

and also surprising his opponent.

This desire
to constantly muddy the waters,

to turn everything into a fight
between two people's intelligence,

is no doubt the most original mark

John McEnroe will have left
on modern tennis.

Very often there are...

If you look at the very strong motors
behind fulfillment and excelling oneself,

there are stories
that go back to childhood

and the family setting,

and what happened around issues of love
and attachment.

Does anyone love me? Will anyone love me?

Will I be admired, recognized?

Will I be valued within my family?

Or more rooted in fear: Will I lose?

Will people stop loving me if I lose,

if I perform less well?

Those are motors or brakes, or both.

Sometimes it's very ambivalent,

with a big contrast between that fear,

which can create abnormal desire,

because playing high-level sport

is to my mind something "abnormal,"
psychically speaking,

an investment that isn't "normal,"

a relationship to suffering
that isn't normal,

to excelling oneself, to willpower,

the rage to always do better,
to go back over again

in order to face all sorts of tests...

It isn't "normality."

So there are often things that have
happened, psychically, in childhood

which, too, aren't normal
in the way they're interpreted.

And from those sometimes contrasting,
violent feelings

is born a desire for fulfillment
or reparation

which expresses itself in top-class sport.

McEnroe wins the first set
six games to three.

40-30.

Game and second set, McEnroe.

Game, McEnroe.

One game all.

Third set, Lendl.

Game, Lendl.

Four games all.

Deuce.

Just a light watering, please.

Could you please confirm the mark?

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