Original subtitles

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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