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Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Euro 2008 Film Festival: Group C, Italy



Film Festival Rules & Guidelines

Film selected (Year, Director): Summer Night (1986, Lina Wertmüller)
Rating: 5.5/10
Rules compliance: All rules met
Relevance to Soccer: Spying vs Scouting out players/teams

scout: To spy on or explore carefully in order to obtain information

It is a common sight to see soccer managers in opposing team's soccer stadiums watching their rivals in action. Usually one finds a soccer manager in attendance a week or two before his team will play their opponents. The opposing team are usually aware of the rival manager's presence and there are no secrets regarding his attending the game. Such acts are put under 'scouting' an opponent out and are an excepted part of the game. Regardless of the definition of 'scouting', I believe there is a fine line between 'scouting' and 'spying'. I would consider 'spying' as attempting to extract information without the rivals knowledge. But given how some teams manage to sign young players from under their rivals nose, I think this dividing line between 'scouting' and 'spying' is getting blurred each season. And with the huge amounts of money available in the modern game, the ruthless need to find talent is only going to eventually turn 'scouting' fully into 'spying'.

The Italian film Summer Night deals firmly with spies. In the story, a rich woman hires a network of spies to kidnap a gangster and keep him hostage. She wants to teach the gangster a lesson and through torture plans to extract some information & retrieve all the money he has stolen from her friends.


Although the gangster is a hostage, his treatment gets better as the film moves along. Gradually his chains are loosened to a point where he can derive sexual pleasure while feasting on gourmet meals.

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