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Friday, March 02, 2012

Forza Bastia

Jacques Tati's last directed work was a football film!

Tati directed Forza Bastia, a 26 minute documentary, in 1978 but the film only surfaced in 2001 thanks to his daughter Sophie Tatischeff. The film was shown at the Kicking + Screening Soccer Film Festival in Amsterdam 2011 and can currently be viewed online in its entirety.

It is a remarkable film that shows the excitement in Bastia leading up to their first leg of the 1978 UEFA Cup final against PSV Eindhoven. Tati's focus is on the dedicated and loyal fans, showing their pre-game rituals along with their tension and anxiety during the game. There are some amazing sounds captured of the game itself which was played out on a water logged pitch and ended 0-0. Overall, this film is a great treasure not only of football's history but of cinema itself.

For the record, PSV won the second leg 3-0 to win the 1978 UEFA Cup.

2 comments:

Sam Juliano said...

Yes the excitement in this wonderful short is palpable. What a great discovery too by Tati's daughter, and how great this must be for soccer fans who are surely honored by such a supreme artist chronicling the game and the cultural kinship. Terrific post Sachin, and hope many others put aside a few minutes to be ravished.

Sachin said...

Thanks Sam. It is quite fortunate that his daughter was able to edit and present this short to the world a year before she passed away. So Tati's last directorial effort was not lost.