“Twelve Final Days” was intended as a personal souvenir. Now the former tennis star has released the material for publication. Tissue alert.
“I’m an emotional guy.” Roger will be celebrated at his farewell tournament in London in September 2022.
Julian Finney / Getty
The Kleenex are at hand. Roger Federer wants to get it over with. He hopes he won’t need the tissues, says the retiring tennis star, while the microphone is being installed on the table in front of him. “But I’m an emotional guy.” Tears would not be surprising on this September 14, 2022: Roger Federer is recording the resignation statement, which he will publish on Instagram the following day.
Asif Kapadia captured the moment in “Twelve Final Days”. The documentary focuses on Federer’s final days as a tennis professional. The British director accompanied the Swiss from the announcement of his retirement to his final walk back to the dressing room (at the Laver Cup in London). Roger Federer: the outro.
Federer announced beforehand that the film was originally intended as a home video. He commissioned a souvenir from Kapadia, the Oscar-winning biographical specialist (“Amy,” “Senna”). But we all know the feeling: you’re so proud of your family album that you’d like to show it to the whole world? So why not make it public?
You watch from voyeurism
There is nothing in the material that could violate Federer’s privacy. Of course, that is disappointing at first. After all, one watches a cinematic home story out of profane voyeurism: a star promises to show himself in a more private way than ever before. The fan expects moments that will make his idol seem even closer to him. But even if Asif Kapadia had “full access” to Federer, everyone involved is unfortunately trying not to overdo it with the incursion into his private life.
The viewer at least gets a small glimpse into the life of a normal tennis god. Federer briefly with the children; Federer is intimate with Mirka; Federer is sweet with his dog (a cross between a Labrador Retriever and a standard poodle). From the fan’s point of view, that’s not nothing. Anyone who is interested will find everything interesting.
Is this the view from Federer’s living room over Lake Zurich? Is Anna Wintour really calling Federer’s manager to tell him how much Roger’s retirement hurts her? Or maybe we’ll even be allowed into the dressing room during the final performance, where King Roger is just pulling up his socks!
Absurd? Yes, but the more absurd, the better. The best scenes are those in which the significance of the moment is resolved in the most succinct way possible. Specifically: Federer wants to post his resignation speech on Instagram, but first he has to find his wife. “We just have to post quickly,” he calls his wife, who has disappeared into the next room. “Come on, let’s do it quickly.”
Of course it is banal
Is this a good film, and does it even matter? Roger Federer always works, and the challenge is minimal in terms of filmmaking anyway: you can always put a few of his amazing shots together to make a clip, that’s all you need. There is never a reason not to watch a film about Roger Federer. No matter how banal it is. And of course this one is banal enough.
Roger Federer is a tennis player. At the risk of being guilty of lèse majesté: Like pretty much every other sportsman, Federer has rarely said a meaningful sentence. This is not only his fault: the respect for Federer’s sporting achievements is so great that in his almost quarter-century-long career he has hardly been bothered with any significant questions (for example, about his winter residence in homophobic Dubai).
Naturally, it never even occurs to house photographer Asif Kapadia to cast a critical eye on Federer. Accordingly, these “Twelve Final Days” are as harmless as possible. The most controversial thing about them is how the title-giving twelve days are calculated from the letter of resignation on September 14th to the last match on September 23rd.
Nothing works here without Kleenex: «Twelve Final Days» is a real tearjerker.
Imago
But that is not the deciding factor in the match. What matters to Kapadia are the emotions. He describes “Twelve Final Days” as “weepy”, a tearjerker. This much can be revealed: Federer doesn’t stand a chance in the fight against the tears. But Nadal also shakes it up at his farewell tournament in London. You even think you see Roger’s nemesis Novak Djokovic cry a little. And even the tough Mirka Federer breaks down completely at the end. The film is first shown in cinemas in Zurich before being put up on Amazon next week. Here and there, viewers should have their Kleenex ready.
2024-06-14 03:30:00
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