European Films

At the beginning of the documentary, Poulet explains his subject how a super 8 camera works and briefs him to film "anything that you think is interesting". This turns out to include Dhorasoo’s fascination with hotel corridors. "There is a lot more going on here than in my room," he explains at one point. The film also briefly shows the player's return to the French coastal town Le Havre where he grew up and went to a school right next to the football stadium ("very practical" he remarks) before going to Germany, where shots of planes, hotels and buses tell his story, since he only played a total of 16 minutes during the World Cup. 

Initially hopeful and excited about the Cup, Dhorasoo becomes increasingly frustrated by trainer Raymond Domenech’s decision to not let him play. Initially this translates simply to more shots of hotel corridors, but after some gentle prodding by Poulet he starts using his audio recording equipment to reflect on his own situation (Super 8 does not have sound, so images and sound are often unrelated, unless a separate audio recording was made at the same time as the images were shot). The vocal ruminations give a startling insight in the mind of a sidelined top athlete in general and Dhorasoo’s personality in particular.

Substitute's footage is often grainy and out of focus, as is usual with Super 8, complementing the increasingly personal thoughts of the player. Poulet and Dhorasoo have found exactly the right balance between voice-overs illustrated with moving pictures and moving pictures commented on by voice-over, and the film becomes surprisingly poignant towards the end. Several appropriate songs are also part of the soundtrack, including The Who’s The Substitute, which presumably gave this French documentary its English title.

This film was screened as part of the 2007 Berlin Film Festival. 

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