43. Senna (Asif Kapadia, 2010)
An appreciation or knowledge of motor racing isnt necessarily needed to enjoy this fast-paced biopic, for the sport comes second to the subject. Three-time World Champion Ayrton Senna was a man led not only by his love for racing, but also his faith and patriotism, as evidenced by the millions he donated to his native Brazil. Just stopping short of hagiography, Kapadia nevertheless rings a halo over his subjects head. Whilst at McLaren, a collision with teammate Alain Prost ruled in favour of the latter and Senna was disqualified; his furious reaction created a much-publicised rivalry, with not only Prost but also FISA President Jean Marie Balestre, both of whom are unwittingly, and perhaps unfairly, cast as villains of the piece. In April 1994, following the accident that killed Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger, Senna campaigned for a safer Formula One, and so it was all the more poignant to discover that, less than twenty fours hour later, Sennas car had lost control of the track and crashed into the surrounding concrete barrier. The foreshadowing with which many of the featured talking heads speak of Tamburello corner (the curve in the Imola course on which Senna had left the track) does create an uneasy sense of dramatic irony. Senna had expressed his discomfort with the handling of the car, as well as warning others of a season with a lot of accidents, but Kapadia sensitively stays clear from making the drivers death the focal point of his film. Instead, its a touching tribute to one of the sports most loved and lauded talents.
42. The Devil & Daniel Johnston (Jeff Feuerzeig, 2005)
American singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston is a life played out in countless notepad drawings and lyrics, Super-8 and audio tapes. Such creative overspill may seem a desirable product of his bipolar disorder, but this is counterbalanced with an almost overwhelming melancholia. His high-pitched wailing and sparse acoustic guitar/keyboard, coupled with his constant digressions straddle the line between music and performance art. His approach to marketing his debut album, entitled "Hi, How Are You?" involved personally delivering the tapes to local bands and radio stations. Incredibly, a lot of these tapes were originals which meant that the only way he could duplicate them was to sing them from scratch the next day. While at university in Ohio, he fell in love with a girl called Laurie Allen. This attraction was unrequited (or at the very least misconstrued) as, after Laurie finally acquiesced to her pursuers plea to say I love you into his camera lens, she had no idea just how treasured that tape would become. Johnston claims he has written over a thousand songs for her. In the mid-Eighties, Johnson was granted a wider audience when the MTV cameras came to report on Austins burgeoning indie scene. This fleeting touch of fame only cemented his belief that he was a world-class musician, a belief this documentary does little to dispel. Johnston can be an exhausting host at times following his thoughts is like directing traffic - but theres much to love in Feuerzeigs honest, heartrending portrait.
41. Winnebago Man (Ben Steinbauer, 2009)
Will you do me a kindness? Google the name "Jack Rebney" and youll find the host of 80s Winnebago infomercials and owner of an incredible potty mouth. His outtakes were almost always marked by him barking obscenities at all around him. If he fluffed his lines, he swore. If the RV door wouldnt open, he swore. And for twenty years, these recordings never saw the light of day, but after slowly spreading onto VHS, they appeared on YouTube and subsequently went viral. Steinbauer, obsessed with the clip, recruits a private detective to help him find the mystery man losing his marbles in a mobile home. And so he meets Rebney at his California home. Articulate, mild-mannered and unperturbed by his Internet fame, Rebney isnt perhaps the volcano Steinbauer had envisaged. So, it comes as some relief to learn that a tantrum isnt too far awaySteinbauer is granted a second interview, in which Rebney admits to being a tad dishonest in their first encounter. While he laments that he has been defined by the Winnebago clip, we find that theres still much that riles him about contemporary America. The director persuades him to attend the Found Footage Festival in San Francisco, where a screening of the original clip has sold out to an audience of hundreds (mostly, unsurprisingly, students). At times, its difficult to tell whether Rebneys misanthropy is an act, but his fans certainly arent complaining.