“If you wonder what has changed in our country since the 1950s, just look at the photos of Franz Beckenbauer year after year. We can read there the transformations of the country. » It’s the German actor Matthias Brandt who says it.
And Matthias Brandt continues: “ I don’t mean that he was an opportunist. It was rather a kind of synchronized progress. I have the impression that he was very receptive to the spirit of the times. He had a gift for capturing it, absorbing it. And feed on it to fuel your own evolution. »
Born in 1945 in a modest or even poor district of Munich, the Kaiser embodied the power of Teutonic Football in the seventies. Bust straight, head held high… “ He was elegant. He wasn’t sweating. Or at least it wasn’t visible. Everything seemed easy for him. » But he was also an advertising staromnipresent in the media and on TV.
Nourished by numerous interviews (his brother Walter, Michel Platini, Didier Deschamps, Edwin Moses, Christian Petzold…) and a huge bundle of stock images including very tasty and vintage advertisements, the documentary series in three episodes by Torsten Körner (you can’t make this up) tells the story of the kid who let out his first cries at the end of the war., the son of an office director position who didn’t like football. A destiny which has married that of the Federal Republic of Germany. And one of the most beautiful lists of the History of Football.
With Bayern, of which he ended up president and where he signed up at the age of 13 after being asked by a player from Munich 1860 whom he was supposed to join, Beckenbauer won four championships and as many German Cups, three Champion Club Cups ( the ancestor of the Champions League) and a Cup of Cups. But Franz also won three North American titles with the New York Cosmos and a fifth Bundesliga with Hamburg. He collected successes with the Mannschaft and won the most prestigious individual trophies. Winner of the Euro in 1972 and world champion as a player in 1974 then as coach in 1990 (only the Brazilian Mário Zagallo and the French Didier Deschamps have achieved this feat), Franz Beckenbauer was rewarded with two Golden Balls (in 1972 and 1976).
Tasty, The Last Emperor (a nod to Bernardo Bertolucci) does not shy away from disappointments and rumors of corruption. The documentary focuses in particular on the cruel finale of the 1966 World Cup and the unfortunate half lost 4-3 in extra time against Italy, four years later, which Beckenbauer finished with his arm in a sling due to a broken collarbone. From another time…
