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Love Means Zero
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Love Means Zero
IDFA 2017

Love Means Zero

Jason Kohn
United States
2017
90 min
Dutch Premiere
Festival history

Why did tennis coach Nick Bollettieri tell a journalist for USA Today that he had ended his working relationship with Andre Agassi even before Agassi knew anything about it? It's a question even Bollettieri himself seems unable to answer. "Was it a mistake? Absolutely. Why did I do it? No idea. That’s Nick." The resulting sour relationship with his most successful student—Agassi never wants to see him again, even refusing to cooperate with this film—is the focal point of this portrait of the cocky coach who attracted a lot of attention in the 1980s with his unorthodox approach. Using a controversial method aimed at developing a hard-headed winning mentality, he transformed young up-and-coming players into great champions, including Jim Courier, Venus and Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Monica Seles. Love Means Zero combines archive material of legendary tennis matches and critical interviews with Bollettieri himself, former students and employees. We also hear from Boris Becker, who called on Bollettieri to beat his archival Agassi—rubbing even more salt in the wound.

Credits
Director
Production
    Jason Kohn,
    Amanda Branson Gill,
    Anne White,
    Jill Mazursky,
    David Styne
Cinematography
    Eduardo Mayen
    Eduardo Mayen
Editing
Screening copy
    Kilo Films
    Kilo Films
Music
    Jonathan Sadoff
    Jonathan Sadoff