From Strangers on a Train to Match Point, the two-way, sunstruck intensity of the game is made for cinema
We’re in the thick of Wimbledon, which leads me to think, as I do while watching any tennis tournament, of what a strangely cinematic sport it is – so variable in its rhythms and moods, and intensely character-driven in a way team sports can’t quite manage. So why has tennis always drawn the short straw when it comes to film? Relative to other sports of equivalent popularity, there’s a notable shortage of classic tennis-oriented films – and in the best of them, the sport often plays a supporting role.
In Alfred Hitchcock’s brilliant, slithery 1951 adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train (YouTube), changing the protagonist’s occupation from architect to tennis player perfectly upped the well-bred, clean-cut image that set off the moral murk of the plot – and allowed Hitchcock to stage a tight, tense tennis-match set piece. Woody Allen’s Match Point (2005; Google Play) similarly contrasted clean-starched on-court decorum against noir-y misbehaviour, to somewhat wobblier effect.