I remember in the film 'A French Mistress', there is a scene where most of the boys are watching the teacher of the tile play tennis while this one nerdy boy's head is going back and forth watching for her opponent!
The best tennis scene that I can think of is actually from the Anime "DeathNote" I know that sounds strange but it's really quite a wonderful depiction of the meta-game surrounding L and Light in the series.
Rozenkrantz & Guildenstern are Dead has excellent rhetorical tennis, but the best scene featuring tennis is Ken Foree up on the roof in the Original Dawn of the Dead. It can be argued that he's actually playing squash but in reality he's just so very alone.
The best for tension has to be Strangers On A Train. In another Hitchcock film, Dial M For Murder the Ray Milland character is an ex tennis player but I don't recall any tennis in the film
M. Hulot's Holiday is the funniest and there's a humorous sequence in School For Scoundrels too.
I thought Match Point was ok but not as good as Annie Hall where Woody meets Diane after playing a tennis match.
I also dig Wimbledon quite a bit more, but Strangers on a Train has the best use of tennis. In fact, that's the only exciting game of tennis I've ever seen.
I could be misremembering, but don't Rozencrantz and Guildenstern play 'tennis' by knocking back and forth questions in R&G are dead? That's a great scene.
Although not a movie about tennis, who can forget the classic moment in John Landis' Trading Places when we are introduced to a group of Yuppies at their local tennis club with the line "and she stepped on the ball". I think it's worth mentioning.
Would Strangers on a Train count? Farley Granger's character is a tennis player and Hitchcock sets the amazing sequence where the crowd is following the tennis ball and Robert Walker is staring straight ahead at Granger. Hitchcock uses the tennis game as a metaphor for the battle of wits between the two men.
3 that come to mind: Strangers on a Train, Pat & Mike (Hepburn & Tracy), and a great sequence in The Witches of Eastwick where the ball magically slows down. I don't think there are any movies which are exclusively about Tennis, like there are boxing or baseball movies. Tennis may not be that interesting cinematically.
Like 'Blow-Up', I'm nominating a non tennis film, not really a film either;
'Death Note', a Japanese anime (I think it was a tv series) has a great tennis sequence where the two protagonists, pretending to be friends, have a mental battle transposed into a tennis match. Hard to explain but wonderfully shot and narrated.
When the question was asked the only film that I could think of was Wimbledon. It was a fairly throwaway romantic comedy but I quite enjoyed it. The characters were warm and there was some nice photography and scenes. I liked the Brighton sunsets.
Match Point was also decent but I wouldn't say it was a tennis movie other than the net-cord motif.
"Blow-Up" is simply weird. It has a great premise and intriguing main character, which is played powerfully and brilliantly. But it's poorly executed. The hippie mob has absolutely no purpose to the plot, other than to serve as a snapshot of the counter-culture movement of the period. The movie surely didn't age well.
@rcrocha In a way, that culture mob do fit in the movie's plot (or theme). The film is about things passing by and being forgotten. The very intriguing crime investigation keeps being forgotten by Thomas who is more interested in women and sex. A crowd fight over a broken guitar piece and the man that gets it simply throws it away immediately. And this culture of the 60s, totally encapsulated in the film, will also die out, become forgotten, and disappear like it was never there to begin with.
No-one at the time would ever imagine it, but I believe the 60's culture is more alive and thriving today than it ever was. This is what I mean when I mention that the movie didn't age well. Ultimately, if the purpose of the "hippie mob" is just to portray the ephemeral characteristic you mentioned, it's just a weak plot device.
Tennis, Anyone...? comes to mind but overall I would have to say Wimbledon. Since you mentioned Match Point, you should also ask how many films do you know where someone gets away with murder.
The Match: Federer vs. Nadal, 2008 Wimbledon Final.
fatman1001 7 months ago 2
I remember in the film 'A French Mistress', there is a scene where most of the boys are watching the teacher of the tile play tennis while this one nerdy boy's head is going back and forth watching for her opponent!
MsBkirk 7 months ago
Strangers on a train???
hazjones4 8 months ago
Not a Tennis movie but there was a great tennis sequence in Strangers on a Train. Added a lot of suspense
TheFlashsta 8 months ago
"A tennis pitch"
dsriggs 8 months ago
How about the greatest use of a tennis racquet in a fight scene - Steve Martin in Roxanne.
alx617 8 months ago
Frost Nixon.... two people battling back and forth.
playityourway 8 months ago
My favourite tennis movie is "Tennis, Anyone?" Jason Isaacs plays a narcissistic, venal actor and plays a mean game of tennis as well.
crawfoc99 8 months ago
The best tennis scene that I can think of is actually from the Anime "DeathNote" I know that sounds strange but it's really quite a wonderful depiction of the meta-game surrounding L and Light in the series.
Okay, i'll shut up now.
pingu130 8 months ago 2
This has been flagged as spam show
Trading Places - the brilliant heritage club singing scene!
TheAuthentics 8 months ago
Comment removed
TheAuthentics 8 months ago
With all the grunting that goes on in Wimbeldon, one may as well pick any prono.
TheInfinityParadox 8 months ago
School for Scoundrels 1960 version... all i can say is ...
"Hard Cheese"!
ashleywetherall 8 months ago 2
strangers on a train
s3snok 8 months ago
@s3snok Yep definitely.
rickyrockard 8 months ago
Rozenkrantz & Guildenstern are Dead has excellent rhetorical tennis, but the best scene featuring tennis is Ken Foree up on the roof in the Original Dawn of the Dead. It can be argued that he's actually playing squash but in reality he's just so very alone.
gigaloff 8 months ago 2
The best for tension has to be Strangers On A Train. In another Hitchcock film, Dial M For Murder the Ray Milland character is an ex tennis player but I don't recall any tennis in the film
M. Hulot's Holiday is the funniest and there's a humorous sequence in School For Scoundrels too.
I thought Match Point was ok but not as good as Annie Hall where Woody meets Diane after playing a tennis match.
cjknotty 8 months ago
Watching a grand-slam tennis final is more thrilling than the large majority of movies!
lordtufty 8 months ago
PIECES! The 1982 classic with some of the best tennis sequences I've ever seen.
Lilja124 8 months ago
how did i know blow up would turn up.
provenelk 8 months ago
Strangers on a Train
custommadename 8 months ago
The little bit in Alan Arkin's 1971 masterpiece Littler Murders has the most hilarious, god-awful display of tennis on film.
ksmred2 8 months ago
I also dig Wimbledon quite a bit more, but Strangers on a Train has the best use of tennis. In fact, that's the only exciting game of tennis I've ever seen.
mferkinwalter 8 months ago
Tennis ...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
InfiniteWhizBang 8 months ago
Balls Out! xD
ExtremeBogom 8 months ago
the whole tennis club section in the movie Fletch with Chevy Chase
multipleman78 8 months ago
What? There was some tennis in Match Point? Oh yes...just about.
martincrodgers 8 months ago
Guess I'll just have to wake up at tennish.
LePierre 8 months ago
I could be misremembering, but don't Rozencrantz and Guildenstern play 'tennis' by knocking back and forth questions in R&G are dead? That's a great scene.
GrandIntellect 8 months ago
Annie Hall!
winters0123 8 months ago
Aliens.
strontiumcrypt 8 months ago
Annie Hall
Mankysteve 8 months ago
Strangers on a train, Annie Hall, Gentlemen prefer blondes...
guely55 8 months ago
Although not a movie about tennis, who can forget the classic moment in John Landis' Trading Places when we are introduced to a group of Yuppies at their local tennis club with the line "and she stepped on the ball". I think it's worth mentioning.
Shay42 8 months ago
Strangers on a Train.
LoveOurOwnSong 8 months ago
tennis is used very nicely in the squid and the whale to illustrate the state of the family relationships between the central characters.
WeirdUniverse 8 months ago
Would Strangers on a Train count? Farley Granger's character is a tennis player and Hitchcock sets the amazing sequence where the crowd is following the tennis ball and Robert Walker is staring straight ahead at Granger. Hitchcock uses the tennis game as a metaphor for the battle of wits between the two men.
captain07234 8 months ago
Match Point works for me.
But seriously, "best tennis movies"? There are only about 5 movies that come to mind which even feature it to any prominent extent.
MrVinushka 8 months ago
Well, not the best tennis movie, but the best tennis sequence is from M. Hulot's Holiday by and starring Jacques Tati
GedUK 8 months ago 8
@GedUK The best movie is quoted in the title.
YouFoolWarrenIsDead 8 months ago
@YouFoolWarrenIsDead in what title? Besides, Wimbledon's not really about tennis so much as love and romance and stuff.
GedUK 8 months ago
3 that come to mind: Strangers on a Train, Pat & Mike (Hepburn & Tracy), and a great sequence in The Witches of Eastwick where the ball magically slows down. I don't think there are any movies which are exclusively about Tennis, like there are boxing or baseball movies. Tennis may not be that interesting cinematically.
dcs2011able 8 months ago
Well it's not a "tennis movie" ...but neither is blow-up...
fuck...I just saw that someone else beat me to it...
yup:
Strangers on a Train.
FilmFreak237 8 months ago
I like Wimbledon. James McAvoy is great.
Filmzie 8 months ago
I live next door to a tennis player.
pastrychef1985 8 months ago 2
@pastrychef1985 no you don't
nixsogutstudios 8 months ago
@nixsogutstudios I could have also played for England, had I not broken my leg aged 4.
pastrychef1985 8 months ago
@pastrychef1985 YOU LIE!
nixsogutstudios 8 months ago
Strangers on a train is the best
HotSpicyTasteGreat 8 months ago
Definitely The Royal Tenenbaums if we going for a 'non tennis' film.
LGfunkymonk 8 months ago
Black Samurai(aka. the tattoo connection, aka Black belt Jones 2)
helrod 8 months ago
I don't there is anything good or entertaining associated with tennis lol.
666deadman1988 8 months ago
Like 'Blow-Up', I'm nominating a non tennis film, not really a film either;
'Death Note', a Japanese anime (I think it was a tv series) has a great tennis sequence where the two protagonists, pretending to be friends, have a mental battle transposed into a tennis match. Hard to explain but wonderfully shot and narrated.
evilev4 8 months ago
@evilev4 +1 to that reference but yeah, you have to see it to understand the "brilliance" of it.
saqibq 8 months ago
@evilev4 I'd vote for that one too; mesmerizing scene!
KajiCarson 8 months ago
When the question was asked the only film that I could think of was Wimbledon. It was a fairly throwaway romantic comedy but I quite enjoyed it. The characters were warm and there was some nice photography and scenes. I liked the Brighton sunsets.
Match Point was also decent but I wouldn't say it was a tennis movie other than the net-cord motif.
Other than that I'm stumped :D
trooperJac 8 months ago
"Blow-Up" is simply weird. It has a great premise and intriguing main character, which is played powerfully and brilliantly. But it's poorly executed. The hippie mob has absolutely no purpose to the plot, other than to serve as a snapshot of the counter-culture movement of the period. The movie surely didn't age well.
rcrocha 8 months ago
@rcrocha In a way, that culture mob do fit in the movie's plot (or theme). The film is about things passing by and being forgotten. The very intriguing crime investigation keeps being forgotten by Thomas who is more interested in women and sex. A crowd fight over a broken guitar piece and the man that gets it simply throws it away immediately. And this culture of the 60s, totally encapsulated in the film, will also die out, become forgotten, and disappear like it was never there to begin with.
Neonman78 8 months ago
@Neonman78 Good point.
No-one at the time would ever imagine it, but I believe the 60's culture is more alive and thriving today than it ever was. This is what I mean when I mention that the movie didn't age well. Ultimately, if the purpose of the "hippie mob" is just to portray the ephemeral characteristic you mentioned, it's just a weak plot device.
rcrocha 8 months ago
The Royal Tenenbaums.
MrnAdamson46 8 months ago 33
@MrnAdamson46 Yes Yes Yes,
The Royal Tenenbaums
Wes Anderson at his best
Tennis at its most bearable
TheHappydead 8 months ago
There is no such thing as a "tennis movie". Tennis is a sport, the film is always about something else, hopefully something more interesting.
dedalus1983 8 months ago
The Squid and the Whale had a great tennis scene at the very beginning
MatthewLedZepfan 8 months ago
Strangers on a train anyone?
AdamSLanda 8 months ago
think you mentioned every tennis movie there is :/
stellapaulie 8 months ago
Jesus that's tough. there was a film i saw with Jason Issacs a few years ago called Tennis, Anyone. It wasn't great but, it was better than Wimbledon
gibboanx 8 months ago
A Good Year. I think I remember in a flashback the characters playing tennis. People don't like that movie, but I quite enjoyed it.
MasterIsOut 8 months ago
Tennis, Anyone...? comes to mind but overall I would have to say Wimbledon. Since you mentioned Match Point, you should also ask how many films do you know where someone gets away with murder.
MadBrainiac 8 months ago
Forrest Gump (If we can count table tennis)
RhodesidesReviews 8 months ago
Comment removed
RhodesidesReviews 8 months ago
There was an episode of Shark about tennis, which was quite good.
mmatycoonDOTcom 8 months ago
"I think I liked that movie more than paul bettany did." That made me laugh and laugh.
IDante1Savage 8 months ago
There aren't any good tennis movies - period.
Revelian1982 8 months ago