At first glance, Looking for Eric appears an unlikely hybrid allegiance. The match up of veteran serious social realist filmmaker Ken Loach, and volatile French and Manchester United soccer legend 30 years his junior, Eric Cantona – described by some as a peacock-strutting philosopher’ – seemed an unlikely pairing.
The player to whom such as aphorisms as 'I am not man. I am Cantona.", have been ascribed, would surely fail to win the approval of a filmmaker known for his modesty and championing of political and social justice. Would a meeting of such hubris and restraint find middle ground? Surely the sensible Loach would not be swept over by 'Oooh-ah Cantona factor." But there is no allowing what grown men will do in the cause of football.
In early films, Cathy Come Home, and Kes, Loach had depicted struggles of clubs against developers. In real life, he and his mates bought out the principal shareholder of their beloved club, Bath City, assisting to raise funds for ownership by a supporters’ trust.
Cantona, meanwhile, since his retirement from football at thirty, re-styled himself as a renaissance man: writer, lyricist, bullfighter photographer, hobby trumpet player and – particularly – an actor.
In 1998 he played a cameo role as French ambassador in Elizabeth; wielded an alcoholic monk out of bar in Mookie; played a drifter – in TV series, Papillion Noir – who takes an alcoholic writer hostage.
But by far his most meaty role - professionally and personally – was as Thierry Binisti’s L’Outremangeur (The Over-Eeater), the story of an 160kg bulimic police inspector, Richard Selena, (Cantona in a fat suit) who emotionally bribes a young female murderer of north African origin (played by classically trained beautiful French actress, Rachinda Brachni) to accompany him for his nightly dinner ritual.
The two instantly fell in love on set and married in 2007. Her artistic influence has escalated his thespian and showbusiness ambitions. At the end of the year he will appear on stage at Paris’ Marigny theatre in a play directed by his wife. He’s even directed a short film, Apporte moi ton Amour (Bring Me Your Love), adapted from story by bohemian American novelist and poet Charles Bukkowski.
And with his finances and connections why not executive produce as well? Cantona’s people contacted Loach’s people about a project he wanted to initiate about football legend’s relationship with a particular British football fan who followed him when he moved from Liverpool to Manchester United.
Loach and his screenwriter, Paul Laverty, were flattered – but they weren’t buying the story hook, line and sinker. Football in the imaginative lives of their public was fine but Laverty, particularly, was keen to explore some other possibilities: a strand about grandparents, past mistakes, turning one’s life around through an inspiring mentor. A funny and moving adult male fairy tale, a revival of mature romance, a celebration of male bonding, a funny ode to class solidarity and friendship.
Turning the tale of a depressed, postman named Eric (Steve Evets) whose life hits rock-bottom with a mid life crisis, took Loach and Laverty into more familiar domain.
His communiqués/confessionals to his Manchester United poster hero, Eric Cantona, suddenly take a surreal turn as the legend materialises to pop up in his role as life coach, guardian angel and mentor – from physical trainer to zen master fusing live football footage of his heydays as extra adrenaline inspiration.
For a Loach film, particularly, it’s a leap, requiring suspension of belief. The story is rooted in the mundane personal problems of Eric’s family, particularly stepsons in trouble with criminal elements, and regrets of mistreatment of his first love. When these elements come into play, Loach’s fusion of social realism and comedy of friendship – as in his other films like Riff Raff and Raining Stones, accumulate momentum.
The Modern Male alienation fantasy runs the entertaining gamut from whimsical social comment, to high drama fused with comedic twist, at their best in scenes when Eric’s co-workers and mates attempt to use amateurish self-help psychology sessions and psycho-babble to lift his spirits, and in Loach’s naturalistic, unsentimental handling of the autumn romance between Eric and his first love.
Cantona as life coach panders memorable home-spun philosophies: 'You must trust your team-mates always"; 'You cannot surprise others unless you surprise yourself", and other enigmatic wisdoms which he invented as part of his persona, culminating in his famous phrase: 'When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the Sea."
And without giving it away, let’s just say a Cantona frenzy is involved in the very entertaining finale.
