Here is a fervent, but repetitive fan-service documentary, perpetually re-using iconic “bad behaviour” clips, all about the tempestuous king of Manchester United (formerly and briefly the tempestuous king of Leeds United).
Eric Cantona was the Frenchman who won the hearts of English football fans in the 90s for his stunning skills, filling the silverware cabinet to bursting having been picked up cheap by Man U having effectively flounced out of French football. He was mentored in those days by that kindly teddy-bear of a man, Sir Alex Ferguson, who is interviewed extensively here, along with David Beckham, Eric’s elderly parents Albert and Éléonore, and of course the gloweringly pugnacious man himself, appearing in what appears to be a deserted church and gnomically quoting Baudelaire.
It’s a movie that, like its hero, has disdain for the jackals of the press and certainly has no intention of repeating the vulgar and prurient terrace chants about his private life. As for the climactic controversy of his career, when in 1995 he launched a brutal karate kick at a Crystal Palace fan, and afterwards at a press conference recited a minimalist prose poem about seagulls following a trawler, the film does not mention what is surely the definitive comment on this from comedian Nick Hancock, who remarked at the time on BBC TV’s Fantasy Football League: “I thought it was appalling, I thought it was terrible, I thought it was tragic but most of all I thought it was very, very funny.”
So does Cantona. There is an amusing clip showing Des Lynam interviewing Cantona after the furore had died down, clearly hoping for a redemption narrative and earnestly asking Cantona if the “incident” had changed him. “Not really,” answered Cantona gazing thoughtfully at the ceiling. Cantona stepped away from the game when his 20s were over, opting for movie acting, and we get a clip of his moment opposite Cate Blanchett playing the French ambassador in Elizabeth and his (very likable) appearance as himself in Ken Loach’s comedy Looking for Eric. Sadly, we don’t see his extraordinary performance as the well-endowed priapic vampire in the cult horror film You and the Night. Nowadays he appears to be more into doing vast action paintings on his private estate.
The film leaps backwards and forwards quite a bit, sometimes for no obvious reason, but it is in one of the earlier phases that the film makes an interesting suggestion: that Cantona’s hot temper, with its primal connection to the mass mood of the fans, may have been inspired by the hot-tempered Bernard Tapie, the businessman for whose club, Marseille, Cantona once played. One for the fans … but some nostalgic entertainment here.
