18/05 - CANNES DAILY ON LOOKING FOR ERIC

ENTERTAINMENT / CANNES FILM FESTIVAL / CANNES DAILY / 18/05 - CANNES DAILY ON LOOKING FOR ERIC

18 May 2009 — You already knew Eric Cantona was a footballer and a philosopher ("When the seagulls follow a trawler," he once declaimed at a famous press conference, "it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. Thank you very much.") But did you know Eric Cantona could act? He had told us earlier in the day at his Cannes press conference (which, sadly, lacked any bons mots concerning seafood) that he had appeared in his first film back in 1995, two years before he officially retired from professional football. Nevertheless we're pleased to report that Eric Cantona can, indeed, act. Tonight we watched Looking for Eric, a warm-hearted, meaningful little movie — yes, a Ken Loach Movie — in which Cantona stars as a kind of epitomized version of himself, and both the movie and Cantona are superb.Right. But can Eric Cantona play the trumpet?" Of course he can!In Loach's film, which Cantona co-produced and helped finance, the gallic football legend appears as an imaginary friend for a down-in-the-dumps Manchester postman who is also called Eric. If anyone can use an assist from Cantona, it is Eric the postman. His second wife has left him, and left him in charge of two trouble-prone teenage step-sons. But it's the postman's first wife who's causing him so much grief; he's still in love with her. His friends from the pub and post office crack jokes, they organise a lager-lout therapy session, but nothing helps him steer his life back on course. Then into the life of Eric the postman strides "Eric the King," who led the Manchester United Football Club to four league titles in five years (1992-97) and became immortalised in song ("To Eric the King, the King, the King...the greatest centre forward that the world has ever seen!") Cantona was capable of superhuman feats on the football pitch. And he has already proven himself capable of reincarnation: in 1995 Cantona came back after his infamous nine-month suspension to help Man United clinch the FA Cup against Liverpool. So it seems entirely plausible (at least it does to Eric the postman) that Cantona should manifest in Manchester again, this time as a kind of supernatural life-coach. He is not a man, you see: he is Cantona!After the screening of Looking for Eric we went looking for Eric. We found him on the beach opposite the Carlton hotel at the Wild Bunch film party. On TV screens on the periphery of the dance floor we watched reruns of Cantona's best goals (we're always happy to see that spectacular twisting shot past Liverpool's David James...) There were Man United football scarves and chips and sausages on rolls (ok, on baguettes). And there, in the VIP tent, drinking lager out of a bottle, allowing himself to be photographed endlessly, was a man. He was Cantona. We thanked him very much. — Randall KoralThis year NESPRESSO has Cannes covered, inside and out. Vincent Maraval gives us his take on the films his company, Wild Bunch, is screening during the festival ("Un Autre Regard," exclusively on NESPRESSO's website, daily at 6 p.m.). And Randall Koral, NESPRESSO's Cannes correspondent, serves up his impressions of the films and festivities as they happen ("Cannes Daily", 11 a.m. CET).