Finding Eric

SOME people have it, some don’t.

Eric Cantona very definitely has it – a presence, a magnetism that makes you feel you’re in the company of someone special. Even though he’s the odd one out – the only nonactor and sole Frenchman alongside British film-makers – he’s the one your eyes are drawn to and your ears listen to most intently.

Part must be the suspense of waiting for words of wisdom to rival his famous “When the seagulls follow a trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea”

speech.

At that widely-reported press conference, he added “Thank you very much”, before making his exit, leaving onlookers bemused and wondering if the phrase hadn’t lost something in translation.

At this moment, the former Manchester United player is doing the post-screening chat for his latest film, Looking For Eric, directed by Ken Loach, in which he plays himself – and does it very well.

He appears to another Eric, Eric the postman and Man U supporter, and sets about helping him sort out his life. Inevitably, he offers advice, although this time the words are provided by screenwriter Paul Laverty.

The softly-spoken, almost inaudible, Cantona claims not to study philosophers or read self-help books. “Everybody’s tried to analyse what I said about the seagulls, but I didn’t want them to make sense,” he says.

“I just put words after words. But I think everybody can find the sense in any situation.

The meaning wasn’t the words. I just wanted to come in front of you to say something that The Northern Echo Your campaigning newspaper Founded 1870 No 42,866 COMMENT Editor: Peter Barron Deputy editor: Chris Lloyd Head of advertising and marketing: Chris Moore Regional newspaper sales manager: Vickie Henderson Customer services: 01325-381313 Subscriptions: 01274-705248 or amy.kitchen@bradford.newsquest.co.uk Newspaper sales: homedelivery@nne.co.uk Head office: Priestgate, Darlington, Co Durham, DL1 1NF ■ The Northern Echo (price 45p) is published by Newsquest (North East) Ltd – a Gannett company – at Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF.

12 LEADER AND COMMENT The Northern Echo northernecho.co.uk SATURDAY, JUNE 13, 2009 Finding Eric BLOWING HIS OWN TRUMPET: Eric Cantona with Steve Evets, who plays the postman in Looking For Eric The seagulls come home to roost as Eric Cantona plays himself in a new movie. Steve Pratt goes Looking For Eric and finds a man prepared to laugh at himself We can’t let him down NO one could argue with any justification that Mark Noel has not done his best to forge a life for himself following a devastating car crash which left him paralysed.

He has battled valiantly to overcome numerous physical hurdles after breaking his neck in four places and being close to death 18 months ago.

He eventually reached the point at which he was able to move into a council-owned bungalow, having spent his savings to pay for necessary improvements.

It is a heartbreaking, yet inspiring story, and he has achieved far more than many would have expected.

But what he desperately needs now is a simple shower – and that is proving sadly out of reach in Britain 2009.

Mr Noel, who lives in St Helen Auckland, in County Durham, relies on 24- hour care.

Without a shower in his bungalow, he has to be washed by carers and he keeps his head shaved because he cannot run water through his hair.

It is a degrading situation for someone who deserves so much better from society.

We understand the financial limitations facing Durham County Council, which has explained that Disabled Facilities Grants are means-tested and prioritised.

There is only so much money to go round – and there are deemed to be more deserving cases than a man who can only move his head, and has to operate his wheelchair with his chin.

We appreciate the council’s stance that it would like to do more “in an ideal world”.

But if Mark Noel is not considered a priority, something must surely be badly wrong.

meant nothing, because I think they tried to make this situation very serious and life has plenty of serious things.

“But I don’t think the world of football is so serious. It’s important to have distance about things and about yourself. If we believe we are kings or gods, we become crazy. We all know it’s a game and we all enjoy it together.”

Laverty was keen to put a sense of humour into Looking For Eric, in contrast to the weightier movies made with British director Loach. “We both remember Eric’s wonderful press conference,” he says. “There was great mischief in it. So we were convinced there was a lot of sense of fun with Eric.”

Cantona’s no stranger to movies, although his debut in the historical drama Elizabeth, in 1998, the year after he retired from playing football, wasn’t much of a stretch – he played the French ambassador.

Since then, he’s made other movies, as both an actor and a producer. Looking For Eric began with him and his brothers, Jean-Marie and Joel, writing a two-page story outline because he wanted to make a film about his connection with Manchester United fans.

Loach, noted for grittily-realistic films such as Kes, Land And Freedom and Raining Stones, was top of the wish-list to direct. Cantona met him and Laverty, who, after reading the two pages, “were inspired by that to do something”.

Cantona laughs when he says Laverty’s story was better than the one he’d written.

He plays a version of himself rather than a completely new character. “I’m proud that Paul decided to deliver this part of my personality,”

he says. “It’s not more difficult or easier to play part of your personality, or part of yourself.

It’s just another way to walk. Ken and Paul helped me a lot to find the confidence to enjoy being on the set.”

How does working with Ken Loach compare to working with Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson. He tackles the question by comparing football and cinema. They’re very similar, he believes. “It’s two games, different games. You have to work hard and find the confidence to enjoy it on the pitch, or in the film.

“Ferguson as a manager and Ken as a director are very similar. One’s a great manager, the other a great director. But both have a lot of humanity and a lot of humility.

“They always give you the energy. With Ferguson, when we played a game it was like it was his first game. He’s so passionate and gives you ambition every time. And Ken works in the same way. They’re very similar.”

The film offers him the chance to show another skill – playing the trumpet. When he was banned from football for nine months, he had an opportunity to focus on something else. “It’s who I am,” he says. “I admire a lot Miles Davis and Chet Baker, and I like this instrument, so I tried and learned and practised for two months. But I stopped after that.

“Then I spent two afternoons with Paul speaking about different things in life. I mentioned this and he said, ‘I don’t know how but it will be in the script’. Just before shooting, I started again for a few days and I tried my best.”

PERHAPS footballers are just actors at heart. As a child Cantona dreamed of becoming a football player. “I always played as I played when I was a child. I tried to improve,” he says.

“I never dreamed of becoming a professional football player, I dreamed just to play with the best players in the best team. I never dreamed to be paid to play. I would have paid to play an FA Cup final in front of 80,000 people in Wembley. I just tried to play the wonderful game that football is. So, I hope young players will still have this dream.”

There isn’t just one Eric Cantona in Looking For Eric, but dozens and dozens of them as United supporters don Cantona masks as they teach the local Mr Big of the gangster world a lesson. The scene ends with Cantona arriving, wearing a Cantona mask.

“I came to see the shooting. I was very emotional.

Seeing all those people, these wonderful people all together, fighting for their friend with the same mask. It’s not because it’s my mask, it could be yours. But it was very emotional.”

■ Looking For Eric (15) is now showing in cinemas.