The indelible bond between Eric Cantona and Ken Loach
There are a few filmmakers that fans of British cinema hold dearer than others, with the blockbuster filmmakers like Christopher Nolan and Sam Mendes often being overlooked in favour of home directors like Mike Leigh, Clio Barnard and Ken Loach, who very much operate in the realm of independent film. Loach, having been in the industry since the late 1960s, remains a bastion of national cinema, instilling each and every one of his releases with a pertinent political message.
Winning the Palme d’Or back in 2016 for his socially-charged drama I, Daniel Blake, which felt like the culmination of decades of spectacular filmmaking, Loach has long been celebrated as a British director who stands up for the rights of working people. Evident in each and every one of his movies, from 1969’s Kes to 2023’s The Old Oak, Loach instilled this with a narrative which toyed with magical realism in 2009’s Looking for Eric.
Telling the familiar Loachian tale of a postman whose handle of life is slipping day by day, Looking for Eric becomes a heart-wrenching fantasy when the iconic footballer Eric Cantona enters the scene and inspires the protagonist to change. Known as one of the most influential footballers of all time, Cantona played for Manchester United from 1992 to 1997 and was known for his philosophical outlook on life.
Such proved to meld well with Loach’s outlook on life, with the pair creating an indelible bond on set. Still, the filmmaker was pretty intimidated by the athlete when they first met, telling The Guardian back in 2009, “I mean, I’m not overimpressed by anybody in films because it’s the business and we just work in it, but when it’s somebody from outside who is very special in their own field, and particularly if it’s a field you care about, then I think you are overwhelmed…He’s a very bright, perceptive man”.
Cantona, coming to the role prepared, recalled that he’d “seen a lot of Ken Loach’s films. I’ve seen Riff-Raff, Carla’s Song, Land and Freedom, the one about the war in Ireland, Family Life“. Just like his collaborator, too, the footballer has always aligned himself with the left side of politics, expressing: “I think I had a very good education of love … le plaisir des petites choses, a delight in small things. I’m not sure the people who want to show their power with big houses, bigger cars, are very happy. I feel sad for them”.
His opinion on such things extends to the beautiful game, believing that modern football has shifted away from its working-class roots, telling the publication, “The real fans of football come from the working class. Now they cannot afford to come and watch the game. So maybe when the game will need fans, they will be in trouble”.
Sharing a passion for preservation and celebration for the working class, Cantona became the perfect figure to lead Loach’s 2009 movie, embodying the same potent philosophy of the filmmaker. Suggesting that the normal ‘average Joe’ could fight against adversity and political systems, Cantona became the perfect mouthpiece for Loach, with the pair sharing a close relationship on set thanks to their shared outlook on life.
As the executive producer of the film Vincent Maraval recalled about Cantona’s approach to Loach, “Eric is not for any compromising in his life or his career. He is always very straight what he thinks about you … he is the opposite of a hypocrite. He had a lot of respect for the stories Ken was telling, and has a vision of life that is very pure. He could feel that Ken was on his side”.
