The China Mail - Cantona on the couch: footballer explores 'demons' in raw new film

One of the beautiful game's most colourful characters agreed to open up about his famously explosive and fragile ego in "Cantona" which is one of two soccer documentaries premiering at the Cannes Film Festival this week.

The 115-minute film by British directors David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas features extensive interviews with the footballer-turned-actor in what sometimes resembles an extended session of psychoanalysis.

Insight from former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson and one-time teammate David Beckham, as well as a gripping soundtrack from one half of 1990s dance music legends Orbital, make it a compelling watch.

"I’m constantly trying to figure out who I am, and that's why I do my best to act on instinct as much as possible," Cantona told AFP on Saturday.

"Of course, there are times when things get a bit out of hand, but that’s part of life and I accept it."

Has therapy helped?

"I've done a lot ... I started at 20 and I've continued at different moments. It's a world that interests me a lot," added the 59-year-old, who is also appearing in French drama "Les Matins merveilleux" (Marvellous Mornings) in Cannes.

In "Cantona" the documentary, he refers repeatedly to the "fire" and "demon" inside him which made him such a combustible figure on and off the pitch, but also one capable of turning a game with a sublime pass or an instinctive goal.

The documentary focuses on his five trophy-laden years at Manchester United that saw him become one of the game's biggest stars, but one notorious for kung-fu kicking a fan after being sent off at Crystal Palace in 1995.

"Of course, I've got a lot of them in my head and it's good to accept them," he said when asked about his demons. "I make them live together and they like having a party."

- World Cup effect? -

There is a surprising amount of football in Cannes this year, the high temple of art-house cinema, with Argentine-made "The Match" spotlighting the notorious England-Argentina 1986 World Cup match settled by a goal awarded after a handball by Diego Maradona.

"In that match you have justice, injustices, beauty… all in a kind of pressure cooker," co-director Juan Cabral told AFP about the quarter-final which took place four years after Britain and Argentina had fought over the Falkland Islands.

"That match contains every possible match in history," Cabral added.

The director of the Cannes film festival, Thierry Fremaux, claimed at the premiere of "Cantona" on Saturday that "it's not because we have a World Cup in a month that we have films about football".

Soccer-themed documentaries have proliferated in recent years, with the 2023 hit Netflix series about David Beckham helping popularise the genre.

A new production on illustrious Italian football manager Carlo Ancelotti by Paulo Sorrentino was announced in Cannes on Friday.

Like its subject, "Cantona" the documentary is seeking to stand out from the crowd.

"You have a lot of documentaries now that feel like publicity for the athlete," Tryhorn told AFP.

"Whereas Eric (Cantona) is very happy to be brutally honest and accept 'this is who I am as a person with all my flaws and positive sides'. That's very rare for a film like this," he added.

S.Wilson--ThChM