Anyone with a working knowledge of Eric Cantona's '90s celebrity and legacy won't learn much that is new from David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas' film, but Cantona's own presence and charisma keep it compelling.
By Guy Lodge
Plus IconGuy Lodge
Film Critic
@guylodge See All
Courtesy of Cinetic Media Lifted from his poem “Flowers of Evil,” the Charles Baudelaire quote that opens “Cantona” — “I am the wound and the knife/I am the blow and the cheek/I am the limbs and the wheel/Victim and executioner” — would seem like overkill in a documentary about pretty much any sporting figure besides Eric Cantona. At the outset of David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas‘ glossy, enthralled portrait of the legendary French soccer player and culture-spanning icon, however, it strikes exactly the right note for the man who revels in his reputation as the brute poet of the sport, and whose legacy rests on equal parts athletic prowess, volatile personality and enduring, eccentric quotability.
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