Looking for Eric or how a Frenchman explains life to an Englishman!
Ken Loach is not known for making funny and uplifting films. I remember watching Sweet Sixteen or It's a Free World... and feeling so depressed afterwards! However Looking for Eric was funny and touching at the same time. Ken Loach still describes working class people and confused teenagers who have stopped going to school. Eric Bishop is a football fanatic postman whose life is descending into crisis. But this time there is optimism. Eric's hallucinations bring forth visits from his football hero, the famously philosophical Eric Cantona, who gives him advice. Thanks to Cantona and with the help of his friends, Eric Bishop will overcome his problems. Ken Loach said of the film, "We wanted to deflate the idea of celebrities as more than human. And we wanted to make a film that was enjoying the idea of what you and I would call solidarity, but what others would call support for your friends really, and the old idea that we are stronger as a team than we are as individuals."Two important points why I enjoyed watching the film:
- the comic situation in that a Frenchman gives a lesson to an Englishman ;)
- the fact that we are stronger as a team and that football is a team sport and not individual players scoring amazing goals. When Bishop asks Cantona his best moment in his football career, Cantona says: "it's not a goal, it's a pass". That is what football is all about!
I thoroughly recommend seeing it. My favourite quotes are "I'm not a man, I'm Cantona." and "He who is afraid to throw the dice, will never throw a six." :))
What about you? Have you watched the film? Did you enjoy it?
