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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Peter Bradshaw

Cantona review - Beckham and Ferguson keen defenders as Eric gnomically quotes Baudelaire

Eric Cantona and Alex Ferguson at the 1995 disciplinary hearing.
No redemption … Eric Cantona and Alex Ferguson at the 1995 disciplinary hearing. Photograph: Offside / David Davies

Here is a fervent, but repetitive fan-service documentary, perpetually re-using iconic “bad behaviour” clips, all about the tempestuous king of Manchester United (formerly and briefly the tempestuous king of Leeds United).

Eric Cantona was the Frenchman who won the hearts of English football fans in the 90s for his stunning skills, filling the silverware cabinet to bursting having been picked up cheap by Man U having effectively flounced out of French football. He was mentored in those days by that kindly teddy-bear of a man, Sir Alex Ferguson, who is interviewed extensively here, along with David Beckham, Eric’s elderly parents Albert and Éléonore, and of course the gloweringly pugnacious man himself, appearing in what appears to be a deserted church and gnomically quoting Baudelaire.

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