Éric Cantona’s Cannes weekend features three films and a return to the red carpet | OneFootball

Éric Cantona packed his Cannes weekend with three screenings, two as an actor and one as the subject of a documentary, and returned to the famous steps at the 79th Festival.

L'Équipe reports that the ex-France forward, capped 45 times with 20 goals, plays a wine merchant in Avril Besson’s Les Matins merveilleux, a doctor in Ali Cherri’s short La Sentinelle, and himself in British documentary Cantona. The feature and the doc screen in Special Screenings, the short in Critics’ Week.

He walked the red carpet twice on Friday and Saturday, first with his wife, actor Rachida Brakni, for the documentary, then with the Les Matins merveilleux team. His first Cannes steps came in 2009 with Ken Loach’s Looking for Eric.

The documentary blends solitary sea imagery and siren-like sounds to revisit a turbulent past, and director David Tryhorn presents him as a principled figure beyond his football. Cantona’s acting began during his nine-month ban in 1995 after the Crystal Palace incident, with Étienne Chatiliez’s Le Bonheur est dans le pré.

In Les Matins merveilleux he is Titou, a disco-loving, slightly lost wine seller who treats Charlie, played by India Hair, with care as she brings her late mother’s crate of vinyls to his Cavalière cellar.

His friendly turn in La Sentinelle is modest. Before that screening, the pro-Palestinian campaigner corrected a young director’s wording about genocide, and on screen he appears as a military doctor in a story about a soldier wrestling with suicidal thoughts. He worked without fee and says performing brings excitement and freedom.

Now in supporting roles and commercials from Bic to Parions Sport, he says he thrives on creative freedom and pursues other dreams despite a fear of the void. He also presented M6’s Brigade anonyme at Canneseries in April.

Source: L'Équipe