A Film Example

Those who do not know the football code do not understand the "meaning" of their words (the passes) or the meaning of their speech (a set of passes). – PIER PAOLO PASOLINI

Looking for Eric

Original title: Looking for Eric Directed by: Ken Loach Comedy genre Year: 2009 (116 minutes) Country: United Kingdom Cast: Steve Evets, Eric Cantona, John Henshaw, Stephanie Bishop

The Character:

Eric Bishop is an unhappy, careless postman who lives a bland existence, tormented by remorse, shame, and passivity. He is consumed by guilt for having abandoned, without understanding why, his young wife Lily – whom he regards as the great love of his life – along with their newborn daughter.

She has given him a granddaughter who is just a few months old, and he clumsily supports and cares for two teenage stepsons who often get into trouble. In reality, Eric is a very generous person and raised them as if they were his own children. When they were little, everything was fine, but now they take advantage of him, as he is seen as "a weakling," and they are destroying him. Eric Bishop lives in a house that is too big for him. His friends, soccer fans, do what they can to help him. He is barely keeping his job, and when we first meet him, he is in the midst of a panic attack.

Chapter 1: "I'm screwed."

The opening sentence of the film, "It all started with a beautiful pass from Eric Cantona," is a metaphor that allows a creative "pass" from the field of play to other dimensions of life, where the key to victory is not the goal, but trust in others.

Eric is driving down a busy street, disoriented, as if his internal "navigator" has broken down. He has just seen Lily (his first wife) after thirty years and has not been able to face her. The inevitable impact of the accident is followed by the blackness of the screen,

evoking the darkness of the protagonist's mind, who, though unharmed, feels as "fucked up" as his damaged car.

In the next scene, Eric is alone, sitting on his bed, having just returned from the hospital. He speaks to a poster of soccer player Eric Cantona, hanging on the wall: "Have you ever been to a psychoanalyst, Eri? Do you know what he asked me? 'When was the last time you were happy?'"

The postman remembers the Cantona matches, which he watched with his friends at the stadium, as his last happy moments. He hasn't been to a football match in ten years. He prefers to live in the memories instead of dealing with the present. His mind is frozen in the past.

In the pictures below, his friends comment: "Look at the state he's in... He has no rhythm, he's locked like a gear, he doesn’t take off... It’s hard to believe, but a few years ago he was one of the best dancers."

They try to distract him by telling jokes and inviting him out, but nothing succeeds. Eric's bodily rigidity reflects his mental rigidity. The tendency to rationalize and feel guilty for past mistakes affects his posture and graceless movements. Claudio Naranjo identifies in the E6 a patriarchal character who sacrifices his affectivity and instincts: "In the fearful character, intellect predominates... It is an implicit despotism in which the child's spontaneity is blamed and maternal love belittled, while the person orients himself in the world according to an excessively hierarchical view, situated between all-powerful superior authorities to be obeyed and inferior people to be dominated." — C. Naranjo, The Patriarchal Mind, RBA Integral, Barcelona, 2010, p. 41.

Chapter 2: The Possibility Generator

Eric participates in a self-help group that his friends set up to rescue him from the depressive and resigned state he has fallen into after the accident. The friend who acts as the "therapist" is framed with his back to a mirror, which reflects Eric's lost expression when he tries to think of someone who loves him.

Each person is asked to name someone they admire and wish to emulate, and Eric names Eric Cantona. Back home, alone in his room, he stands in front of the Cantona poster and tries to identify with his haughty stance: "Imperfect genius, huh? Imperfect postman. How are you taking care of yourself, Eric? Have you ever thought about committing suicide? Who loves you? Who takes care of you? Do you know what knocked me down? I didn’t even notice when it came... Have you ever done something you're ashamed of now?"

The questions this time get an answer. One question is peculiar: "And you?" asked by a Cantona who "comes alive" in the shadows, behind Eric’s back, metaphorically passing him the ball. This is "the pass" that will mark a turn in the postman's life. The image is ready to speak to itself if invoked in the proper way. Cantona, the mythical champion of Manchester United, plays himself in the film: the formidable goalscorer with a terrible character who lost his career but not his charisma. From this moment on, he is at the side of the postman as a witness, interlocutor, coach, or psychotherapist, not concealing the confidential aspects necessary in a deep relationship. In the first dialogues between Eric and his alter ego, the imaginary friend represents not only "the other part" of the protagonist (the ideal voice) but also the Other, through whose gaze and narration the sense of self—identity—develops and finds balance. The story reveals how the absence of benevolence or an appropriate support role at a critical time of Eric’s life shakes an already fragile self-image, leading to the inability to make choices in which to recognize oneself. Now that Eric is an adult, the group of friends replaces the primary relationships, providing "the environment" that serves as a "generator of possibilities," allowing Eric to be seen through the eyes of someone who loves him.

Chapter 3: Love Lost and Longed For

Eric tells Cantona how he found his lost and now longed-for love, Lily, during a dance contest.

CANTONA: And Lily? ERIC: I can't even say her name. CANTONA: Say it, it's something to be dealt with, isn't it? ERIC: I can't. CANTONA: Yes, you can! ERIC: Lily, damn it! The problem is always Lily. CANTONA: Open the trunk. ERIC: No, I can’t. CANTONA: Without taking risks, we cannot overcome the dangers. Open the trunk, let's go!

Eric opens the trunk of memories and finds photos from thirty years ago, with Lily on the dance floor.

CANTONA: Sometimes the most beautiful memories are the hardest to bear; c’est la vie! ERIC: Yes, the hardest to face... C’est la vie! (They laugh together.)

The two Erics are now co-stars:

CANTONA: And thirty years later, you can’t look her in the face? C’est incroyable, non? ERIC: So many mistakes were made; so much water has flowed under the bridge. Do you understand what it means when your daughter asks you to see your ex-wife every day, whom you haven’t seen for thirty years? CANTONA: Everything comes back to the surface: you, Lily, and little Sara. ERIC: Oh yeah! As if thirty years had been yesterday. I’m screwed up! CANTONA: I understand you, mon ami, and I recommend a nice jump from the building opposite. ERIC: Sure! Everything’s going well for you! Imperfect genius bastard—two kicks to the ball on the beach with the VIPs, your pretty French accent... Look at me: a fucking wretch, skin and bones. You have it all, friend.

Naranjo’s thoughts on the Self-Preservation 6 type: "The avoidant or phobic type is cautious but has great potential for affection. Likewise, they experience more emotionality, both in terms of pain and human warmth. They deeply feel their loneliness and isolation, are in pain from their sense of displacement, and have a strong desire to be accepted."

Despite their longing for relationships and social life, they are afraid of leaving their well-being in the hands of others.

Let’s go back to Eric:

CANTONA: Those who foresee all the dangers will never go to sea; those who are afraid to mix the dice will never get a six. If you don’t enter the tiger’s den, you’ll never catch its cubs. ERIC: Take those dice and shove them up your ass... I can’t take your philosophy anymore. CANTONA: There are always more choices than we think... always. ERIC: Yes? What kind of choices? CANTONA: Like... shave. ERIC: I can’t meet her. CANTONA: Yes, you can!

Claudio Naranjo breaks down the behavioral aspects of the E6’s "fear of being": "Insecurity, indecisiveness, and hesitation (as a consequence of the fear of making mistakes), immobilization due to doubt, loss of contact with impulse, avoidance of decisions and inclination to compromise, excessive care and caution, compulsive double-checking, lack of self-confidence, excessive rehearsal, and difficulty with unstructured situations."

— C.

Naranjo, The Fearful Character: How to Recover from Childhood Fear

Chapter 4. The Relationship with the Stepchildren

Eric is unable to gain respect from his stepsons in his own home. He is their slave until Cantona appears and encourages him to be more assertive.

CANTONA: You must say no! No! Come on! Say it: "No!" "Non!" ERIC (shyly): No. CANTONA: With conviction. No! ERIC: No. CANTONA: With more force. No! ERIC: No. CANTONA: Come on! You must say it with confidence! No! ERIC: No, no!!! (He picks up a pot and starts shaking it around him). Nooooooo!!!! He shakes it several times to the rhythm of "no" until the frightened stepsons arrive.

STEPSONS: Dad, are you okay? ERIC: No!!!

This character transforms into his own enemy, as if self-accusation could save him from trouble with authority. In his childhood history, there was a common fear of punishment or recrimination. The ghost of Self-Preservation 6 is being punished for making a mistake. To avoid this threat, he became a submissive, sweet, and obedient person. Self-accusation, warns Claudio Naranjo, sees monstrosity where there is only nature:

This imagining monstrosity where there is potential spontaneity and organismic wisdom not only leads to inhibition, but is complicated by the fact that this inhibition perpetuates the unknowing situation, which, in turn, makes the individual more vulnerable to self-denigration.

Chapter 5. Eric Unties the Knots of the Past with Lily

Eric runs into his ex, who still resents him for abandoning her, for no apparent reason, at the age of twenty-one, leaving her alone with a newborn girl. The postman tells his mirror, Cantona.

CANTONA: She hates you. Now we see a way... ERIC: We're not going anywhere. We are two grandparents. Where are we supposed to go? CANTONA: La plus noble des vengeances, c’est de pardonner.

ERIC: Guess what? You're already pissing me off with so much nonsense. CANTONA: Okay, so I won't translate. ERIC: Do what you think... Totally, I don't care. Fuck you!... What does it mean? CANTONA: No. ERIC: Tell me! You can't blurt out something like that and then run away! CANTONA: The noblest revenge is forgiveness. ERIC: Could you forgive me? (The phone rings. It's Lily, leaving a message quoting him in the pub.) CANTONA: I told you...

Eric is a carefree dancing teenager when he finds out he's going to be a father. His own father then violently challenges him: "He grabbed me by the neck like when I was a child and started shaking me like the host of a stupid TV show used to do." This gives him the image of a failure: someone who has given up on university and now finds himself imprisoned by a marriage and a child to care for. This creates a reaction of disorientation, panic, and dissociation.

Eric is finally encouraged to confidently express his feeling of dislocation and terror, which led him to give up on his relationship with his wife, avoiding her and withdrawing into himself, instead of facing the situation together.

ERIC: After about half an hour, I calmed down, went back inside, and started doing theater. And... do you know the truth? Since then, I have kept pretending and acting. LILY: But why couldn't you tell me? ERIC: I deleted it. I hid it even from myself; I was terrified; I thought I was going crazy like my Uncle Marlow. Besides, I watched you nurse Sal... I don't know how to explain it... I couldn't bear it, I couldn't bear it; it made me crazy, and that led me to the point of being afraid to go home, to my house. LILY: I thought you didn't love me anymore. ERIC: No! LILY: That you had regretted having a girl. ERIC: Not at all. LILY: I would have liked only you to touch me; I felt ugly and fat, with my clothes reeking of milk. ERIC: It's not so much the fact that I dumped you… that's what I throw my hands up at. It's just that I couldn't come back.

Eric gave up his happiness by leaving home for no apparent reason. The Self-Preservation 6 chooses the path of unconsciousness through a disconnection from its essential being, perceived as threatening. In this way, he renounces his own power. Winning it implies

getting out of the logic of guilt (if it's not my fault, it's your fault). It means embarking on the path of self-forgiveness and self-love.

Chapter 6. Eric and His Relationship with His Friends

In his encounter with Cantona, Eric manages to connect the painful elements of his past life and give them a coherence that transforms them from "accidents" into "passes" that make it possible to recover skills he thought were lost, the reappearance of desire, and putting himself back on track with Lily and her children.

Cantona shows Eric that trust is nothing but a "leap of faith" in others. Like a goal pass.

ERIC: So the most beautiful moment of all? CANTONA: It wasn't a goal. ERIC: It has to be a goal. CANTONA: No, it was a pass. ERIC: A pass? CANTONA: It was a gift, almost, to the God of goals. ERIC: What if he was wrong? CANTONA: You must trust your teammates at all times. If not, all is lost.

Faced with the friend who listens disinterestedly, who recognizes desires and needs, Eric can remove the "loser's mask" to show that there is someone behind it, vital and real.

Chapter 7. “Operation Cantona: Be Yourself.”

Eric enlists his friends' help to restore his father power to his stepchildren. He makes all the televisions in the house disappear and prepares food just for him to show the children that his attitude (no longer passive and submissive) has changed.

Eric discovers that the eldest son is hiding a gun in his house from a psychopathic delinquent who is creating trouble for him with the law and is blackmailing him. He talks about it with the boy and also directly with the delinquent, but gets nothing. Then he goes to Cantona:

ERIC: I can't handle all of this. I don't know what to do, you must believe me. I can't do anything. CANTONA: There are always more choices than we think, always more possibilities. If things change, the possibilities change. You try something and it doesn't work, and then

you try something else. ERIC: Dude, what? CANTONA: Your teammates. ERIC: Oh my gosh! I can't think how I could tell my friends. Where do I begin? "Do you guys have a minute? For my son: he keeps a gun for the neighborhood psychopath, who amuses himself by shooting kids who laugh at the color of his shoes." What could they think? I'm ashamed! ERIC: Of course, they are my friends! CANTONA: They're your friends, right? CANTONA: And don't you think you can tell your friends everything? ERIC: Hell yeah! CANTONA: Trust them.

Obvious things seen with different eyes, or heard with a different attitude, take on unexpected meanings. Cantona’s phrases are like a beam of light projected onto the potentialities not manifested until now. They illuminate alternative paths for Eric, who is stuck in a stagnant situation.

He invents a plan. With their friends and children, and armed with a baseball bat and an Eric Cantona mask, they go to the delinquent's house. They break the glass. When he is half-naked, he is sprayed with red paint. And they threaten to release his public humiliation on YouTube if he insists on bothering Eric's son.

The Self-Preservation 6 can justify its submission for the sake of something bigger, like the common good. The "sacrifice of bowing" assumes meaning in the scale of values, as if saying: "I submit to the will of God, who by nature is just; I can trust him because he will not punish me." This is how this character idealizes authority.

E6 has no problem with danger; what they have a problem with is courage. It is often reckless, but it does not tolerate the taste of fear, and it is because of this intolerance that some keep away from danger.

In the case of an evolved Self-Preservation 6, the threat does not prevent the execution and assumption of a leadership role. By exposing himself and, therefore, exercising a position and a choice, with an attitude of listening to himself and others, he overcomes the neurotic automatism of doubt.

The postman Eric has learned to renew the confidence in his potential, which he had locked up in the trunk of memories, with the photos that showed him happy with his wife when his spontaneity transformed him into a "peerless dancer." He has untied the knots of the past. Rediscovering the flavor of trust in others, he has learned to ask his friends for help and take responsibility for dealing with the situations that tormented him.

Eric has learned to take the risk of being afraid, to take charge of his life, and face it in all its nuances. Consequently, by not blocking action with an internal struggle, he finally grants himself the possibility of being happy.