CANAL + – SUNDAY AUGUST 15 AT 9 PM – DOCUMENTARY
On a theater stage plunged into darkness, facing an empty room, tweed cap screwed onto his head, gloomy gaze in front of the camera, deep voice, Eric Cantona tells in a chopping English one of his most adventures. outstanding. His life experience in Manchester between 1992 and 1997. At the beginning of this documentary signed by Briton Mat Hodgson, we fear the worst, the one-man-show of a Cantona a little too farcical. Very quickly, the doubt is dissipated. The real star is not Cantona, covered in glory in the red jersey, but the city of Manchester. With its particularities, its tumultuous social history, its passion for football, its excesses.
Through the history of the Manchester United club, illustrated by testimonies of former players and coaches, politicians, local musicians (but not those of Oasis, Manchester City supporters) and enriched by splendid filmed archives dating in particular of the 1950s and 1960s, Mat Hodgson pulled off a nice shot. In 2011, he had already stood out by turning The Four Year Plan, documentary devoted to the London club of Queen’s Park Rangers, taken in hand at the time by a sulphurous duo composed of Flavio Briatore and Bernie Ecclestone, strong personalities from the automotive world.
Winning multiple awards, Hodgson stood out again in 2019 with Duran: From the street to the ring, dedicated to the Panamanian boxer Roberto Duran. With The United Way, Hodgson plays on velvet, both the crisp anecdotes are numerous and the strong personalities of the game, whether they are players (the legendary George Best in mind) but also coaches like Matt Busby, Tommy Docherty or Alex Ferguson to recite nobody else but them.
A legend based on a drama
Great club, Manchester United is also because its legend was partly based on a drama, widely recounted in this documentary. United coach since 1945, the Scotsman Matt Busby decided in the mid-1950s to trust kids just out of school like Duncan Edwards or Bobby Charlton, who signed their contracts at the age of 15. . The club does not yet have a very extensive track record, but the talent is there.
On February 5, 1958, those England nicknamed the “Busby Babes” compete for and win a European Cup match in Belgrade against the Red Star. The weather conditions are appalling and flight BEA 609, which is to bring the United delegation back to Manchester, stops in Munich. Snow, fog, storm, the third attempt to take off from the Munich runway ends in drama. The crash of February 6, 1958 left twenty dead including eight players and many seriously injured, including Matt Busby.
This tragedy will unite the Mancunian people. The legend of United is on the move and ten years after the tragedy, the club, still coached by a Matt Busby back from hell, won its first European final, on May 29, 1968 at Wembley against Benfica. The following ? A mess of titles, legendary rants, sometimes difficult times: ” At the end of the 1970s, the area was suffering a lot socially and the area around Old Trafford stadium was abandoned ”, remembers Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, a city where the passion for football seems to resist anything.
The United Way, documentary by Mat Hodgson (UK, 2021, 90 min).