How does your chosen text (Looking for Eric) reinforce or challenge typical genre conventions?

Looking for Eric follows typical genre conventions by portraying social realism. The film is set in a

northern council estate and the main characters that we are initially introduced to look rough and

dirty. Eric, the protagonist of the film who's life we are following and watching fall apart works as a

postman and is of the working class demographic. The mood and atmosphere of the film is

extenuated and clear for the audience due to the darkened lighting – alerting us to the negativity of

emotions that the characters are feeling and that we are supposed to emulate when watching the

film. The narrative focuses on Eric’s life spiralling out of control; the difference between himself and

his teenage sons is one of the reasons that everything is going wrong. The stereotyped ‘chav’ look of

two teenagers as they exit down the path of the junk covered small garden which leads to the door

has many items placed in it, stolen items that the sons have placed there which Eric has no idea

about; one of these being a cement mixer. Inside the house is an absolute tip, which makes it quite

clear to the audience that there is no female to follow the conventions of keeping the house tidy.

Eric’s room is like a little boys room – with posters of his footballer hero Eric Cantona, who is

represented as the ‘working class hero’ and clothes smothering the floor, which he refers to as his

‘den’. The shots we see of Eric in his room are when he seems most helpless and depressed about

the occurrences in his life which is very chaotic. We also see the constant battles between Eric and

his teenage sons who have no respect for Eric and treat him as a ‘doormat’ figure. The language

used by Eric and the teenagers is poor which may be deliberate to show they are uneducated. There

is lots of swearing, aggressive and negative tonnes in the voices of the sons when they are speaking

to Eric, showing they think they are above him and that they don’t have any respect for him. A quote

from the film ‘I stole that for you Eric’ shows how little the sons actually think of their dad – who

they only refer to by his first name. They can be seen wearing very basic cheap clothing, tracksuit

bottoms, football shirts and hoodies are worn by the teenagers and that you would expect on people

belonging to the working class demographic. When Eric isn’t wearing his postman uniform, he can

be seen in basic top and baggy jeans and by his overgrown hair; we are able to see that he doesn’t

take too much pride in his appearance.

The scenes where we see Eric of a postman, the mise-en-scene shadowing is very dark and the main

colours on the screen are dull greys connoting worthlessness. The atmosphere is dull and we are

able to tell that he is bored which links with the narrative of Eric feeling unhappy in his life. As the

second part of the narrative is based upon Eric’s love for football and his hero Eric Cantona, a group

of Eric’s mates, a working lad group of postmen are brought into the storyline for comedic value.

This is when we see Eric happiest and they bring the typical northern laddish football banter to the

times they have with Eric, resulting in trying to make him laugh. When Eric is alone, he often

recounts times in his life when it all went wrong - one of the main issues being with the love of his

life, Lily. He smokes alone in his darkened room and often speaks to the poster of his hero for

inspiration, trying desperately to emulate his power and strength but never feeling strong enough to

do so.

The contrast between the way that Eric and Lily are represented highlights the differences in their

lives. The first shot that we see of Lily is of her standing confidently pushing a pram, this is their

teenage daughter’s baby who is struggling looking after her new born baby and studying for her

degree – this emphasises the sort of area that they are living in where teenage pregnancies are

common. Lily is dressed in a professional, business like suit which makes her look very successful.

Eric quotes that ‘she really made something of her life’, with an ounce of jealousy in his voice and

the comparison that he made of ‘I can’t even trust myself’. Eric looks very scruffy to Lily in

comparison and also uncomfortable in himself; this resulting in him being very disillusional toward

Lily as he explains that he is ‘fine’.

The narrative of the film has many ironies, all of these emulating the ‘defeat’ that Eric faces on a

daily basis. One of these is the fact that Eric’s teenage sons are able to go and watch a football

match which Eric doesn’t have enough money to go – he feels that they are living his life, even

though not in the right way. When Eric Cantona appears in the film, the lighting is still incredibly dark

which is suggesting that they are at the bottom of all problems. As the two Eric’s discuss the issues,

the room gradually lightens are every ‘session’ which emulates progression and this makes the mood

more positive. As the scenes in the bedroom were shot, each scene was done in the same room but

the use of two basic cameras with a wide would have made the characters look less attractive so

they used basic angles to make it look more real. This is also the case when we are inside the car

suspecting what is happening at the scene of the gun crime. The director decided that if the camera

was in front of the car this would have looked unrealistic so instead, the scene was a point of view

shot from the back seat of the car to show what the characters were able to see which again made it

more realistic.

There is not a huge noticeable use of music in the film; however, it does occur when the message of

the narrative needs to be more direct and noticed by the audience. The non diegetic music occurs to

build up how dramatic the scene is. For example, the scene in where Eric and Eric Cantona are in the

kitchen and Eric C is teaching Eric how to say ‘no’ in a dominating, powerful way. The tempo and

noise level of the music increases, speeding up so that we know something is going to happen with

an abrupt ending to the shouting of no - the end result being one the sons asking Eric if he was okay,

in which his response was ‘no’. The main occurrences of music come when the scenes are being

linked together hand the music is good filler as it knits and links the scenes whilst reinforcing the

mood/plot. The music is often played when a positive action is coming from Eric, where it seems as if

he may be beginning to turn his life around – the non diegetic music acts a kind of anthem for Eric.

As the narrative continues and the relationships that Eric has with Lily and his teenage sons begins to

improve, or when they are working together as a ‘team’ – for example during ‘Operation Cantona’,

the darkness and dull colours that we associated with Eric’s life slowly brighten and the house is

much lighter and the atmosphere seems more calm and relaxed, as the audience we are made to

feel that we would feel more welcomed and excepted into Eric’s life because his house seems more

inviting. The setting gets nicer and as Eric and Lily continues to meet up, the location changes from a

pub to a coffee shop and the way we perceive the mood is enhanced by the calming, more natural

piano music.