COLLAR turned up, chest stuck out - Eric Cantona has always walked the thin line between being tough and theatrical.

The fiery Frenchman was famous for his hard man antics on the pitch - and this image was enhanced when he served 24 hours in jail, a community punishment and a 10-month ban from football following a kung fu-style kick on a Crystal Palace fan in 1995.

So the Manchester United legend is well cast in his latest acting role as a gangster's henchman in French crime thriller Le Deuxième Souffle.

Cantona shares the screen with Hollywood star Monica Bellucci in the film shot in Paris and Marseille.

He plays Alban, a major part in director Alain Corneau's two-and-a-half hour adaptation of the novel by Jose Giovanni.

Its British premiere was at the Glasgow Film Festival on Saturday under the English title Second Wind. But, according to filmgoers, the film world's great actors such as Robert De Niro won't be having any sleepless nights. Film fan Paul Drury said: "I think the Oscars are safe this year.

"It's a dreadful performance and he's pretty wooden - although he plays a 1960s French gangster's right-hand man so he can get away with being a bit stiff. Alban is a leading character and Cantona is on screen for the majority of the first half of the film, before the action moves to Marseille.

"He makes something of an entrance as well. Three gunmen come into the restaurant where he works and start spraying the place with bullets. He jumps up from behind the counter and shoots them."

Le Deuxième Souffle tells the story of vicious gangster Gu, who breaks out of jail where he is serving a life sentence to pull one last job before he can leave the country with his lover.

Cantona won four Premiership titles in as many years with United, including two league and FA cup doubles.

He was voted the PFA Player of the Year in 1994 and Footballer of the Year in 1996, before retiring in 1997.

Since then he's appeared in at least a dozen films, mostly in French cinema, and directed his own short film, Apporte-moi ton amour, in 2002.

He also appeared as the French ambassador in Elizabeth, starring Cate Blanchett, in 1998.

He was banned after jumping the advertising hoardings at Selhurst Park to deliver the flying kick on a fan after he had been sent off.