The Mike Leigh Poll

DAMN, finally saw Vera Drake this morning (finally noticed it's on Netflix instant). It takes me a long time to see movies these days, even ones by my favorite directors. There are Herzogs and Greenaways (and other Leighs) from the 2000s that I've still not seen, which would have been unthinkable to 1990s me.

Tremendous movie. The kind where I have to spend the entire end credits sequence just staring and breathing and listening to the music. Top 5 Leigh, easy. Damn.

Also-- Career Girls is great; I can see why no one might vote it as their FAVORITE but it has absofkinlutely nothing to apologize for at all.

I saw T-T the other night for the umpteenth time. There has never been a time when I haven't stumbled upon this movie (at whatever point in the plot) and not been half-transfixed and pleased, and I've seen it many times.

this happens to me with so many Mike Leigh films - Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake, Abigail's Party. Even Another Year. I've only seen T-T once but i will see it plenty of times, i bet.

just turned 70

http://www.fandor.com/blog/daily-mike-leigh-70

I've been meaning to revisit some of his films, and finally get around to watching the ones I haven't seen. Secrets and Lies I found especially affecting when I first saw it, but I don't know whether it would hold up as well now; I think I'd be more aware of, and averse to, Mike Leigh's emotional manipulation and tendency towards pathetic stereotypes. I'm also baffled as to how Career Girls didn't receive any votes. It's such a great film: funny and warm and awkward and poignant, a kind of balm for me. Katrin Cartlidge gives what is one of my favourite performances ever.

I just watched "Another Year" on TV. Did anyone else find Tom and Gerri quite smug? Especially in their early exchange with Mary. I'm kind of in agreement with the poster above that Mary comes to a sudden realisation that her friends (and her own life of course) are not as amazing as she thought. She's falling apart silently at the table as they all bang on about how great their lives are. Overall, I really liked it.

yep, one of the things I love about the film is its unblinking eye on Tom and Gerri. Tom and his son are outright cruel to Mary at various parts of the film! that ending scene really sums it all up so well.

nice little recent mini-doc about Secrets And Lies. a bloody miracle of a film IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awU3_elyQMI

i watched secrets & lies and life is sweet on nonconsecutive days recently --

secrets & lies i liked; feels a little perfunctory or predictable or something, honestly prefer all or nothing/another yr/happy-go-lucky

life is sweet i ultimately did not even watch all the way thru, felt oppressively quirky & unrelatable idk; tim spalls entrance w/ the pineapple is classic tho

Mr. Turner: Magnetic Spall performance, revelatory moments, great ensemble as usual. Not upper tier Leigh on first viewing maybe. Some scenes go on a bit (John Ruskin as a Pythonesque Twit of the Century), 149 mins mighta been tightened.

Def need a disc w/ subtitles for second look. (Turner: GRRRRAEHHHLLLOOO)

Nice.

At the q and a, Tim Spall looked so normal and diminutive.

I'm so used to seeing him as a freakishly large and awkward presence.

The camera adds freakishness.

Topsy-Turvy, of course, my (r)entree to the others

Dick Pope said they shot this one by putting '50s lenses (that went on an Everest expedition, and were used for Kubrick's Spartacus) on a digital camera, which I never thought about being a possible thing.

I'm pretty fucking down for a mike Leigh film about Turner and Ruskin at least on the face of it

Ruskin is comic relief... def more about Turner in and of his world rather than a Great Artist Life.

Spall had a painting teacher for two years, off and on.

Dick Pope said they shot this one by putting '50s lenses (that went on an Everest expedition, and were used for Kubrick's Spartacus) on a digital camera, which I never thought about being a possible thing.

It's very much a thing now actually. Many digital cameras can be set up to take vintage glass. Lenses are probably the most perennial constant in photography in that if you have a good collection it will carry you through many cameras and platform changes.

amazin'

I have a friend who is a Director of Photography and in theory I could ask him about this but in practice he is kind of always bragging about his latest hightech gear- motorcycle, racing bike, kayak, Blu-ray (this last not the most high-tech, just the latest) that I am reluctant to do so.

Sorry, is there a tag for the kind of post that provides no useful information to the discussion but is just the poster venting?

/Earl_Camembert

perhaps.

*shoots a Floyd Robertson glare*

Haha! Exactly.

btw i was unable to tell if a climactic line in Mr. Turner was "The sun is gone," or "The sun is God."

knowing Turner probably the latter?

That seems to be the case, but either works in context.

Leigh & company (audio) at NYFF:

http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2014/blog/listen-mike-leigh-and-the-crew-of-mr.-turner-uncover-the-world-of-j.-m.-w

more reviews, video interviews

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-mike-leighs-mr-turner

watched Life is Sweet for the first time since 1998. After twenty years of wonderful movies, it looks underwritten: Horrocks' misanthropy (a rough draft of Thewlis' Johnny a movie later) gets quasi-resolved after Steadman confronts her; and the restaurant stuff sputters after a scene.

A good reminder that Spall's always been good delineating Dickens-esque caricatures. The pineapple!

It's a shame that so much that is well observed in this gets overwhelmed by unbelievable grotesquerie. It's the same for many of his films though like High Hopes where the working class family life scenes get trumped by ridiculous scenarios with the yuppie neighbours.

And I finally saw Mr. Turner too which is hobbled for the same reasons. Is there any reason to make Ruskin such a ridiculous buffoon?

I didn't see evidence of grotesquerie in LIS. As for Ruskin, I accepted the caricature b/c so much of the movie is seen from Turner's pov.

Spall and Horrocks are broadly written and played but their characters made sense.

I just found the whole restaurant scenario and Spall's performance grotesque. Horrocks pulled it off against all the odds.

I'm thinking Another Year might be his best lately

Vera Drake is excellent.

I havent seen that one

Watched Mr Turner last night. Absolutely wonderful.

Just watched "Another Year". Not sure how to feel about seeing Lesley Mansville portrayed as histrionic again (as in "Secrets and Lies"). A fine performance, but there's something broad about contrasting her desperation with the more settled, liberal Tom and Jerri couple. Perhaps the point is that for some people things stay roughly the same, whether they're fuck ups or getting through life comfortably with a smug disposition. The final dinner scene where Tom is talking about travelling and Ronnie and Mary look bored at the apparent superficiality of it all is well pitched.

Lesley Mansville portrayed as histrionic again (as in "Secrets and Lies")

??

Shit, I think I got her confused with another actress. My mistake.

Saw "Nuts in May" at the cinema last week. Utterly classic.

http://68.media.tumblr.com/fa81b072d35c5669db90e01bd5337905/tumblr_ns3q19GGlg1ubegd2o1_400.gif

She's in Secrets and Lies but she's very low key in it. I agree with you though, the film is completely off balance. The whole character is virtually unbelievable.

I got Lesley confused with Brenda who also plays a similarly damaged and hopeless person.

Lesley plays the woman in the adoption agency who gives the mothers details to Hortense. She's only in a couple of brief scenes.

Unbelievable? Quite the contrary, I found her character chillingly real; seen parts of that woman in real life many times.

Meantime out on Criterion. Jarvis Cocker's fumbling interview with Leigh is a minor classic; he still dresses like it's 1983.

Jarvis or Leigh?

Naked is so amazing. Lesley Sharp is the best