Mike Leigh interviewed by Amy Raphael | BFI London Film Festival 2024 Screen Talk

Celebrating the release of his powerful new film Hard Truths, Mike Leigh joins us for this Screen Talk, where he discusses his acclaimed career.

Mike Leigh started out in theatre in the mid-1960s before transitioning to television drama, which saw productions of his plays Nuts in May (1976) and Abigail’s Party (1977). The varying quality of TV production saw Leigh prefer to work on theatrical features, such as his debut Bleak Moments (1971) and his 1983 follow-up Meantime, a scathing portrait of Thatcher’s Britain.

High Hopes (1988) and Life Is Sweet (1990) perfectly encapsulated Leigh’s balance of characterisation and social comedy, which can also be seen in Career Girls (1997), All or Nothing (2002), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008). Secrets & Lies (1996) is arguably the apotheosis of this style. It won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, Best British Film at the BAFTAs and was nominated for five Academy Awards. Another acclaimed film, Naked (1993), is arguably the filmmaker’s most splenetic attack on the British establishment and a drama of great verve and striking visual style. By contrast, Another Year (2010) saw Leigh grapple with the passage of time and is underpinned by profound compassion and mordant humour.

Alongside his contemporary-set films, Leigh has produced a handful of period dramas whose canvases are as rich as they are potent in the themes they explore, from Vera Drake’s (2004) painful portrait of a well-meaning backstreet abortionist and Peterloo’s (2018) recounting of a dreadful episode in British history, to Topsy-Turvy’s (1999) exuberant portrait of Victorian theatrical partners Gilbert and Sullivan, and Mr. Turner’s (2014) visually rich, utterly engrossing study of one of Britain’s greatest painters.

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