Far more hopeless and disenfranchising than any dystopic sci-fi flick at its most muck and mired could be, Mike Leigh’s 1984 drama Meantime is a cold and cruel look at a few days in the life of a family on the dole at the height of Thatcher’s Britain. Barely living in a squalid public-housing flat that is literally falling apart, put-upon mother Mavis (Pam Ferris) is the only one in the house with a job, while feckless father Frank (Jeff Robert) and sons Colin (Tim Roth) and Mark (Phil Daniels) mostly lounge about watching television, occasionally popping around to the pub to score drinks off pals and bum a few smokes while doing it. [ . . . ] Read complete review at Fowler’s Flix
Mike Leigh
Peterloo: Mike Leigh film releases first photo
Mike Leigh’s first film in more than three years is shaping up to be a marked change of pace for the celebrated English filmmaker.Released early Thursday, the first official still from Leigh’s historical drama Peterloo — a dramatization based on the titular massacre — sets the stage for a grim turn of events, one that ultimately leaves roughly a dozen people dead on the streets of Manchester in 1819.Starring Rory Kinnear, Christopher Eccleston, Maxine Peak, and David Bamber, Peterloo follows [ . . . ] More: Peterloo: Mike Leigh film releases first photo
Family Flavours in Mike Leigh’s ‘Life is Sweet’
Children are seldom seen in the cinema of Mike Leigh. This absence is doubtless due to the strictures of the director’s character- and story-building methods, which might make the participation of child actors in Leighland rather problematic. In fact, the only notable child protagonist in Leigh’s cinema is Charlie (Charlie Difford), Poppy’s student in Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), and even here the boy’s problems are merely used as a plot device to bring together the heroine and a social worker love interest. Though the issue is sometimes thematised in Leigh’s portraits of couples who are unable to conceive, the absence of children can seem a significant blind spot in films that clearly aspire to the presentation of full, detailed, realistically depicted social worlds.
Read Full Review at: Family Flavours in Mike Leigh’s ‘Life is Sweet’ | PopMatters
Alison Steadman on spiders and TV’s first lesbian kiss
Alison Steadman was raised in Liverpool but studied acting in Essex. That was where she met her future husband, Mike Leigh, and together they created Abigail’s Party [ . . . ]
Read Full Story: Alison Steadman on spiders and TV’s first lesbian kiss | Daily Mail Online