Download or read book Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh written by Mike Leigh and published by Faber & Faber Film. This book was released on 2021-10-07 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition updates Mike Leigh's career to his most recent films, Mister Turner and the epic masterpiece Peterloo. Five-time Oscar nominee and BAFTA winner, the only British director to have won the top prize at both Cannes (for Secrets & Lies) and Venice (for Vera Drake) - Mike Leigh is unquestionably one of world cinema's pre-eminent figures. Now, in this definitive career-length interview, he reflects on all that has gone into the making of his unique body of work. In their commingling of bleakness and humor, Leigh's films recreate the tragi-comic world of people whose everyday lives are far from glamorous: a world in which 'the done thing' usually prevails, contrary to our inner hopes, wants or needs. Leigh's work has always reflected its times and entered the vernacular, whether the harsh studies of Meantime and Naked or the humor of the now-legendary Abigail's Party and Nuts in May. Above all, Leigh is an accomplished storyteller, and these films deal with universal themes: births, marriages and deaths, parenthood and failed relationships, families and their secrets and lies. Within these pages Leigh speaks to Amy Raphael more openly than ever before of his life and inimitable working method, revealing himself as passionate, forthright, no sufferer of fools, but the owner of a dry and playful Mancunian wit.
Download or read book The Films of Mike Leigh written by Raymond Carney and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2000-06-19 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Carney examines one of the most important directors of British independent filmmaking.
Download or read book Mike Leigh written by Mike Leigh and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2000 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collected interviews with the British filmmaker of High Hopes, Life Is Sweet, and Secrets and Lies
Download or read book Devised and Directed by Mike Leigh written by Bryan Cardinale-Powell and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-07-22 with total page 589 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renowned for making films that are at once sly domestic satires and heartbreaking 'social realist' dramas, British writer-director Mike Leigh confronts his viewers with an un-romanticized dramatization of modern-day society in the hopes of inspiring them to strive for greater self-awareness and compassion for others. This collection features new, interdisciplinary essays that cover all phases of the BAFTA-award-winner's film career, from his early made-for-television film work to his theatrical releases, including Life is Sweet (1990), Naked (1993), Secrets & Lies (1996), Career Girls (1997), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), Vera Drake (2004), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) and Another Year (2010). With contributions from international scholars from a variety of fields, the essays in this collection cover individual films and the recurring themes and motifs in several films, such as representations of class and gender, and overt social commentary and political subtexts. Also covered are Leigh's visual stylizations and storytelling techniques ranging from explorations of the costume design to set design to the music and camerawork and editing; the collaborative process of 'devising and directing' a Mike Leigh film that involves character-building, world-construction, plotting, improvisations and script-writing; the process of funding and marketing for these seemingly 'uncommercial' projects, and a survey of Leigh's critical reception and the existing writing on his work.
Download or read book Mike Leigh written by Sean O'Sullivan and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2011-08-24 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author discusses the British film director Mike Leigh through an examination of his films as well as several interviews with Leigh and finds that he is a director interested in cinema's formal, conceptual, and narrative dimensions.
Download or read book To the Kwai and Back written by Ronald Searle and published by Souvenir Press. This book was released on 2019-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1941 Ronald Searle was made a prisoner of war by the Japanese, after 14 months in a POW camp he was sent to work on the Burma Railway until May 1944 when he was sent to the notorious Changi prison. Throughout his captivity Searle drew to record his experiences, hiding the drawings, and they have been become to be recognised as among the greatest, and most moving, record of WW2. Searle has described the book as "the grafitti of a condemned man... who found himself--to his surprise and delight -- among the reprieved."
Download or read book Devised and Directed by Mike Leigh written by Bryan Cardinale-Powell and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-07-22 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renowned for making films that are at once sly domestic satires and heartbreaking 'social realist' dramas, British writer-director Mike Leigh confronts his viewers with an un-romanticized dramatization of modern-day society in the hopes of inspiring them to strive for greater self-awareness and compassion for others. This collection features new, interdisciplinary essays that cover all phases of the BAFTA-award-winner's film career, from his early made-for-television film work to his theatrical releases, including Life is Sweet (1990), Naked (1993), Secrets & Lies (1996), Career Girls (1997), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), Vera Drake (2004), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) and Another Year (2010). With contributions from international scholars from a variety of fields, the essays in this collection cover individual films and the recurring themes and motifs in several films, such as representations of class and gender, and overt social commentary and political subtexts. Also covered are Leigh's visual stylizations and storytelling techniques ranging from explorations of the costume design to set design to the music and camerawork and editing; the collaborative process of 'devising and directing' a Mike Leigh film that involves character-building, world-construction, plotting, improvisations and script-writing; the process of funding and marketing for these seemingly 'uncommercial' projects, and a survey of Leigh's critical reception and the existing writing on his work.
Download or read book Grief written by Mike Leigh and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2012-04-03 with total page 131 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 1957. War widow Dorothy lives in a London suburb with her 15-year-old daughter Victoria and her older bachelor brother Edwin. More and more isolated from her married friends with their successful children, Dorothy tries to cope with Victoria's increasingly hostile behaviour. But is she doing her best, as she thinks, or is she in fact responsible for what threatens to become an unendurable situation?'A exquisitely observed, profoundly quiet slice of 1950s suburban life.' The Sunday Times'Meticulously evocative' Independent'Manville is magnificent in this broodingly muted family drama.' Sunday Express'Leigh makes you laugh and laugh - until you cry.' Time Out'A haunting portrait of loss and loneliness, exquisitely acted throughout and led by a riveting performance by Manville.' Financial Times'Leigh's meticulous production potently captures the pain that lurked behind stiff upper lips in the England of the Fifties.' Daily Telegraph'Nobody gets more truthful performances from actors than Mike Leigh.' The Times'The acting is superb.' Guardian'Leigh directs with sensitivity.' Evening Standard'Extraordinarily poignant' Independent on Sunday
Download or read book The Cinema of Mike Leigh written by Garry Watson and published by Wallflower Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A keen observer of British manners and mores, Mike Leigh has been hailed as a celebrator of 'ordinary' people. Comparing and contrasting all his films from Bleak Moments and High Hopes through Naked, the Oscar nominated Secrets and Lies and Topsy Turvy to All or Nothing, Garry Watson considers this claim, examining both their influence and their effect. Through careful textual detail and wider social and literary comparison with the works of Charles Dickens and T.S. Eliot, he argues ultimately for the aritistic and cultural significance of Leigh's work as one of Britain's most respected film-makers.
Download or read book Existentialism and Contemporary Cinema written by Jean-Pierre Boulé and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Simone de Beauvoir’s work has not often been associated with film studies, which appears paradoxical when it is recognized that she was the first feminist thinker to inaugurate the concept of the gendered ‘othering’ gaze. This book is an attempt to redress this balance and reopen the dialogue between Beauvoir’s writings and film studies. The authors analyse a range of films, from directors including Claire Denis, Michael Haneke, Lucille Hadzihalilovic, Sam Mendes, and Sally Potter, by drawing from Beauvoir’s key works such as The Second Sex (1949), The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947) and Old Age (1970).
Download or read book Two Thousand Years written by Mike Leigh and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "In Two Thousand Years Mike Leigh explores, in a gentle tragi-comic way, a wide range of issues, including politics, religion, identity and the vexed question of Israel and the Middle East."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Mike Leigh written by Tony Whitehead and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-19 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mike Leigh may well be Britain’s greatest living film director; his worldview has permeated our national consciousness. This book gives detailed readings of the nine feature films he has made for the cinema, as well as an overview of his work for television. Written with the co-operation of Leigh himself, this is the first study of his work to challenge the critical privileging of realism in histories of the British cinema, placing the emphasis instead on the importance of comedy and humour: of jokes and their functions, of laughter as a survival mechanism, and of characterisations and situations that disrupt our preconceptions of ‘realism’. Striving for the all-important quality of truth in everything he does, Leigh has consistently shown how ordinary lives are too complex to fit snugly into the conventions of narrative art. From the bittersweet observation of Life is Sweet or Secrets and Lies, to the blistering satire of Naked and the manifest compassion of Vera Drake, he has demonstrated a matchless ability to perceive life’s funny side as well as its tragedies.
Download or read book The World According to Mike Leigh written by Michael Coveney and published by Trafalgar Square Publishing. This book was released on 1997 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a biography of Mike Leigh, one of Britain's most original film makers and playwrights, and the creator of High Hopes, Abigail's Party and Naked. He is well-known for the unique methods that he uses.
Download or read book Rites of Realism written by Ivone Margulies and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2003-03-27 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rites of Realism shifts the discussion of cinematic realism away from the usual focus on verisimilitude and faithfulness of record toward a notion of "performative realism," a realism that does not simply represent a given reality but enacts actual social tensions. These essays by a range of film scholars propose stimulating new approaches to the critical evaluation of modern realist films and such referential genres as reenactment, historical film, adaptation, portrait film, and documentary. By providing close readings of classic and contemporary works, Rites of Realism signals the need to return to a focus on films as the main innovators of realist representation. The collection is inspired by André Bazin's theories on film's inherent heterogeneity and unique ability to register contingency (the singular, one-time event). This volume features two new translations: of Bazin's seminal essay "Death Every Afternoon" and Serge Daney's essay reinterpreting Bazin's defense of the long shot as a way to set the stage for a clash or risky confrontation between man and animal. These pieces evince key concerns—particularly the link between cinematic realism and contingency—that the other essays explore further. Among the topics addressed are the provocative mimesis of Luis Buñuel's Land Without Bread; the adaptation of trial documents in Carl Dreyer's Passion of Joan of Arc; the use of the tableaux vivant by Wim Wenders and Peter Greenaway; and Pier Paolo Pasolini's strategies of analogy in his transposition of The Gospel According to St. Matthew from Palestine to southern Italy. Essays consider the work of filmmakers including Michelangelo Antonioni, Maya Deren, Mike Leigh, Cesare Zavattini, Zhang Yuan, and Abbas Kiarostami. Contributors: Paul Arthur, André Bazin, Mark A. Cohen, Serge Daney, Mary Ann Doane, James F. Lastra, Ivone Margulies, Abé Mark Normes, Brigitte Peucker, Richard Porton, Philip Rosen, Catherine Russell, James Schamus, Noa Steimatsky, Xiaobing Tang
Download or read book Best Movie Year Ever written by Brian Raftery and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2020-03-31 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a veteran culture writer and modern movie expert, a celebration and analysis of the movies of 1999—“a terrifically fun snapshot of American film culture on the brink of the Millennium….An absolute must for any movie-lover or pop-culture nut” (Gillian Flynn). In 1999, Hollywood as we know it exploded: Fight Club. The Matrix. Office Space. Election. The Blair Witch Project. The Sixth Sense. Being John Malkovich. Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. American Beauty. The Virgin Suicides. Boys Don’t Cry. The Best Man. Three Kings. Magnolia. Those are just some of the landmark titles released in a dizzying movie year, one in which a group of daring filmmakers and performers pushed cinema to new limits—and took audiences along for the ride. Freed from the restraints of budget, technology, or even taste, they produced a slew of classics that took on every topic imaginable, from sex to violence to the end of the world. The result was a highly unruly, deeply influential set of films that would not only change filmmaking, but also give us our first glimpse of the coming twenty-first century. It was a watershed moment that also produced The Sopranos; Apple’s AirPort; Wi-Fi; and Netflix’s unlimited DVD rentals. “A spirited celebration of the year’s movies” (Kirkus Reviews), Best. Movie. Year. Ever. is the story of not just how these movies were made, but how they re-made our own vision of the world. It features more than 130 new and exclusive interviews with such directors and actors as Reese Witherspoon, Edward Norton, Steven Soderbergh, Sofia Coppola, David Fincher, Nia Long, Matthew Broderick, Taye Diggs, M. Night Shyamalan, David O. Russell, James Van Der Beek, Kirsten Dunst, the Blair Witch kids, the Office Space dudes, the guy who played Jar-Jar Binks, and dozens more. It’s “the complete portrait of what it was like to spend a year inside a movie theater at the best possible moment in time” (Chuck Klosterman).
Download or read book Smelling a Rat written by Mike Leigh and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rex Weasel, owner of the Vermination Pest Control Company, has returned home from holiday unexpectedly and without his wife. Hoping to lay low, his plans are rudely interrupted when one of his employees, Vic Maggot and his wife, Charmaine, drop in to check on the apartment. They're not even supposed to be there as Vic is filling in for another of Rex's employees. To complicate matters further, the Weasels' estranged son, Rocky shows up with his girlfriend, Melanie-Jane.
Download or read book The Late Hector Kipling written by David Thewlis and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-11-06 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hector Kipling is a famous artist. But Hector is not as famous as his best friend, Lenny Snook. And as they are standing in the Tate Gallery one afternoon, Hector's life begins to unravel. For a painter, this existential crisis is the place from which great art is born. If the painter happens to be a forty-three-year-old man with a girlfriend away from home, it is the recipe for disaster. Soon it's all Hector can do to keep it together -- between his therapist who shows up drunk at a party and introduces herself to his parents, an irresistible young female poet with a terrifying taste for S&M, and a deranged stalker with an oil-and-canvas-inspired vendetta, just trying to cope is enough to make a man cry. As the events in his life threaten to drive him toward full-blown dementia, Hector finds himself in a bizarre and murderous pursuit of a man threatening to kill him in return, spiraling into a hysterically surreal Hitchcocklike thriller -- the story of how a man can become desperate enough to shoot his way out of a midlife crisis. At turns warm, witty, and joyfully absurd, David Thewlis's wicked comedy marks the debut of a savagely funny and observant literary talent.
