The sorrow and beauty of life: Defining the films of Mike Leigh through five iconic scenes
The films of Mike Leigh speak in a cinematic language that few others can truly match. Rehearsing extensively with his respective cast members long before a camera rolls, Leigh has a unique approach to cinema thanks to his beginnings in the world of theatre, where he allowed actors to create characters independent of everyone else before they were all tied together into one encompassing story.
This technique has since been utilised time and time again in everything from his breakout TV play Abigail’s Party all the way through to his epic 2018 drama Peterloo, based on the massacre of 1819 that occurred in Manchester, prompting some of British cinema’s finest moments in the process. Able to access the very core of the human condition through characters that entwine and interact as if they were your next-door neighbour, Leigh is a profound creative genius.
Since beginning as a director dedicated to contemporary tales of social realism, Leigh has also delved into the elaborate world of period dramas, first journeying into the past with 1999’s musical Topsy-Turvy. Sometimes lacking the emotional heft of his domestic dramas, such films serve to demonstrate the true dynamism of a creative who is doggedly focused on the cinematic experience above all else.
With 2024’s Hard Truths thought to likely be his final movie, Leigh leaves an impact on British cinema that cannot be matched by even the most ardent devotees of social realism.
Mike Leigh through five iconic scenes:
Dinner – Another Year (2010)
A little overlooked in the filmography of Leigh is his 2010 domestic drama Another Year. Set in the suburbs of contemporary London, the story focuses on the life of Tom and Gerri, whose quiet life ebbs and flows with the winds of change. Dealing with death, newfound love and friends whose lives have stalled to a halt, Leigh masterfully unravels how tricky it can be simply to exist and how solace can be found in the steady plodding of time.
While not the traditional protagonist, it is the character of Mary, played by Lesley Manville, who complicates the story and steadily becomes the key figure of tragedy. Giving what could certainly be one of the greatest performances of the modern century, Lesley Manville plays the desperate character and alcoholic who struggles for human connection with such unbearable anguish.
The film is indebted to her character and Manville’s performance, with this becoming so ever apparent during the closing scene when Mary is questioned about her past in Corfu when she used to “run a bar on a beach”. Staring at the young people across the table who speak of adventures they soon will share, Mary sinks her head and longs wistfully for the person she once was. Leigh will likely never better this beautiful moment of human tragedy.
“Chewing 72 times” – Nuts in May (1976)
From one of Mike Leigh’s most tragic moments to one of his funniest. In 1976, Leigh stamped his name in the echelons of British cinema with Nuts in May, one of nine television plays he made for the small screen. No doubt one of his simplest works, Nuts in May told the story of a peculiar middle-class couple who venture to Dorset for a camping holiday, where their oddities are brought to the surface by constant irritation.
A creative precursor to Ben Wheatley’s own countryside-based tale of dark comedy, 2012’s Sightseers, Nuts in May was an altogether lighter affair which remains standing as one of Leigh’s greatest comedic successes. Championed for its lead characters, Candice Marie (Alison Steadman) and Keith Pratt (Roger Sloman), who witter away in the Dorset hills with the same dry, self-assured nonsense that can be seen mimicked in much of contemporary comedy.
While their entire trip is engrossing from the very off, the picnic in the hills, where they discuss the number of chews necessary to properly swallow a mushroom, is utter gold. Indeed, its weird rural setting, peculiar lead characters, and idiosyncratic dedication to dry humour can also be seen reflected in the 2017 sitcom This Country, a series that shares a defiant dedication to its British identity.
“Bored” – Naked (1993)
As this list may have already demonstrated, Mike Leigh is a formidable filmmaker who reflects reality in cinema through tales of tragedy, comedy and hope, accurately capturing the whole spectrum of human emotions. 1993’s Naked, for which he won the ‘Best Director’ award at the Cannes Film Festival, is certainly one of his most solemn movies, telling the story of an unemployed man from Manchester who ventures to London to find some sort of purpose.
Interrupting the life of his estranged friend, Johnny, played with fierce dedication by David Thewlis, proceeds to stalk the streets of London like some sort of contemporary bellman who decries the state of the world. Making the British capital look like some sort of desperate apocalyptic wasteland, Leigh makes his protagonist a figure of nihilism, venomously lashing out at the coming storm of capitalism.
Yet, perhaps one of the most frightening aspects of his character is the wisdom he possesses, with such revealing itself prominently when he snaps at his former friend when she asks him if he’s “bored”.
“You’ve had nature explained to you and you’re bored with it, you’ve had the human body explained to you, and you’re bored with it,” he barks, as Leigh’s most embittered idealist demands to be heard.
‘The Sun Whose Rays Are All Ablaze’ – Topsy-Turvy (1999)
Leigh is a man of many creative outlets, with 1999’s Topsy-Turvy speaking directly to his proficiency as a playwright and his ability to masterfully capture on-stage drama. Distinctively different from much of his filmography, Topsy-Turvy charts the rise of the real-life theatrical writers Gilbert and Sullivan, who, in the 1880s, wrote The Mikado, an opera and satire of contemporary British society set in a fantasy version of Japan.
The film itself dissects exactly how this production was put together, with Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) and Sullivan (Allan Corduner) working doggedly with a team of fellow creatives to try and make the musical work. Championed for its sheer authenticity and dedication in its efforts to properly break down the intricacies of the creative process, Topsy-Turvy is one of Leigh’s most impressive achievements.
While several moments capture the heart of what it means to be a performer and what it means to be an artist, the performance of ‘The Sun Whose Rays Are All Ablaze’ may be the very best. Perfectly shot by Leigh, who quietens the glamour of the performance and instead focuses on the tragic figure of Leonora Braham, the real-life singer and alcoholic, played with such tender dedication by Shirley Henderson. On the surface, it’s a magnificent performance, yet there are untold layers to this scene that Leigh so masterfully weaves.
“You’ve given up” – Life is Sweet (1990)
Many of Leigh’s greatest ever moments come through simple conversations between friends, family, fathers and mothers. Such is the case for Imelda Staunton’s Janet and Ruth Sheen’s Gerri in Another Year, as well as Brenda Blethyn’s Cynthia and Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s Hortense in Secrets and Lies, but one of his finest-written conversations comes with a desperate mother and her adrift daughter in Life is Sweet.
Leigh’s masterwork perfectly balances the line between tragedy and comedy, with Life Is Sweet largely being his most humorous piece of cinema. Set in a sleepy suburb of London, the film follows a working-class family trying to make ends meet while supporting their twin daughters and their peculiar friend, Aubrey, who’s preparing for the grand opening of his eccentric French restaurant.
At the heart of the story is the relationship between Alison Steadman’s Wendy and her daughter Nicola (Jane Horrocks). Suffering from an unspecified eating disorder, Nicola struggles to define herself, like many teenagers her own age, but has believed her own self-satisfaction so much that she has sunk into a depression. Yet, just like any mother who cares so deeply for her daughter, in one scene, Wendy cannot withhold her disappointment as she desperately pleads with her daughter to reach out for help.
As Leigh has demonstrated with unparalleled ability time and time again, love is a cruel emotion that will torment your soul, fester in your mind and change your perspective on life itself.
