Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh

by Raphael, Amy

• ISBN13: 9780571204694
• ISBN10: 0571204694
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-14
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Summary

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. Leigh’s work has always reflected its times, whether the harsh studies of Meantime and Naked or the humour 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.

Author Biography

Amy Raphael was born in London in 1967. She has worked for Elle and Esquire and now freelances for The Observer and The Daily Telegraph. Her first book, Never Mind the Bollocks: Women Rewrite Rock was published by Virago in 1995.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Bleak Moments	p. 45
Hard Labour	p. 64
The Permissive Society	p. 77
'The Five-Minute Films'	p. 82
Nuts in May	p. 88
The Kiss of Death	p. 100
Abigail's Party	p. 109
Who's Who	p. 125
Grown-Ups	p. 132
Home Sweet Home	p. 146
Meantime	p. 155
Four Days in July	p. 169
The Short and Curlies	p. 183
High Hopes	p. 189
Life Is Sweet	p. 205
A Sense of History	p. 220
Naked	p. 224
Secrets & Lies	p. 250
Career Girls	p. 277
Topsy-Turvy	p. 288
All or Nothing	p. 317
Vera Drake	p. 338
Epilogue	p. 371
Acknowledgements	p. 380
Filmography	p. 381
Stage Plays, with commentary	p. 391
Index	p. 425
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