Tag Archives: Mike Leigh

MIKE LEIGH — THE EARLY YEARS

The early film and television work of Mike Leigh extended so-called “kitchen sink realism” into the Thatcher era, and no one examined the decimation of Britain’s working class in the 1980s with the rigor and humor of Leigh in Meantime, High Hopes, and Life is Sweet.

Leigh reached an artistic apotheosis of sorts in 1993 with Naked, and an breakthrough in the United States with his follow-up Secrets & Lies (1996).

In their weekend series Bleak But Never Boring—Life According to Mike Leigh, the American Cinematheque brings these defining films to the Aero for three double-feature programs.

NAKED and MEANTIME

Friday, April 5, at 7:30 pm.

SECRETS & LIES and VERA DRAKE

Saturday, April 6, at 7:30 pm.

LIFE IS SWEET and HIGH HOPES

Sunday, April 7, at 7:30 pm.

Aero Theatre

1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica.

From top: Tim Roth in Meantime (1983); Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Timothy Spall in Secrets & Lies (1996); David Thewlis in Naked (1993); Ruth Sheen and Phil Davis in High Hopes (1988); Jane Horrocks in Life is Sweet(1990).

MIKE LEIGH IN LOS ANGELES

Mike Leigh—England’s greatest living filmmaker—will be in Los Angeles to present his new film PETERLOO, the story of events leading up to the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, an event that forever changed Great Britain’s electoral system and journalistic practice.

Following an American Cinematheque screening to launch its upcoming retrospective Bleak But Never Boring: Life According to Mike Leigh, the director will participate in a conversation moderated by Jim Hemphill.

PETERLOO

Monday, April 1, at 7:30 pm.

Aero Theatre

1321 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica.

Peterloo (2019), directed by Mike Leigh. Images courtesy Cornerstone Films.