A brief and incomplete personal introduction to Mike Leigh’s work.

A brief and incomplete personal introduction to Mike Leigh’s work.

I saw Mike Leigh give a talk when one of his earlier films was being showcased as a part of the Surrey Institute film programme. ‘Naked’ was a very hard-hitting film, one that involved a rape scene, so the viewing public needed to be made of stern stuff. Luckily many of the audience members came were film connoisseurs and were keen fans of the director.  It made it clear that Leigh is not one to flinch from portraying some of the more gritty aspects of life on film.

Leigh is one of England’s own, and his style of work is quite distinct. Trained as an actor (British Council), 2011), his refinement of the process of writing plays and developing scripts is distinct. I understand that often there is no final script at the beginning of the process, but the development of the script or screenplay is shared with the actors (both men and women) so that their own research on the characters create realistically derived scenes where the dialogue in uncannily true to life because the characters are ‘themselves’. While in production, the actors are not allowed to discuss the project as it s still being formed. Having watched a number of the films now, and at least one  of the plays, the ultimately keep your interest because they are not formulaic in the ‘hollywood’ sense, although Leigh’s fascination with the mundane and dark side of life has been a repeated theme for his own work. Risky business for the film industry, but Mike Leigh’s career is a long and successful one in Britiain (BFI, 2011).

British Council (2011 online) Available from http://literature.britishcouncil.org/mike-leigh
[Accessed 4/10/11]

British Film Institute (BFI) (2011 online) Available from http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/461294/ [Accessed 4/10/11]