Mike Leigh
Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE (born 20 February 1943) is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s his career moved between work for the theatre and making films for BBC Television, many of which were characterized by a gritty "kitchen sink realism" style. His well-known films include Life is Sweet (1990), the comedy-drama Career Girls (1997), the Gilbert and Sullivan biopic Topsy Turvy (1999), and the bleak working-class drama All or Nothing (2002). His most notable works are arguably Naked (1993) for which he won the Best Director Award at Cannes, the BAFTA-winning (and Oscar-nominated) Palme d'Or winner Secrets & Lies (1996) and Golden Lion winner Vera Drake (2004).
His films and stage plays, according to the critic Michael Coveney, "comprise a distinctive, homogenous body of work which stands comparison with anyone's in the British theatre and cinema over the same period." Coveney further noted Leigh's role in helping to create stars – Liz Smith in Hard Labour, Alison Steadman in Abigail's Party, Brenda Blethyn in Grown-Ups, Antony Sher in Goose-Pimples, Gary Oldman and Tim Roth in Meantime, Jane Horrocks in Life is Sweet, David Thewlis in Naked – and remarked that the list of actors who have worked with him over the years – including Sheila Kelley, Paul Jesson, Phil Daniels, Lindsay Duncan, Lesley Sharp, Kathy Burke, Stephen Rea, Eric Richard, Julie Walters – "comprises an impressive, almost representative, nucleus of outstanding British acting talent." Ian Buruma, writing in the New York Review of Books in January 1994, noted: "It is hard to get on a London bus or listen to the people at the next table in a cafeteria without thinking of Mike Leigh. Like other wholly original artists, he has staked out his own territory. Leigh's London is as distinctive as Fellini's Rome or Ozu's Tokyo."
Description above from the Wikipedia article Mike Leigh, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For | Directing |
---|---|
Most Rating | 4.184 |
Birthday | 1943-02-20 |
Place of Birth | Salford, Greater Manchester, England, UK |
Also Known As | 마이크 리, |
2009
Looking for Truffaut
7/1
Documentary about François Truffaut who is one of the most respected directors in the history of cinema.
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Looking for Truffaut
2000
Humphrey Jennings: The Man Who Listened to Britain
5.8/4
Documentary about Humphrey Jennings, an English documentary filmmaker from the 1930s to 1950.
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Humphrey Jennings: The Man Who Listened to Britain
2021
Why Are We (Not) Creative?
6/1
In this second installment of his exploration of creativity, Hermann Vaske looks for factors that inhibit it. He asks artists, activists, and thinkers...
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Why Are We (Not) Creative?
1998
Inside the Golden Statue
6.3/3
A behind-the-scenes look at the preparations for the live broadcast of the 69th Annual Academy Awards ceremony.
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Inside the Golden Statue
2003
Cinema16: British Short Films
4.6/5
This critically acclaimed DVD contains 16 of the best classic and award winning British short films and delivers a snapshot of British cinema past and...
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Cinema16: British Short Films
Untitled 13
0/0
Documentary about the making of Mike Leigh's Mr.Turner, unreleased due to unspecified 'legal reasons'
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Untitled 13
2024
Her Name Was Moviola
0/0
A documentary about cutting film... the way it used to be done.
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Her Name Was Moviola
2023
Cannes Uncut
5.8/4
Looks at the glamour, red carpets, movies, craziness, stunts, deals, parties and personalities that have been part of the Cannes Film Festival over ei...
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Cannes Uncut
1982
Mike Leigh: Making Plays
8/1
Writer and Director Mike Leigh discusses the techniques used to create his plays.
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Mike Leigh: Making Plays
2014
The One and Only Mike Leigh
9/1
In a revealing documentary, Mike Leigh, director of Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake and Abigail's Party among many others, talks to Alan Yentob about a...
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The One and Only Mike Leigh
1998
Welcome to Hollywood
3.9/10
A film director decides to chart the course of a young actor as he tries to make it in Hollywood...
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Welcome to Hollywood
2009
Vittorio D.
6.3/9
A documentary about Vittorio de Sica with clips of his films and testimonials from friends and family.
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Vittorio D.
2013
What Is Cinema?
6.4/21
Using the words and ideas of great filmmakers, from archival interviews with Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Bresson to new interviews with Mike Leigh, Da...
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What Is Cinema?
2000
Mike Leigh: The Conversation
0/0
An interview with British film director Mike Leigh produced for BBC-TV.
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Mike Leigh: The Conversation
2018
Scenes from A Separation
0.5/1
Scenes from A Separation
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Scenes from A Separation
2007
All About 'Abigail's Party'
6.3/3
A look at the production of Play for Today: Abigail's Party (1977).
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All About 'Abigail's Party'
2020
Drama Out of a Crisis: A Celebration of Play for Today
0/0
Marking Play for Today’s 50th anniversary, Drama Out of a Crisis is a compelling exploration of the series, its origins, achievements, controversies a...
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Drama Out of a Crisis: A Celebration of Play for Today
1963
Two Left Feet
5/1
Based on David Stuart Leslie's novel Two Left Feet is a story about Alan Crabbe (Michael Crawford a callow youth desperate for a date with any girl wh...
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Two Left Feet
2025
Citizen B
0/0
Documentary on Ciby 2000, the French film production company founded by Francis Bouygues in 1990.
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Citizen B
2016
Alan Clarke: Out of His Own Light
0/0
A multi-part documentary about Alan Clarke, featuring interviews with various actors, writers and producers.
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