TSPDT

Key Production Countries: UK, France
Key Genres: Drama, Comedy, Comedy Drama, Ensemble Film, Family Drama, Satire, Domestic Comedy, Urban Drama, Social Problem Film, Psychological Drama, Period Film, Slice of Life
Key Collaborators: Dick Pope (Cinematographer), Simon Channing-Williams (Producer), Lesley Manville (Leading Character Actress), Jon Gregory (Editor), Philip Davis (Leading Character Actor), Alison Steadman (Leading Character Actress), Andrew Dickson (Composer), Ruth Sheen (Character Actress), Timothy Spall (Leading Actor), Robin Sales (Editor), Marion Bailey (Leading Character Actress), Jim Broadbent (Leading Character Actor)

"Rather than pontificating on the ideological implications of the average worker’s plight, Leigh’s films dramatize the efficacy of socialism through stories of communities learning to support each other (or of the tragedy of individuals cast adrift). Leigh’s working method also emphasizes group effort; he develops scripts with his cast in an improvisational atmosphere before setting the dialogue down in stone (a technique that also helps the sense of realism)… Leigh’s use of family dynamics makes it easy for most viewers to sympathize with the characters, even when they display unlikable qualities. Combining such dynamics with moments of laughter and tears, Leigh’s films use emotion rather than rhetoric to portray the lives of the working class." - Sean Griffin (Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film, 2007)

"He made his cinema debut with Bleak Moments (1971) and went on to create a body of work noted for its truthful and compassionate dramatization of everyday lives and universal concerns." - Chambers Film Factfinder, 2006

"One of the most independent directors, Mike Leigh has developed individualistic working methods that produce hilarious and realistic critiques of mundane existences." - Ronald Bergan (Film - Eyewitness Companions, 2006)

"Although Leigh has been accused of patronising his characters and encouraging the audience to look down and snigger at their antics, most of them, despite their eccentricities, are ordinary individuals courageously struggling with limited resources to confront life's problems. Brenda Blethyn's Cynthia in Secrets & Lies - an unmarried woman who endures a boring factory job, lives unhappily with a daughter who regards her with sullen resentment, and is dependent for survival on her more successful brother - faces life's injustices with enterprise and humanity. It is one of Leigh's greatest strengths that his films recognise and celebrate the heroism of seemingly insignificant characters as they try to overcome their limitations, express themselves, and do the right thing." - Richard Dacre (BFI Screen Online)

"While remaining fiercely independent and staunchly left-wing in his attitudes, Leigh has built up a body of work that anatomizes Britain's class system and everyday family life. The best of them, Life is Sweet (1990), Secrets & Lies (1996), All or Nothing (2002), Vera Drake (2004), and his most abrasive film, Naked (1993), articulate a subversive critique of English life that is often funny and often acutely painful. " - Philip Kemp (501 Movie Directors, 2007)

"The great prickly humanist of British cinema, Mike Leigh has forged a body of work unique in its concern for the struggles of ordinary people and the social fabric of working-class London. Famously born from a process of extensive improvisation with his powerhouse actors, Leigh’s films inhabit a register of tragicomic despair that, thanks to their unwavering compassion, never slips into miserabilism. From his early slice-of-life portraits of Thatcher-era Britain (Meantime, High Hopes) to his award-winning international triumphs (Naked, Secrets & Lies), Leigh plumbs the darkest depths of the human condition without ever losing hope." - The Criterion Channel

"Along with Ken Loach, he has been responsible for keeping the flame of socially relevant, realist cinema alive in Britain. For his many admirers, the gallery of exceptional performances, the humanity of his stories and the ongoing political commitment of his cinema have made him a treasured figure. His detractors point to a tendency to drift into caricature and suggest his use of humorous stereotyping as an indication of a patronising attitude. However, few would deny his importance in British cinema of the last twenty-five years." - Robert Shail (British Film Directors: A Critical Guide, 2007)

"More than any other post-war British filmmaker, Mike Leigh has nurtured Britain's hallowed tradition of television directors helming feature films of exceptional humour and insight... Leigh's improvisational method places characters and actors at the heart of the work. Descending from the revolution engendered by John Cassavetes, the nouvelle vague, public "happenings" and the Living Theatre, Leigh generates performances partly from the script but more significantly from the stuff of his actors' own experiences, instincts and intuitions." - Richard Armstrong (The Rough Guide to Film, 2007)

"Film-makers should remain true to their principles and never compromise, there is a real revival in the British film industry but there is a danger that we will become colonial servants of Hollywood. We need to maintain our own integrity." - Mike Leigh