Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh

by Amy Raphael

An insightful collection of original interviews with the innovative director of Secrets & Lies

 

A five-time Oscar nominee and BAFTA winner and 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 preeminent figures. First trained in theater, Leigh devised his own method for the making of first plays and then films, based on months of improvisation and rehearsal with actors prior to shooting. Leigh’s actors invent characters based on real people, each unaware of what the other is up to or the larger design Leigh has in mind.

In their commingling of bleakness and humor, Leigh’s films re-create the tragicomic world of people whose everyday lives are far from glamorous: a world in which “the done thing” usually prevails, contrary to our inner hopes, wants, or needs. Leigh’s work has always reflected its times and entered the vernacular, whether the harsh studies of Meantime and Naked or the humor 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. Leigh speaks to Amy Raphael more openly than ever before about his life and inimitable working method, revealing himself as passionate, wise, and the owner of a dry and playful Mancunian wit.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Theatre, Biography

464 pages, Paperback

First published September 16, 2008

Reviews

[Michael]

A very in-depth look at the career of the great director, Mike Leigh. The author goes through Leigh's work with him film by film in a series of interviews. There's a lot of great behind the scenes information about what it takes to get even smaller-budget films made, some good information about Leigh's process and talk about the actors he likes to use. There is some personal discussion, but it is mostly about the work. Highly recommended if you enjoy Leigh's films.

[Sam Kench]

Leigh stubbornly refuses to delve deeply into his unique rehearsal and improvisation processes, hiding them as "trade secrets." It's a highly respectable move as a filmmaker but does have the downside of hampering the content of this book significantly, especially since that information is specifically what I was interested in when picking this up. Still, there are plenty of worthwhile insights into the making of his films and nuggets of wisdom regarding his directorial process.

[فيصل]

ابتداءً أود أن أقول أنني من محبي مايك لي، وأعتبره من أفضل 5 او 10 مخرجين شاهدتهم، أحب واقعيته الفجة وشخصياته المضطربة والمتطرفة. أفلامه تنطلق من فهم عميق للنفس البشرية وتعقيداتها وتناقضاتها.
هذا الكتاب ليس سيئاً، لكني لم أجد ما أبحث عنه هنا، كنت أنتظر في هذه الحوارات أن أفهم أفكار الرجل وفلسفته، أن أخرج بتجربة مثرية كما هي تجربة مشاهدة كل فيلم له، لكن بدلاً من ذلك، تتركز معظم الحوارات حول الجوانب التقنية في صناعته للأفلام، كيف تم تصوير المشهد الفلاني واختيار الممثل العلاني. ورغم أن طريقته في صناعة الأفلام متفردة فعلاً فهي ليست السبب الأساسي في تميزه، تميزه نابع من التأثير العميق الذي تتركه الشخصيات في نفس المشاهد. ربما لو كان الكتاب عن مخرج آخر -كوبريك مثلاً- سأجد مناقشة أسلوبه التقني مثيرة للاهتمام أكثر.

[Jon Davison]

Quite a disappointment from my point of view. I love (most of) Mike Leigh's films, especially how the actors work, and was excited to read about how they achieved that. But I didn't find much of that in this book, despite it being more than long enough to include some in-depth discussion. There are hints, but there are more moments of Leigh saying that he either doesn’t know how to explain it, or doesn't want to because it's a secret. That's a shame for a book about such a unique director of actors.

The other thing that put me off the book was how unkind he comes across, when talking about other artists.

[John Bleasdale]

Really revealing.

[Brad]

The 45-page introduction, describing Leigh’s method, is fascinating. The last five pages, describing how Leigh can no longer get funding to make the films he wants, is depressing as hell.

[Ally McCulloch]

Quotes I like:

p.63 "The real issue at stake is how hard it is in societies when you're free to choose your own partner to find the right partner: someone with whom, on a very basic level, you can just communicate, quite apart from more complicated issues like sexual compatibility."