Mike Leigh

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Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English writer and stage producer.

He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), East 15 Acting School, and later at the Camberwell School of Art and Design, London Film School.

In the mid-1960s, he began as a stage manager and playwright. In the 1970s and 1980s, his career alternated between theatre work and producing films for BBC Television.

His best-known films include Life Is Sweet (1990) and Career Girls (1997), the Gilbert and Sullivan biographical film Topsy-Turvy (1999), and the bleak working-class drama All or Nothing (2002).

Mr. Turner's best known scripts include the black comedy-drama Naked (1993), for which he received the Best Director Award at Cannes, the Oscar-nominated, BAFTA, Palme d'Or-winning drama Secrets & Lies (1996), the Golden Lion winning working-class drama Vera Drake (2004), and the Palme d'Or-nominated biopic Mr. Turner (2014).

Smelling A Rat, It's A Big Shame, Greek Tragedy, Goose-Pimples, Ecstasy, and Abigail's Party are among his stage performances. Leigh is well-known for his long rehearsal and improvisation techniques with actors to help create characters and plot for his films.

His aim is to capture reality and produce "emotional, subjective, intuitive, instinctive, vulnerable films." According to critic Michael Coveney, his films and stage performances "comprise a distinct, homogenous body of work that compares to anyone else's in the British theatre and cinema during the same period." "Leigh, not only helped create actors such as Liz Smith, Manuel Stewart, Alison Steadman in Abigail's Party, Brenda Blethyn in Goose-Pimples, Susan Sher's in Meantime, Keith Wade, Stephen Rea, and Tim Roth in Meantime, "comprises an impressive, almost complete list of outstanding British actor talent," Coveney said. His aesthetic has been likened to the sensibility of Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu and the Italian Federico Fellini.

In January 1994, Ian Buruma, writing in The New York Review of Books, wrote: "It is impossible to get on a London bus or listen to the people at the next table in a cafeteria without thinking about Mike Leigh."

He has staked out his own territory, much as other wholly original artists.

Leigh's London is as distinctive as Fellini's Rome or Tokyo's Tokyo."

Early life

Leigh was born to Phyllis Pauline (née Cousin) and Alfred Abraham Leigh, a physician, and a doctor. Leigh was born in Brocket Hall in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, which was then a maternity home at the time. His mother, who was in jail, stayed with her parents in Hertfordshire for warmth and help while her husband was serving as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Leigh was born in Salford, Lancashire, and he was brought up. He attended North Grecian Street Junior School. He is from a Jewish family; his paternal grandparents, Russian-Jewish immigrants who settled in Manchester, are from Russia. The family name, originally Lieberman, had been anglicised in 1939 "for obvious reasons." As the war came, Leigh's father began his work as a general practitioner in Higher Broughton, "the epicentre of Leigh's younger years and the place was commemorated in Hard Labour." Leigh Leigh and his sister Les Blair, who made Leigh's first feature film Bleak Moments (1971), attended Salford Grammar School. Drama in the all-boys school had a strong tradition, and Mr Nutter, the English master, supervised the library with recently published plays.

Leigh thrived in the Manchester branch of Labour Zionist youth movement Habonim's Habonim, outside of school. He attended summer camps and winter sports over the Christmas break around the world in the late 1950s. Cinema was still the most important part of his artistic consumption at this period, despite Picasso's discovery of Picasso, Surrection, The Goon Exhibition, and even family visits to the Hallé Orchestra and the D'Oyly Carte. Leigh's father, on the other hand, was firmly opposed to the belief that he could be a writer or an actor. He had to refrain from sketching visitors who came to the house or regarded him as a problem child due to his creative obsessions. He received a scholarship to RADA in 1960, "to his complete surprise." Leigh, who was originally trained as an actor at RADA, began to honed his directing abilities at East 15 Acting School, where he met actress Alison Steadman.

Leigh, who responded negatively to RADA's plans, discovered himself learning how to "laugh, cry, and snog" for weekly rep purposes, and became a sullen student. He later attended Camberwell School of Art and Crafts (in 1963), the Central School of Art and Design, and the London School of Film Technique on Charlotte Street. When Leigh first arrived in London, one of his first films he had seen was Shadows (1959), an improvised film by John Cassavetes in which a cast of unknowns was seen 'living, loving, and bickering' on New York's streets. Other influences from this period included Harold Pinter's The Caretaker (Arts Theatre) performance, Leigh's reading of Flann O'Brien's "tragi-comedy" Leigh's "play"—Leigh was mesmerized by the play and the (Arts Theatre) production, and Raymond Pinter's "tragi-comedy" Leigh's "tragi-comedy"—and his book "The Caretaken Beckett's Endgame, Peter Brook's King Lear, and 1965 Peter Weiss' Marat/Sade were among the actor's major productions of this period, with the actors based on people they had encountered in a mental hospital. Ronald Searle, George Grosz, Picasso, and William Hogarth's visual worlds wielded another degree of authority. He appeared in a few British films in the early 1960s (West 11, Two Left Feet) and performed as a young deaf-mute, interrogated by Rupert Davies in the BBC television series Maigret. He performed and produced his first performance of Little Malcolm and his Struggle Against the Eunuchs at the Unity Theatre in 1964-1965.

Leigh has been described as "a gifted cartoonist" who grew up, a little chippy, vehemently proud of his roots and Jewish roots, as well as the possibility of television; he is a boy of the 1960s and the possibilities of television.

Personal life

He married actress Alison Steadman in September 1973; the two sons are Toby (born February 1978) and Leo (born August 1981). Steadman appeared in seven of his films and several of his plays, including Wholesome Glory and Abigail's Party. In 2001, the two married in a divorce. Marion Bailey, a famous London actor, then lived in central London.

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Career

He began writing and rehearsing at the Midlands Art Centre in Birmingham in 1965, and he had the opportunity to start experimenting with the fact that writing and rehearsing could possibly be part of the same process. "The Box Play," a family performance set in a cage-like box, "absorbed all sorts of contemporary art, such as Roland Pichet's space frames," the result of two more 'improvised' pieces.

He landed in Euston, where he had lived for the next ten years, after the Birmingham interlude. He served as an assistant director with the Royal Shakespeare Company on Macbeth, Coriolanus, and The Taming of the Shrew from 1966 to 1967. He performed on an experimental play of his own with some professional actors, called NENAA, which stands for the North East New Arts Association, which explores the fantasies of a Tynesider in a café with the intention of establishing an arts association in the northeast.

"I saw that we should start off with a series of completely different characters (each one of its actors' creation) and then go through a process in which they'll get to know each other and establish a real network of real friendships," Leigh wrote in 1970. Leigh starred in a few London drama school productions, including Thomas Dekker's The Honest Whore at E15 Acting School in Loughton, where he met Alison Steadman for the first time. He sublet his London flat and moved to Levenshulme in 1968, hoping to return to Manchester. He founded and directed two big-cast productions, Big Basil and Glum Victoria, the Lad with Specs, during a part-time lectureship in a Catholic women's training college, Sedgley Park.

Leigh knew he wanted to make films and that "the way of working had been set for the last decade." There will be discussions and rehearsals. Plays or films will naturally develop organically, with actors fully integrated into the creative process. Leigh will create a structure, indicating the sequence in which scenes took place, usually with a single bare sentence: Johnny and Sophie, Sophie's hair; [etc.] It was rehearsed and rehearsed until it reached the desired quality of 'finish,'" says the producer.

Leigh made nine television plays in the 1970s. Nuts' earlier performances in May and Abigail's Party tended more towards bleakly yet humming middle-class attitudes and attitudes. His plays are generally more caustic, rather than trying to demonstrate the banality of society. Both Goose-Pimples and Abigail's Party are concerned with the vulgar middle class in a social party environment that spirals out of control. The television version of Abigail's Party was made at a good clip, Steadman was pregnant at the time, and Leigh's dissatisfaction with the film, particularly the lighting, influenced his preference for theatrical films.

Following Leigh's father's death at the end of February 1985, there was something like a hiatus in his career. Leigh was in Melbourne at the time, having promised to attend a screenwriters' conference in Melbourne at the start of 1985, he accepted an invitation to study at the Australian Film School in Sydney, and then 'buried his loneliness and sadness in a tumultuous group of people, photos, and talks.' He gradually extended his "long journey home" and went on to visit Bali, Singapore, Hong Kong, China. "The entire thing was an amazing, unforgettable moment in my life," he said later. It had everything to do with my personal feelings, my father, where to go next, and my desire to make a feature film. I felt I was at the end of one stage of my career and at the beginning of another."

The 'Rhubarb' project, which he had assembled actors in Blackburn, including Jane Horrocks, Julie Walters, and David Thewlis, was cancelled after seven weeks' rehearsals and Leigh returned home. "The nature of what I do is utterly unique, and you need to get involved and stick with it." The tense clash between the bourgeois suburban and the anarchist bohemian in my job is clearly present in my life, but I started to pull myself together. I didn't work; I stayed at home and watched the children. Channel 4 invested money for a short film in 1987, and Leigh's first feature film since Bleak Moments was co-produced by Portman Productions.

Mike Leigh and producer Simon Channing Williams formed Thin Man Films, a London-based film production company, in 1988 to produce Mike Leigh's films. Since both founders were against it, they settled on the company name. He made High Hopes in 1988 about a sick working-class family whose members live in a run-down apartment and a council house. Naked and Vera Drake, Leigh's latest films, are more direct and brutal, and they place more emphasis on the working class. Smelling A Rat, It's A Big Shame, Greek Tragedy, Goose-Pimples, Ecstasy, and Abigail's Party are among his stage performances.

Leigh's youth was fortunate to have participated in numerous critical films, including Alison Steadman, Timothy Spall, Claire Skinner, and Jane Horrocks, as seen in Life is Sweet (1990) starring Alison Steadman, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Spall, Timothy Spall, Claire Skinner, and Jane Horrocks. It was his third feature film to chronicle a working-class North London family over the course of a few weeks. Philip French, a film critic, defended the film in the Observer against accusations that it was patronizing: "Leigh has been branded patronizing." The accusation is untrue. This Happy Breed, by Nol Coward/David Lean, was evoked by Leigh in several panning shots through suburban back gardens and is patronizing. On the back, Coward and Lean pat their characters...Leigh shakes them, adores them, and occasionally despairs about them, but never thinks that they are different than our own versions." The film was nominated for Best International Film by the Independent Spirit Awards for Best International Film.

The black comedy Naked (1993), starring David Thewlis as a deranged intellectual and conspiracy theorist, was Leigh's fourth feature film. The film premiered at Cannes Film Festival, where it was part of the Palme d'Or and received awards for Best Director for Leigh and Best Actor for Thewlis. "Is certainly Leigh's most striking piece of cinema to date," says writer Derek Malcolm of The Guardian, "it tries to articulate what is wrong with the culture that Mrs Thatcher claims doesn't exist."

Leigh's fifth feature film, Secrets & Lies (1996), was directed by Leigh in 1996. Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste were among the film's ensemble members. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1996, where it received the Palme d'Or and the Best Actress award for Blethyn. Both a financial and critical success, the film was a huge success. Secrets & Lies four out of four actors, according to Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, who wrote for the Chicago Sun-Times. "Moment after time, scene after scene, Secrets & Lies unfolds with the awe of eavesdropping," he wrote. The film was described as "a flowering of his art." It's on a human level, keeps us guessing amid scenes as unpredictable as life, and it shows us how ordinary people have a chance of actually dealing with their problems, which are also quite normal." In 2009, he added the film to his "Great Movies" list. The film received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.

After she stepped away from politics, Leigh's voice, which was in some ways reminiscent of the Thatcher years, has softened. After several years of absence with his latest play, Two Thousand Years at the Royal National Theatre in London, in 2005, Leigh returned to directing for the stage for the first time. When one of the younger members joins a left-wing secular family, the play explores the various factions in the family. It's the first time Leigh has drew on his Jewish roots for inspiration.

Leigh was chairman of his alma mater, London Film School, in 2002. Leigh served as the Chair until March 2018, where Greg Dyke took over.

Vera Drake, a British period film about a working-class woman (Imelda Staunton), who performs unlawful abortions in the 1950s, was his ninth directorial feature film, a British period film about a working-class woman (Imelda Staunton). The film premiered at the 61st Venice International Film Festival in front of rapturous reviews, as it was named Best Film and Best Actress for Staunton. Rotten Tomatoes earned the film a 92 percent approval rating, according to the author, "with a piercingly good job by Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake brings teeming humanity to the topic of abortion." The film received 11 British Academy Film Award nominations for Best Director, Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Costume Design in a Leading Role. Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay were also nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay.

Leigh directed Happy-Go-Lucky, a modern-day comedy starring Sally Hawkins, in which it debuted at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2008, where she received the Silver Bear Award for Best Actress. Many people lauded Hawkins for her lead role in the film, with several lauding her performance. She has received several awards, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. In the same year, he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008.

Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, and Lesley Manville appeared in Leigh's film Another Year in 2010. In the Palme d'Or competition, it premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. On November 5, 2010, the film was shown at the 54th London Film Festival before its general British release date. "Not every year brings a new Mike Leigh film, but the years that do are are well-earned with his compassion, penetrating analysis, and an instinct for human comedy," Leigh's "Another Year" is like a long, purifying soak in empathy. Leigh was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay at The King's Speech at the 83rd Academy Awards.

Leigh was nominated to jury president of Berlin's 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in 2012.

Leigh's twelfth feature film, Mr. Turner (2014), based on J. M. W. Turner's life and art, which was portrayed by Timothy Spall, was released. Spall's appearance as the gifted and tortured artist at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival premiered, earning rave reviews. Spall received the Golden Lion Award for Best Actor, and the film was nominated for the Vulcan Award for its cinematography by Dick Pope. Mark Kermode, a viewer, characterized the film as a "portrait of a man wrestling light with his hands as if it were a physical characteristic: tangible, malleable, corporeal." Leigh was part of The Hollywood Reporter in an hour-long roundtable discussion with other directors who had made films in the year Richard Linklater (Boyhood), Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher), Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game), Angelina Jolie (Unbroken), and Christopher Nolan (Interstellar). The film received four Academy Award nominations for its cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, and Costume Design.

He accepted an invitation from English National Opera to direct the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta The Pirates of Penzance, starring Andrew Shore, Rebecca de Pont Davies, and Jonathan Lemalu. The troupe then toured Europe, visiting Luxembourg (Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg), Caen (Théâtre de Caen), and Saarländische Staats Theatre.

Peterloo, Leigh's latest historical film based on the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, was released in 2018. The film was selected to be shown in the main competition section of the 75th Venice International Film Festival. Entertainment One and Amazon Video in the United Kingdom were both distributed in the UK and in the United States. It received mixed feedback from The New York Times, who called it a "brilliant and demanding film."

It was announced in February 2020 that he would begin shooting his new film in the summer.

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