The Cinema of Mike Leigh

A Sense of the Real
Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-1-904764-10-6
Verlag: Wallflower Press

Buch, Englisch, 208 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 234 mm, Gewicht: 434 g

Reihe: Directors' Cuts

A keen observer of manners and mores, Mike Leigh has been hailed as a celebrator of "ordinary" people, yet it wasn't until relatively recently that audiences have been able to appreciate the full body of his work. In discussing all his films from Bleak Moments and High Hopes through Naked, the Oscar-nominated Secrets and Lies and Topsy Turvy, to All or Nothing, Garry Watson considers this claim, examining the films'influence and their effect.

At the same time, he takes on the very concepts of "the real" and "the ordinary" in regard to Leigh's work, challenging much perceived thinking among critics and moviegoers alike. To what category does the director's work really belong? Is it British Realism? The avant garde? Through careful textual detail and wider social and literary comparison with the works of Charles Dickens and T. S. Eliot, he argues ultimately for the aritistic and cultural significance of Leigh's work as one of Britian's most respected filmmakers.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Watson, Garry

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Einzelne Filmschauspieler, Filmregisseure, Drehbuchautoren

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface
Abbreviations
Part 1. Establishing a New Context for Leigh's work
i. The Receptions of Leigh's Work So Far: Revising Our Expectations
ii. The Extraordinary Element of Too Muchness at the Heart of the Ordinary: In the Midst of Life
iii. Traversing the Fantasy: Touching the Real
Part Two: The Films (1): "A Lamentation and a Celebration"
iv. The Feminist Leigh: Two Women "On the Other Side of Silence" (Bleak Moments, Hard Labour)
v. Leigh and Lawrence on the "Middle Class Thing" and What It Leaves Out (Nuts in May, Grown-Ups, Kiss of Death)
vi. The Political and the Flaubertian Leigh: On Stupidity, Taste, Anger, and Resistance (Abigail's Party, Who's Who, Home Sweet Home, Meantime and A Sense of History)
vii. Comedies Celebrating Marriage, the Family, and the Pursuit of Happiness (Four Days in July, The Short and Curlies, High Hopes, Life Is Sweet)
Part Three: The Films (2): "A Very Traumatic Journey"
viii. "Are You with Me?" Leigh's "Traumatizing Seducer" (Naked)
ix. In Search of the Missing Mother/Daughter (Secrets and Lies)
x. A Meta-Commentary on Leigh's Art and an Exploration of Female Friendship (Career Girls)
xi. Work as Play: The Utopian Element (Topsy-Turvy)
xii. "In the Messianic Light" (All or Nothing)
Bibliography

Über Autor(innen)

Garry Watson is professor of English at the University of Alberta and teaches English, American literature, and cinema. He is the coeditor of Approaches to Teaching the Works of D.H. Lawrence.