In Contention

Tag: Mike Leigh

  • Leigh and Manville on their 30-year collaboration

    As you probably know, I’m rooting hard for seasoned character actress Lesley Manville to get her first Oscar nod this year for Mike Leigh’s “Another Year” — and the quality of her piercing tragicomic performance isn’t the only reason.

    For a director renowned for his close relationship with a regular, rotating crew of actors, the Academy’s response to his films thus far hasn’t really reflected that loyalty. Only three thesps (all women) have been Oscar-nominated for their work in a Leigh film — a number far smaller than it should be — and all of them, oddly enough, were tapped for their first collaboration with the director. (Moreover, only one of them has since returned to Leigh: that’d be “Vera Drake” lead Imelda Staunton, who has a striking cameo in his latest.)

    Should Lesley Manville manage a nomination, then, she’ll be the first of Leigh’s regular posse to be thus rewarded. Indeed, Manville is Leigh’s longest-serving ally. She first collaborated with the director on a 1979 radio play before going on to star in six of his feature films, climaxing with a stunning lead turn in 2002’s “All or Nothing” that was shamefully ignored by awards bodies on both sides of the Atlantic. It’s sweet to see the middle-aged actress  finally having her moment in the sun with “Another Year” — she’s earned it.

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  • ‘Another Year’ UK poster

    Honestly, I’m not crazy about the execution in this case, but I’m always pleased to see poster designers trying illustrative concepts ahead of lazy photographic floating-head templates. I imagine Sony Pictures Classics will dream up something quite different for the US market. Incidentally, anybody looking to this poster for clues as to how the actors are being classified will come up empty — Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen and prime awards hopeful Lesley Manville are alphabetically billed as co-leads, which is arguably how it should be. If you need a refresher, here are my thoughts on the film from Cannes, and Kris’s from Telluride.

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  • TELLURIDE: ‘The Illusionist,’ ‘Another Year’

    The final trio of films I caught at this year’s Telluride fest, which is slowly winding down this holiday, were a bit of Cannes catch-up.  The first, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Biutiful,” I responded to yesterday.  The other two come from Sony Pictures Classics, which has a whopping five films in play here, and will have nine at Toronto later in the week.

    Before getting to those reactions, though, I have to say that this year’s program has been absolutely wonderful.  I’m only on my second year, but long-timers seem to concur that festival directors Tom Luddy, Gary Meyer and Julie Huntsinger really outdid themselves this time.

    I’ll talk more in the way of wrapping things up sometime later tonight or tomorrow.  For now, I have just enough time to offer up these capsules, update the predictions sidebar and contenders section, hopefully make it to an interview with Darren Aronofsky (which may have to wait until post-fest) and prepare for a 3:30 departure.  The latest Off the Carpet column will come later.

    Let’s get on with it…

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  • ‘Another Year’ UK trailer

    At Cannes, I was with the critical majority in admiring Mike Leigh’s latest, and the valentines will surely continue to roll in when the film plays Toronto next month ahead of an awards-season run. The Guardian (quite the experts lately in nabbing British trailer exclusives) has the first trailer for the film, which gives a pretty accurate sense of the film’s delicate pitch between dry comedy and crushing drama. Interestingly, rather than granting the spotlight to Lesley Manville’s showy, buzz-generating turn, it represents the film as the ensemble piece it is; one wonders if Sony Pictures Classics will be quite so democratic with the US trailer. Click on the image to check it out at the Guardian site, or watch the embed after the jump.

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  • Telegraph predicts “global hit” for ‘Dagenham’

    Two weeks ago, when I made my first Oscar predictions of the 2010 season, I went out on a bit of a limb for “Made in Dagenham,” the upcoming true-life Britcom that will have its world premiere at Toronto next month.

    I have yet to see the film, but the story material, the talent involved and the promisingly perky trailer (embedded after the jump) combined to suggest one of those undemanding, broadly appealing UK charmers that sneak up on the Academy every couple of years — and that, as “An Education” proved last year, face a gentler climb to a Best Picture nod in a field of ten.

    With the Academy’s sizable British voting bloc having often made their presence felt even in the days of five nominees — hello, “Atonement” — the odds do favor at least one British film making the cut in most years. Many see Mike Leigh’s “Another Year” as the prime candidate for that hypothetical slot this year, and it’s certainly a worthy one, but it remains a tough sell in many respects: a quiet, sometimes despairing essay on middle-aged loneliness unlikely to register beyond a rarefied arthouse audience.

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  • CANNES: Starfish and coffee

    “Hey, that’s no way to say goodbye,” you might have thought (or even sang, in gravelly Leonard Cohen tones) after my rushed response to yesterday’s Cannes winners. But having recharged overnight with a hearty curry and a good 13 hours’ sleep, it’s time to properly put a bow on Cannes 2010.

    Perhaps it was quite a Tim Burton-flavored festival after all. Jury presidents at Cannes often seem at pains to choose the last film anyone would associate with their own work — which is partly why I picked the sober ecclesiastical drama “Of Gods and Men” for the Palme — but Burton and his cohorts swung in a quirkier direction. “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives,” which I flippantly likened to a parallel-universe take on Burton’s own “Big Fish,” becomes the first fantasy film (of a type) to take gold at Cannes since “Miracle in Milan” almost 60 years ago. (More surprisingly, it’s also first Asian winner since 1997.)

    I wish I could personally groove to the film the way almost everyone else does (my C+ grade sticks out like a sore thumb on indieWIRE’s critic score roundup) but objectively speaking, it’s the best choice Team Burton could have made for the Palme: the undisputed critical favorite of the festival, a wholly unique, challenging piece from a distinctive major auteur, and a film that can truly benefit from the award in securing international distribution that could prove elusive otherwise. Plus, it won me £50 on a Palme bet I made weeks before the fest started. I’m liking the film more already.

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  • OFF THE CARPET: Taking the temperature

    Now that we’re on the other side of Cannes, I felt it was a good time to put a finger to the wind, stare into the tea leaves, shake the magic 8-ball and basically just take stock of where we’re at roughly three months away from the start of the 2010-2011 film awards season.

    The festival, covered diligently by Guy Lodge around these parts (we thank him), brought little to write home about where Oscar potential is concerned.  The truth is, it rarely does.  But as the year takes shape, things start to linger.  A film like “Inglourious Basterds” can transform muted if appreciative response on the Croisette into a foaming-at-the-mouth bid for a surprise upset in just a few months’ time.

    The big narrative stand-outs for most were Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Biutiful” and Mike Leigh’s “Another Year.” Perhaps the latter has an easier Oscar path ahead, given that it was more unanimously accepted and could ultimately be a soft lob for Academy types.  Sony Pictures Classics swooped in and nailed down domestic distribution, so I think we’re looking at a bona fide Best Picture nominee to go along with likely bids for Best Actress (Lesley Manville) and the usual expected tip of the hat from Leigh’s fellow screenwriters.  Maybe even a Best Director nod, too.  And yet the film didn’t win a single festival prize.  See how this works?

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  • CANNES: What will win… and what should

    Okay, so that took longer than I expected. I had hoped to get this post up last night, but instead got quite easily talked into a night on the tiles with a band of merry Film Dweebs led by James Rocchi — not the wisest idea with a morning flight to catch, but by the time we found ourselves in a friendly 3am chat with Atom Egoyan about our respective issues with the ending of “Chloe,” that hardly seemed important. (Name dropped and duly picked up. Apologies.)

    Anyway, after a smooth morning’s traveling, I am now writing to you from my North London living room — not quite as glamorous as the Croisette, though surprisingly, just as sun-splashed.

    In a few hours, Cannes 2010 will come to a close as Tim Burton and his fellow jurors reveal their selections for the best of the fest, perhaps shedding some light on the burning question I’ve asked myself after every Competition screening: “But what does Kate Beckinsale think?”

    (More analysis, and full list of predictions and preferences, after the cut.)

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  • ‘Another Year’ goes to Sony Pictures Classics

    Mike Leigh’s latest, easily the consensus critical darling of Cannes thus far, was never going to have trouble finding a U.S. distributor — the only question was whether it would be the equally plausible candidates Focus or Sony who got there first. As ScreenDaily reported earlier today, it’s the latter:

    Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American rights from Focus Features International (FFI) to Mike Leigh’s much fancied Palme d’Or contender Another Year.

    FFI chief Alison Thompson concluded the deal with the Sony Pictures Classics team of Tom Bernard, Michael Barker and Dylan Leiner at around midnight on Tuesday [18].

    Another Year will open towards the end of the year and Bernard and Barker are likely to give it an awards push.

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  • REVIEW: “Another Year” (***1/2)

    Cannes Film Festival

    “On a scale of one to ten, how happy are you?” asks one character of another in Mike Leigh’s new film “Another Year.” “One,” is the doleful reply, as if Leigh himself is swearing off the sunnier skies of his previous feature, “Happy-Go-Lucky.”

    He needn’t have made the point so emphatically. For a director who has worked, across his career, with a thriftily light bag of oft-used themes, milieus and even actors, Mike Leigh has remarkably never settled for making the same film twice.

    His detractors paint much of his oeuvre with the broad brush of kitchen-sink miserablism, ignoring the considerable tonal and structural differences between a “Naked” and, say, an “All or Nothing” – but then overestimating the radicalism of a “departure” like the aforementioned “Happy-Go-Lucky,” a tarter and more searching film than the feel-good breeze many pretended it was.

    Detractors and admirers alike will probably label Leigh’s latest a return to normal service for the prickly Brit: a leisurely character study, sober-sided but flecked with streaks of broad humor, dwelling on the personal insecurities of London’s tea-swilling middle classes. A cast peppered with familiar faces from past Leigh works – Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Imelda Staunton and so on – will further the impression of business as usual, but “Another Year” turns out to be one of the filmmaker’s most structurally ambitious and emotionally expansive works.

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  • CANNES PREVIEW: Sizing up the Competition, part one

    (This is the first of three Cannes preview pieces we’re running before my festival coverage begins on Wednesday. The first two will break down the 18 films in the running for this year’s Palme d’Or; the third will comb through potential highlights that lie outside the Competition, as well as listing my own most anticipated titles of the festival.)

    The groans were almost audible from across the Atlantic as Cannes festival director Thierry Frémaux unveiled this year’s Competition lineup, unusually trim at 16 (eventually 18) titles, and shorter than expected on big-ticket auteurs. Where was Terrence Malick, journos wailed. (Not yet ready, ran the simple answer.) Where were Julian Schnabel, Olivier Assayas, Darren Aronofsky? (Not wanted, not eligible, and not ready, respectively.)

    As they looked down the very global-flavored list — only two English-language films, only one of them American — more than one blogger suggested that Cannes may not be worth the trip this year.

    I say it’s too soon to be disappointed. Frémaux and his team have hardly been obscure in their choices: the list abounds with esteemed critical pets ranging from Mike Leigh to Abbas Kiarostami, Alejandro González Iñárritu to Apichatpong Weereasethakul. It is perhaps a more granola selection than last year’s all-star lineup of Almodóvar, Haneke, Campion, Von Trier, et al, but that one drew just as many accusations (justified, I think) of being too insular and unadventurous — 19 of the 20 directors chosen had been in Competition before. Frémaux, it seems, can’t win.

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  • Cannes official selection unveiled, includes Leigh, Iñárritu

    Okay, before you ask, “The Tree of Life” is reportedly not ready — though the Cannes selection has apparently seen a cut, so never say never. Four slots in the competition lineup have yet to be filled.

    That aside, many of the expected names are present and correct, including former Cannes champs Leigh, Kiarostami, Mikhalkov, Tavernier, Weerasethakul and González Iñárritu. (Beefing up the veteran auteur quotient, Jean-Luc Godard shows up in the very appetizing Un Certain Regard strand, as does 101 year-old Manoel de Oliveira.)

    On paper — which is all we have at the moment, after all — it’s the first two of the aforementioned directors that I’m most excited to see in competition: “Another Year” will mark Leigh’s first trip to Croisette since the undervalued “All or Nothing” in 2002, and boasts the almost unfeasibly Leigh-ian cast of Imelda Staunton, Jim Broadbent, Phil Davis and Lesley Manville.

    Meanwhile, Kiarostami’s “Certified Copy” — a romantic drama starring Juliette Binoche, and the director’s first film to be shot outside his native Iran — has had me curious for the better part of two years now. I sensed this might be afoot when Binoche was revealed as the official face of this year’s festival.

    (More thoughts, and a complete list of films in the official selection, after the cut.)

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  • ‘Trainspotting’ named best British film of last 25 years

    Ewan McGregor in TrainspottingThe Observer has just assembled one of the more interesting lists I’ve seen in some time — a collective of the 25 best British films of the last quarter-century, compiled from the votes of over 60 critics, film professionals and assorted outside voices, ranging from Ben Kingsley to Peter Morgan to our friend Anne Thompson.

    Looking down the list, there are remarkably few inclusions that I really take issue with, whether I’d necessarily put them on my own such list or not — the majority of titles here are films I admire that have a legitimate sphere of influence in modern British film history, and they’ve lucked into an intelligent balance between arthouse and populist titles.

    “Trainspotting” is an obvious pick for number one, but sometimes obvious is fair. I don’t think it’s the greatest of the 25 titles listed here, but it’s an inarguably fine film that embodies the restless spirit of mid-1990s Britain from its whip-smart dialogue to its mega-selling soundtrack: its lightning-in-a-bottle blend of thrilling cinema and social document assures immortality.

    (Further discussion, and The Observer’s Top 10 list, after the cut.)

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  • Focus backs Mike Leigh’s latest

    Mike LeighHere’s something to brighten the day. It would seem that a new Mike Leigh joint (sorry, I couldn’t resist) is on its way sooner rather than later — great news considering the four-year gap between “Vera Drake” and “Happy-Go-Lucky.”

    Screen International reports that Focus Features International has secured worldwide rights to the still-untitled project, and will co-fund the film together with the UK Film Council and Film4 (the same folks behind the auteur’s last effort). Poignantly, this will be the last producing credit for the dearly departed Simon Channing Williams, Leigh’s longtime collaborator.

    If memory serves, this marks Leigh’s first go-round with Focus, and it sounds like a pretty good pairing to me — perhaps a necessary change after Miramax’s slightly indifferent handling of “Happy-Go-Lucky.”

    A formidable cast of Leigh veterans is already in place, with the “Vera Drake” team of Imelda Staunton and Phil Davis being joined by “Topsy-Turvy’s” Jim Broadbent — a heavyweight trio, by any standards. No plot details, of course, though the article promises “an intimate portrait of people’s lives” (from Leigh? I’d never have guessed) based on “unique improvisational techniques.” (Well, knock me down with a feather.)

    I’m totally in. But you knew that.

  • Simon Channing Williams (1945-2009)

    Simon Channing WilliamsThese days, there aren’t many producers in the often too-cosy British film industry who genuinely earn the adjective “fearless,” but Simon Channing Williams, who passed away last Saturday after a long battle with cancer, was one of them.

    As much credit as auteur Mike Leigh deserves for changing the landscape of British cinema with his stinging social comedy and defiantly unorthodox creative process, Channing Williams merits the same appreciation for backing Leigh on every one of his projects since his breakthrough feature “High Hopes” in 1988 — however tenuously defined or commercially unsound they may have appeared to be at the outset.

    The constance of Channing Williams’ collaboration gave Leigh the wherewithal and confidence to push his art into ever more challenging and surprising directions, encompassing the icy philosophising of “Naked,” to the warm domestic melodrama of “Secrets and Lies,” the brittle classicism of “Vera Drake” to the loose-limbed yet black-edged comedy of last year’s “Happy-Go-Lucky.” It truly stands as one of the industry’s greatest producer-director partnerships, and it’s hard to imagine a future Leigh film without Channing Williams’ name attached. As Leigh himself commented:

    He was a natural-born producer, a great leader, always an enabler, a protector; never a dictator or an interferer. Infinitely generous, his life was all about doing things for people, and bringing out the best in everybody. He was the ultimate fixer, and a phenomenal organiser. He relished the impossible challenge, and loved the cut-and-thrust of negotiations, at which he was a genius.

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  • All in good taste

    There’s no real reason to pay attention to the Chlotrudis Awards,which took place on Sunday. After all, they’re a casually organised set of honours determined by an enthusiastic group of Boston-based film lovers — that apparently get mentioned on IMDB and precisely nowhere else.

    But hey, when their taste is this exemplary, they deserve a bit of notice. After all, in the thick of awards season, people actually bother with the innumerable, obscure regional critics’ awards and their largely yawnsome copycat choices. The Chlotrudis Awards, by contrast, go commendably against the grain.

    Any organisation that singles out the exceptional, Oscar-snubbed work of Kristin Scott Thomas and Elsa Zylberstein in “I’ve Loved You So Long” is in my good books, while “The Edge of Heaven” is a pretty fresh, adventurous choice for Best Picture of 2008. “Happy-Go-Lucky,” meanwhile, continues to generate affection, taking Supporting Actor kudos for Eddie Marsan and half a Best Director award — in another inspired move, Mike Leigh and Guy Maddin (“My Winnipeg”) tied for that honour.

    OK, so nobody really notices or cares about these awards, but it’s the principle that counts. I applaud them. Check out a full list of winners and nominees here, if you’re so inclined.

  • Mike Leigh on Hollywood, Mickey and losing an Oscar

    Mike LeighIf, like yours truly, you’re one of those who believe that British auteur Mike Leigh was robbed on Sunday night, you’ll thoroughly enjoy his Oscar diary. Ever the Hollywood outsider, Leigh attended the Academy Awards with his two adult sons as his guests, and he reflects on the ensuing madness with all the droll, dry humour present in so many of his films.

    As you would expect, he’s not all that bothered about losing the Original Screenplay award for “Happy-Go-Lucky,” not least because he learned shortly before the ceremony that the bookies had him as a 54-1 outsider. (He mordantly notes that his son Toby then placed £20 on him, “just in case.”) In any case, he professes to liking “Milk” a great deal, and rather enjoyed the ceremony as a whole, describing it with typical British reserve as “far less tacky and schmaltzy than usual.” What I really liked, however, is his candour on the awards themselves:

    The truth is, you only get the loser’s hump about the winners if you think that they’re crap, and tonight I get a real buzz out of nearly all the awards. Chuffed for jolly Michael O’Connor (best costumes, The Duchess), who assisted Lindy Hemming on Topsy-Turvy, and delighted that Benjamin Button got only technical awards!

    Wanted Mickey Rourke to win best actor (I voted for him) and, no disrespect to Kate and the other girls, I desperately miss Sally (Hawkins). I genuinely can’t see how any of their performances are as original, creative, profound, witty or versatile as hers. But there you go.

    Sure, most directors would probably say that about their leading ladies, but in this case, he happens to be right. I’m also interested to hear that he’s on Team Rourke — I recall sitting behind Leigh at “The Wrestler’s” first London screening back in October and observing his evident enthusiasm for the film then.

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  • Best Original Screenplay: The case for ‘WALL-E’

    I think it was some smart person on Nat Rogers’ most recent podcast who remarked that if you really want to get a picture of what was going on cinematically in any given year, you’d be better off bypassing Oscar’s Best Picture category and heading straight for the Best Original Screenplay nominees – a category that has a far higher tolerance for eccentricity, controversy and the occasional foreign tongue than any other.

    Case in point: 2002. When the top categories were splintered between the respectable but less-than-relevant likes of “Chicago” and “The Pianist,” Original Screenplay afforded voters the luxury of choosing between Pedro Almodovar, Todd Haynes and Alfonso Cuaron. Two years later, the category gave recognition to the otherwise shamefully sidelined “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” just as, a decade earlier, “Pulp Fiction” fans sought refuge there from a merciless shower of Gump. As I’ve said before, from “Citizen Kane” to “The Crying Game,” Best Original Screenplay tends to be the connoisseur’s favourite Oscar category.

    And so it is this year, when the writers’ branch really demonstrated admirable ingenuity and adventurousness in their selections, in the face of some otherwise uninspired voting. For me, it’s by far the most exciting of this year’s major Oscar categories, both for the calibre its competition and the unpredictability of its outcome. It’s one category where the Guild award is of little to no use to prognosticators, as only one title (“Milk”) features on both the Oscar and WGA lists.

    Like Kris, I’m placing my money on Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon and “WALL-E” emerging triumphant here, and thus becoming the first animated film in Oscar history to win a major category. This morning, meanwhile, I was interested to see that the majority of the Gurus of Gold are thinking the same way. It’s a healthy vote of confidence for a prediction that, let’s face it, would represent a significant leap for Academy voters. Just last year, the Reel Geezers (AMPAS members both) immediately discounted “Ratatouille” from consideration in the category because it was a “cartoon.” How do we know that most of the notoriously conservative Academy voters won’t feel the same way?

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