Mike Leigh Trailers
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Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE (born 20 February 1943) is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s his career moved between work for the theatre and making films for BBC Television, many of which were characterized by a gritty "kitchen sink realism" style. His well-known films include Life is Sweet (1990), the comedy-drama Career Girls (1997), the Gilbert and Sullivan biopic Topsy Turvy (1999), and the bleak working-class drama All or Nothing (2002). His most notable works are arguably Naked (1993) for which he won the Best Director Award at Cannes, the BAFTA-winning (and Oscar-nominated) Palme d'Or winner Secrets & Lies (1996) and Golden Lion winner Vera Drake (2004).
His films and stage plays, according to the critic Michael Coveney, "comprise a distinctive, homogenous body of work which stands comparison with anyone's in the British theatre and cinema over the same period." Coveney further noted Leigh's role in helping to create stars – Liz Smith in Hard Labour, Alison Steadman in Abigail's Party, Brenda Blethyn in Grown-Ups, Antony Sher in Goose-Pimples, Gary Oldman and Tim Roth in Meantime, Jane Horrocks in Life is Sweet, David Thewlis in Naked – and remarked that the list of actors who have worked with him over the years – including Sheila Kelley, Paul Jesson, Phil Daniels, Lindsay Duncan, Lesley Sharp, Kathy Burke, Stephen Rea, Eric Richard, Julie Walters – "comprises an impressive, almost representative, nucleus of outstanding British acting talent." Ian Buruma, writing in the New York Review of Books in January 1994, noted: "It is hard to get on a London bus or listen to the people at the next table in a cafeteria without thinking of Mike Leigh. Like other wholly original artists, he has staked out his own territory. Leigh's London is as distinctive as Fellini's Rome or Ozu's Tokyo."
Most Popular Mike Leigh Trailers
Total trailers found: 58
29 November 1984
Two couples, one Catholic, one Protestant, exist on two sides of the chasm that is everyday life in Northern Ireland.
07 September 1982
A boy goes to see his probation officer.
25 May 2009
Polish adaptation of Abigail's Party for polish television series Teatr Telewizji
04 September 1982
Writer and Director Mike Leigh discusses the techniques used to create his plays.
13 January 1989
Working-class couple Shirley and Cyril are in conflict over whether they should have children, their problems with 'yuppies' moving into the neighbourhood and outpricing them, and the advent of Cyril's ageing mother's seventieth birthday.
09 September 1982
A couple of old friends drown their sorrows together while reveling in the naivety of a young newly-wed.
12 June 2023
Looks at the glamour, red carpets, movies, craziness, stunts, deals, parties and personalities that have been part of the Cannes Film Festival over eight decades, as well as looking to the future.
06 August 1993
An unemployed Brit vents his rage on unsuspecting strangers as he embarks on a nocturnal London odyssey.
01 November 2018
An epic portrayal of the events surrounding the infamous 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where a peaceful pro-democracy rally at St Peter’s Field in Manchester turned into one of the bloodiest and most notorious episodes in British history.
06 December 2024
Pansy is a woman so full of rage that every interaction she has devolves into lashing out, whether at her utterly cowed husband and son, or random strangers who have the temerity to address her.
15 December 1999
For nearly a decade, Gilbert and Sullivan’s collaborations have delighted the English people. But in 1884, as a London heat wave cuts into the theater trade, their latest work, "Princess Ida", receives lukewarm press.
18 October 2002
Penny works at a supermarket and Phil is a gentle taxi-driver. Penny’s love for Phil has run dry and they lead joyless lives with their two children, Rachel, a cleaner, and Rory, who is unemployed and aggressive.
27 October 2000
A film director decides to chart the course of a young actor as he tries to make it in Hollywood...
05 April 1993
Theatrical packaging of three comic shorts: Dean Parisot & Steven Wright's comedy "The Appointments of Dennis Jennings" (1988), Michael Moore's documentary "Pets or Meat" (1992), and Mike Leigh & Jim Broadbent's satirical mockumentary "A Sense of History" (1992).
05 September 1982
A slow-witted couple decide to start a family.
01 June 1997
A young college student in London moves into a flat and becomes best friends with a flatmate; the former moves into her own flat 4 years later but 6 years after their parting, the former returns to London to pay the latter a visit.
31 October 2014
Eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner lives his last 25 years with gusto and secretly becomes involved with a seaside landlady, while his faithful housekeeper bears an unrequited love for him.
09 April 1975
During an evening spent at his house with his sister, a girl realizes that she doesn't really have much in common with her boyfriend.
06 September 2013
Using the words and ideas of great filmmakers, from archival interviews with Alfred Hitchcock and Robert Bresson to new interviews with Mike Leigh, David Lynch, and Jonas Mekas, Oscar-winning filmmaker Chuck Workman shows what these filmmakers and others do that can't be expressed in words - but only in cinema.
05 November 2010
During a year, a very content couple approaching retirement are visited by friends and family less happy with their lives.
16 March 1982
Three postal workers and their dysfunctional families interact over cups of tea and Sunday dinner.
24 May 1996
After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother.
18 April 2008
A look at a few chapters in the life of Poppy, a cheery, colorful, North London schoolteacher whose optimism tends to exasperate those around her.
17 September 2009
A documentary about Vittorio de Sica with clips of his films and testimonials from friends and family.
22 October 2004
Abortionist Vera Drake finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain – a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family.
01 January 1998
A behind-the-scenes look at the preparations for the live broadcast of the 69th Annual Academy Awards ceremony.
06 September 1982
A man on crutches bumps into an old acquaintance who relentlessly bombards him with small talk.
16 October 1983
A working-class family in London's East End is struggling to stay afloat during the recession under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's premiership.
05 May 2003
This critically acclaimed DVD contains 16 of the best classic and award winning British short films and delivers a snapshot of British cinema past and present.
22 March 1991
Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, Andy is a cook who forever puts off home remodeling projects, Natalie is a plumber and Nicola is jobless.
24 June 2012
Gary attempts to buy a second-hand car. What should be a straightforward task is turned into something of a quest by various people, including dodgy East End car dealer Perry, Perry's taxi-driver dad, a garage owner called Derek, Perry's wife Debbie and couple of twins.
08 September 1982
A window cleaner fancies a sausage roll, but all is not well in the sausage roll factory.
08 October 1963
In Notting Hill's jazz club, coffee bar and bedsit land of the early 1960s, Joe Beckett is a young unemployed misfit and drifter whose life takes a turn for the worse when he encounters Richard Dyce, an ex-army officer.
27 November 1980
Dick and Mandy, a young working class couple, move into a council house in Canterbury, and find Mr. Butcher, one of their former teachers, living next door.
01 November 1977
Beverly and Laurence are entertaining their new neighbours, Angela and Tony as well as Sue, whose teenage daughter, Abigail, is having a party.
30 November 1971
Moments from the uncompromisingly bleak existence of a secretary, her intellectually disabled sister, aloof and uneasy teacher boyfriend, bizarre neighbor and irritating workmate.
24 November 2014
In a revealing documentary, Mike Leigh, director of Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake and Abigail's Party among many others, talks to Alan Yentob about a unique body of work and a lifelong struggle to make films on his own terms.
16 March 1963
Based on David Stuart Leslie's novel Two Left Feet is a story about Alan Crabbe (Michael Crawford a callow youth desperate for a date with any girl who can offer him the experience he lacks.
12 September 1992
Jim Broadbent wrote and starred in this short film directed by none other than Mike Leigh. As a member of the landed gentry, the 23rd Earl of Leete has a duty to maintain and expand his lands.
01 December 1987
A short comedy by Mike Leigh about the romance between a young woman and a man who communicates only through jokes and humor.
23 April 2000
An interview with British film director Mike Leigh produced for BBC-TV.
12 October 2020
Marking Play for Today’s 50th anniversary, Drama Out of a Crisis is a compelling exploration of the series, its origins, achievements, controversies and legacies.
03 May 1976
Jimmy is a talented young boxer. Every punch he throws is eagerly watched by his trainer, and resented by his girlfriend.
20 October 2021
In this second installment of his exploration of creativity, Hermann Vaske looks for factors that inhibit it.
04 October 2018
Documentary showing behind-the-scenes footage of the film 'Nader and Simin, A Separation'. Director Asghar Farhadi himself talks about his film and how the idea for it came about.
12 March 1973
A quiet and put-upon house cleaner breaks her silence.
17 January 2025
Documentary on Ciby 2000, the French film production company founded by Francis Bouygues in 1990.
10 January 1977
Trevor is an extremely shy undertaker's assistant. He always tags along with his good friend Ronnie, when he goes to the pub with his girlfriend Sandra.
14 June 2024
A documentary about cutting film... the way it used to be done.
13 June 2016
A multi-part documentary about Alan Clarke, featuring interviews with various actors, writers and producers.
08 March 1973
Transmitted as part of BBC Schools series Scene, 8 March 1973. Actor improvisations around the theme of gambling devised by Mike Leigh.
13 January 1976
A middle-class couple go camping in Dorset, but peace and quiet elude them.
19 May 2015
As a young child, Frederic had been apprenticed to a pirate by mistake when he should have been apprenticed to a pilot.
05 February 1979
Slice-of-life look at class divisions among employees of a brokerage house. Alan, with his portrait of the Queen and love of the peerage; his wife April, who raises cats; youthful and pretentious friends Nigel, Giles, and Anthony, who gather for a wine-soaked dinner party with the chatty and risque Samantha and the mousy Caroline; the plummy Lord and Lady Crouchurst, in a spot of bother needing the help of Francis, a senior partner, to assist with the family's cash flow.
01 January 2009
Documentary about François Truffaut who is one of the most respected directors in the history of cinema.
06 April 2025
Documentary about Humphrey Jennings, an English documentary filmmaker from the 1930s to 1950.
11 May 1976
Sam likes his children to be grown-up chaps. So nine-year-old Harry is at a disadvantage in the battle of wits that develops.
28 October 2007
A look at the production of Play for Today: Abigail's Party (1977).
