The Films of Mike Leigh (Cambridge Film Classics)

The Films of Mike Leigh (Cambridge Film Classics)

by Ray Carney (Author)

Synopsis

The Films of Mike Leigh is the first critical study of one of the most important and eccentric directors of British independent filmmaking. Although active since 1971, Leigh has only come to the attention of an international audience in the 1990s through films such as Secrets and Lies and Career Girls. Like Robert Altman and John Cassevetes, Leigh works improvisationally, beginning with a small group of actors around whom he builds his films during months of private rehearsal. The script is written during this process. Ray Carney examines Leigh's working method and films in the intellectual and social contexts in which they were created. He argues that Leigh cannot be simply considered within the British realist tradition of Osborne and Loach. All of Leigh's major box office successes, including Naked, Life is Sweet and High Hopes, are analyzed, interpreted, and shown to be among the finest examples of cinema.

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More Information

Format: Illustrated
Pages: 304
Edition: Illustrated
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 31 Aug 2000

ISBN 10: 0521485185
ISBN 13: 9780521485180
Book Overview: Carney examines one of the most important directors of British independent filmmaking.

Media Reviews
'... takes genuine pleasure in the exuberance, wit and intelligence of Leigh's cinema.' Paul Howson, The Times Higher Education Supplement
...no other study to date sheds such revealing light on Leigh's background, his influences, his emotional groundings and, of course, his unique cinematic sensibility. Moviemaker, Winter 2001
This is quite simply the best book of film criticism I have ever read. --Caveh Zahedi, Filmmaker, Fall 2000