The Moving Image Source Calendar is a selective international guide to retrospectives, screenings, festivals, and exhibitions.
Descriptions are drawn from the calendars of the presenting venues.
-
Weekend with Mike Leigh
October 18-19, 2008 at
Museum of the Moving Image
, New York
"You're born and you die, and between those two events, it's a really difficult and hard journey," said Mike Leigh, whose films are deceptive in their apparent simplicity. While they may seem at first like improvised slices of life, they are in fact sharply crafted and brilliantly performed, with a bracing view of modern life that is at once hard-edged and optimistic. Hilarious comedy is never far from tragedy.
In his latest film, Happy-Go-Lucky, Sally Hawkins gives a magnificent performance as Poppy, an irrepressibly cheerful and single schoolteacher. Leigh shows us the counterpoint to Poppy's bubbly view, just as he finds ambiguity and complexity in the lives of the malcontent antihero played by David Thewlis in Naked; the despairing working-class protagonists of All or Nothing; and the neurotic twin sisters in Life is Sweet.All screenings at Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue (at 38 Street), Manhattan.
Featured Works:
Life is Sweet (1991); Naked (1993); All or Nothing (2002); Happy-Go-Lucky (2008, pictured)
Program Information
Weekend with Mike LeighRelated Articles:
First Person Plural by Michael Atkinson posted Oct. 17, 2008
