Get the latest gossip

Mike Leigh Says Peterloo Gatherers Would Be ‘Horrified’ At Abstaining Voters, Wishes He Got Bigger Budgets for Contemporary Films


‘What I failed to do is get money together to make a contemporary film on a bigger scale with more characters,’ Leigh says at Mediterrane.

Elsewhere in the conversation, which spanned the director’s entire career from studying to become an actor in London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in the ‘60s to being nominated for five Oscars for 1996’s “Secrets and Lies,” Leigh weighed in on a series of issues, including entering the American market as a British filmmaker and finding commercial success versus critical acclaim. While watching clips of his films, the director humorously said that now that he requires a walking stick, he identifies more with the older character of Mrs Bender in “High Hopes” and that hearing about Monet’s work of “growing and challenging the status quo” reminded him of his Cannes-breakout “Naked,” which he called “a film about different kinds of male behaviour seen through a feminine and feminist perspective.” While the filmmaker didn’t give anything away about his upcoming film “Hard Truths,” we are bound to hear more about it soon as it is due to be released by Studiocanal in the U.K. on Oct. 18 and is rumored to be eyeing a fall festival premiere.

Get the Android app

Or read this on Variety

Read more on:

Photo of mike leigh

mike leigh

Photo of peterloo

peterloo

Related news:

News photo

Ken Loach and Mike Leigh resign as patrons of London cinema over Israeli film festival screening

News photo

Mike Leigh to Be Honored at Mediterrane Film Festival With Career Achievement Award