The Mike Leigh blog 8

Crikey - this is becoming an epic!!  Nearly there now...

Secrets and Lies  (1996)


I won't go on about this film too much because I think I've sung its praises before on here.  Anyway, it's a very unusual Mike Leigh film in that it's actually possible to 'spoil' the story.  Usually in his films plot is character - in this one there is a perfect balance between plot and character.  


There is an EVENT - something is revealed, and the film is about everyone's reaction.  If you haven't seen it the film will work much better if you just watch it with no knowledge of what's going to occur.  


Odd for a Leigh film to be like this.  It's not what we would expect.  Maybe Secrets and Lies is a bigger departure from the Leigh 'norm' than any other film for this reason - although his signature style is in place as much as ever.


I don't know.  But I can tell you that this is Mike Leigh's best film to date.  
I don't think there can be much argument - it is a perfect piece of sublime genius.  


'Secrets and Lies... we're all in pain... why can't we share our pain?'


Those words are etched into my heart.

Career Girls  (1997)


Hmm - no, not quite as good.  Went a little bit wrong here, Mike.  Basically this film suffers from the old Mike Leigh problem - no one told the actors to bring it down.  The performances are too much.  


The three main performances of the film are like bad impressions of someone else - that's the best way to describe it.  They are, in fact, a twitchy, annoying  fucking nightmare, especially Lynda Steadman.  Awful.  There are also quite a few moments of 'meeting people from the past' which remind me of Anthony Powell's 'A Dance to the Music of Time' in that they are, frankly, absurd.    


But if you can get past all that it's got some funny bits in it and is quite sweet I suppose.   Still, a bit of a dip in Mike Leigh's golden period (an era which is still ongoing).