Just watched this film by Mike Leigh.
I like his films but I have to admit it was pretty depressing.
It's worth a mention though as it's filmed totally on location in SE London / Kent. The main character's a cabby and his first fare in the film is to take someone to Charlton.
If this were a real depiction of life in SE London then I think we'd be in trouble. Some people's lives in council housing and unemployed etc can be shitty, hopeless etc but does anyone think Mike Leigh's anywhere near the mark here?
Has anyone else seen it?
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Is it anything like Nil By Mouth?
Nil by mouth is also a great film as is Secrets and Lies also by Mike Leigh.
He really seems to "get" the feel of his subject better than most of others especially via his characters like the violent boyfriend in All or Nothing who reminded me of more than a few herberts that I used to know.
Sorry Nolly but I disagree completely that Mike Leigh does poncy films - did you see his most recent "Vera Drake", if you did then your definition of poncy is very different to mine.
Nil by mouth is a great film though, I agree.
that's pretty smart even though it doesn't really go anywhere some great performances and a bit bizarre
Well it was a Mike Leigh film and he rarely does Jolly these days. Nuts in May and Abigals Party are both very funny mind even if with a great deal of pathos.
Not heard of this film. Is it on at the pictures or out on DVD?
"Do you like demis rousoss?"
"If you want olives would you put them out please Laurence"
It is quite a depressing film in a lot of ways, especially when you consider the way his two fat kids end up in their lives, but Timothy Spall and the woman who plays his wife are so unbelievably good in their parts that I got absorbed in the film completely.
All or Nothing made me think about poverty and the social structure in a way that no other film ever did.
Many years ago I played the part of Tony (the ex footballer) on stage in an amateur version of Abigails Party. It's a very funny stage play but challenging because of the improvised small talk that carries on through out. The ending is a real shocker though and typical Leigh.
I agree most of his later stuff lacks much chuckle.
I think you may be right Suzi, its all coming back to me. The trauma I suffered from that role has clearly led me to blanking it out of my mind completely. I may have to seek counselling now....:-) Perhaps I'll try suing the Tango T*sser....;-)
In the play it is said that he used to play for Palace which I thought was just a line of dialogue but was actually the case for that actor. don't know his name.
Was in the bill when it first started.
And what were your thoughts on this?
What struck me in the film was that the parents (Spall and his screen wife) had produced offspring that were going to have substantially less fulfilling lives than even the humdrum existence that had endured.
What hope would there be for the next generation that the two obese children would subsequently bring into the world? How could these people move up the social ladder or were there descendants doomed to similar lives?
From experience, I know how tough life on those estates is and it really is a case of only the strongest surviving which makes it very, very hard for kids brought up in that parental and social environment to lead successful lives because the things that could get them out of the poverty trap (staying out of trouble and working hard at school) are sneered at by their peers and sometimes even their own parents.
I just don't know what can be realistically done to improve the lives of people living in those situations apart from maybe some tinkering at the edges of the problems they face.