This November, HOME is part of BFI’s UK-wide celebration of the career of multi-award winning, Salford-born filmmaker Mike Leigh! One of Britain’s most internationally recognised and critically acclaimed directors working today…
Mike Leigh to attend a Q&A following a screening of new 4K remaster of Naked
This special season focuses on the filmmaker’s early works and coincides with the re-release of Mike Leigh’s Naked (!993). This film triumphantly won Best Director and Best Actor (David Thewlis) at Cannes Film Festival. Newly remastered in 4K by the BFI National Archive, Naked will screen as part of the season on 12 November. Those present will be lucky enough to witness an on-stage Q&A with the director himself.
The full programme reveals the breadth of Leigh’s achievements from the early social realism of his first feature Bleak Moments to his explorations of Britain in the 1980s. This period saw the release of Meantime and High Hopes. His BBC Play For Today classic Nuts in May will also screen alongside other notable television work including Grown-Ups, his pointed exploration of class differences in contemporary Britain. There will be a screening of Hard Labour; the first work he made for television in 1973, which screens in a special double-bill with Kiss of Death; starring David Threlfall in his small screen debut.
One of British cinema’s most distinctive voices
Mike Leigh is renowned for his working methods that allow characters to emerge from research and development with actors. He has become one of British cinema’s most distinctive voices. This selection of films reflects Leigh’s ability to cast some of the best performing talents of the day. His casts include: Tim Roth, Gary Oldman, David Thewlis, Liz Smith, David Threlfall, Ruth Sheen, Phil Davis, Alison Steadman, Lesley Manville, Lindsay Duncan, Brenda Blethyn, and many more.
A seven-time Oscar nominee, winner of five BAFTAs, and nominated for another ten BAFTA awards, he is also the only British director to have won the top prize at both Cannes (for Secrets & Lies, 1996) and Venice (for Vera Drake, 2004).
Mike Leigh Retrospective at HOME 7 – 30 November 2021
Alongside the HOME season, there will be a nationwide re-release of Naked by the BFI in UK cinemas from 12 November. Also now on Blu-ray, for the first time in the UK, on 22 November! In addition, there will be a BFI Blu-ray release of Leigh’s Bleak Moments (1971) – remastered by the BFI in 4K – on 22 November, and a Mike Leigh collection on BFI Player. StudioCanal will also release a 4K remaster of All or Nothing. Also, Vera Drake will be available on Blu-ray for the first time on 15 November.
The HOME season has been programmed by Andy Willis, HOME’s Senior Visiting Curator: Film and Professor of Film Studies at the University of Salford.
#MikeLeighatHOME
Tickets are now on sale now via www.homemcr.org or the HOME Box Office on +44 (0)161 200 1500.
If you’ve never been to HOME before, be sure to get on down to one of our favourite Manchester venues!