The Mike Leigh Collection – Volume Two

 

Picture: C+     Sound: C+     Extras: D     Each Film:

 

Bleak Moments (1971)                               C+

Nuts In May (1976)                                    B-

Who’s Who (1978)                                     B-

 

 

Water Bearer continues to roll out the earliest Mike Leigh films with The Mike Leigh Collection – Volume Two and the trio of improvised features is even a better than the first set.  This time, we get Bleak Moments (1971), his very first feature film, and two telefilms for the BBC that were theatrically released in the United States:  Nuts In May (1976) and Who’s Who (1978).  They all feel like the beginning of what became the foundations of his work.

 

Bleak Moments is so dark and dreary on purpose, that its points are obvious a quarter of the way through, but it is the distinct style of misery Leigh came up with that got him noticed.  Sylvia (Anne Raitt) has to take care of her mentally disabled sister (Sarah Stephenson) and has been for years.  It is starting to get to her, as she wonders what she will do for herself.  She comes to the point that she is being pushed to the breaking point.  Her lower socio-economic status magnifies the terrible realization immensely, but she meets a male schoolteacher (Eric Allan) who might like her too and wonders if this is her last chance to have a life and future outside of being a de facto nurse.  A little of this goes a long way, but it is distinct just the same.

 

Nuts In May turns out to be one of his better comedies, or more of what I expected originally from High Hopes, as two Hippies form the 1960s continue their life into the mid-1970s.  Leigh’s wife Alison Steadman is the female lead, and Roger Sloman is her mate, as they still pitch tents and continue on long after the movement is done.  It should be said that some of the comedy comes from the simple fact that the reason they have stayed Hippies is simply to try and avoid the British caste system, a point many American viewers might miss.  Leigh’s comedies usually do not work, but this one does enough to be possibly his best to date.

 

Who’s Who further addresses the class division in a film that is a drama with a purposely thin undercurrent of comedy.  As Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975) demonstrated, going to a higher socio-economic class is nothing permanent, especially when you bring self-destructive personal emotional and psychological luggage with you unresolved.  Though not as great as Kubrick’s masterwork, it still aptly demonstrates how in England those who climb without consideration are bound to make fools of themselves and become something they are not, even a spoof of themselves.  Part of it in this case is how ugly the caste system is to begin with in how it is designed to hurt people and cut into their common sense and pride.  In some ways, this is a one-of-a-kind film from Leigh.  That is why in all, this set offers more of his better aspects as a filmmaker and auteur.  Bridget Kane, Simon Chandler, Adam Norton, Philip Davis, and Joolia Cappleman co-star.

 

The full frame, color image on all three DVDs is not bad, offering passable analog master transfers of the film elements that all three features were shot on.  As far as the camera work on each is concerned, Bahram Manoochehri shot Bleak Moments, Michael Williams lensed Nuts In May, and Who’s Who (1978) was shot by John Else.  They all did remarkable jobs for the low budgets they had to work with and as much as I enjoyed Leigh’s use of PAL videotape from the first box, the filmed images carry more visual weight and realism, which especially helps when you are doing improvisation.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on all three films is also not bad, showing their age, but being dialogue-based has limits to begin with.  Again, there are no extras.

 

Water Bearer is also planning to issue a third DVD box of Leigh’s films, which will pretty much round out just about all of his early titles before international success became more permanent.  Like him or not, Leigh was an independent voice saying something that some would consider subversive.  Others would say he did not go far enough, but the man’s work stands.  These titles deserve a good look as some of his best work.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo