Analysis
In this study, one will seek to analyse two movies by Mike Leigh in order to understand a few factors that weigh in on Leigh’s outlook on making a movie. The movies that will be analysed are Secrets and Lies and Happy-Go-Lucky.
The movie revolves around a few characters that are connected by circumstances. A black woman seeks to find her biological mother, who works in a boxing company, after the woman who had adopted her dies. Her biological mother lives with her other daughter and the two of them do not seem to get along well. Her mother also has a brother who they are not so close with, and share a very peculiar relationship with as demonstrated in the films. The brothers wife is a stay at home mother who suffers from terrible cramps. When Hortense Cumberbatch goes to look for her biological mother, she finds out that although she is black her mother is white. At first, Catharine, her mother, refuses to meet her but after some convincing they both agree and meet. After some time, they become very close friends. The whole plot of the movie revolves around a web of secrets and lies that every character in the film seems to be caught up in including the lead actor.
Happy-Go-Lucky
The movie revolves around one character by the name of Poppy who works as a primary school teacher in north London. Her happy attitude towards everything seems to attract many people to her. Poppy lives a very outgoing life and seems to be very happy about everything around her. Her life involves a close group of friends who she associates with, and other characters who she picks up along the way. Her approach towards everything in a happy and positive manner seems to be the theme of the movie. Poppy’s character is involved in every aspect of making a movie. Her involvement in the lives of the people she comes by lives a positive note on anyone watching.
Directorial Style
In both movies, one can sense a personal attachment between the actor and the director. One can sense that the two parties are directly involved in making a more realistic character that fits the movie. In both cases, the director seems to offer a more realistically deposition through both the scripting and character selection. Mike Leigh approach in both movies can be seen from the way he angles and sets the camera point of view. For instance, in Happy-Go-Lucky, Leigh seems to select a colour or background theme that is connected to the character's deposition. His selection of the theme goes from background setting to the clothes that the characters wear (Nelson). Since the movie is about a happy theme, Leigh selects colours that fit in with the role of the character. For instance, in almost all scenes, Poppy, who plays like the central character, wears brightly coloured clothes, which represent the mood that the film portrays (Murray, 4, September 2008).
In Secrets & lies, Leigh sets the mood through showing the life that the characters live. His camera direction and angle also help in portraying the message that he tries to depict in the movie. The camera angle is structured in such a manner that they fit in with the dialog in a given scene. For instance, in Secrets & Lies, in the scene where Maurice Purley goes to visit her sister, Leigh places the camera in a manner that the audience can see both characters and the background that compliments that dialog.
Leigh uses the living condition of his characters to pass along the main theme of behind the movie. Through his scene setting, one can tell what class characters come from in the movie. For instance, Leigh portrays a dirty looking house to demonstrate a lower class of citizens in Secrets & lies. His demonstration of the characters living condition is portrayed to revile the main theme of the movie. Through the setting of the scene, one can know exactly what Leigh is trying to pass. In addition, the setting makes room for one to understand and flow with the conflict that is in the movie. The portrayal of characters works as both a contextual view of the characters living condition, and as a guide to the potential conflict that exist within the film.
Gender in relation to the films
Both films seem to identify the relationship of gender as not only a peripheral in terms what conflict is developed in the films but also as a richly induced discourse, that is embedded in the norms of the society. While one cannot state for a fact that he takes any side, Leigh’s seems to bring out the female gender as a more solid entity. Gender in his films seems to intensify the theme that is embedded in the realism that the films try to show. He shows gender not just as an entity in the construction of a more realist setting but also as an important factor in how the characters within the film are developed.
Race as demonstrated in the film.
Through development of characters from different races, Leigh can show the dogma that exist in Britain concerning races. Leigh uses the characters relationship in his movie to how races associate with each other. For instance, Leigh demonstrates the dogma when Hortense Cumberbatch meets with Catharine, and immediately, one can see the disapproving face of Catharine due to the difference in race. Before that when Cumberbatch gets the reports of the adoption papers, she seems to think that there has been a confusion since the papers suggest that her mother is white (Cardullo). Through these scenes, one can see the racial differences’ that exist within the British society.
Work cited
Nelson, Susanna. Honest to Goodness: Finding Virtue in Happy-Go-Lucky. Retrieved on April 13th 2014 http://susannanelson.wordpress.com/2014/03/02/happy-go-lucky/
Cardullo, Bert I Call My Films Subversive": A Conversation with Mike Leigh Literature/FilmQuarterly, Vol. 39, No. 1
Murray, Jonathan. Happy-Go-Lucky Vol. 33 Nbr. 4, September 2008
