MM39 - Trust the Process: Mike Leigh
Added 2025-06-04 11:00:10 +0000 UTCIn this week’s episode of Movie Mindset Will and Hesse dive into British filmmaker Mike Leigh and his rigorous and idiosyncratic process for making films, which involve intense collaboration with his cast to research, rehearse, improvise and ultimately create astonishingly authentic portraits of human life and behavior in all it’s joy and misery. In these two films we get a full showcase of what Leigh and his cast are capable of in these unforgettable depictions of the comedy and tragedy of human existence.
First, In Life Is Sweet (1990) we meet and spend time with an ordinary working class family. Patriarch Andy (Jim Broadbent) is affable and easy going, mother Wendy (Alison Steadman) is bubbly and full jokes, daughter Natalie (Claire Skinner) is droll and level-headed, while her twin Nicola (Jane Horrocks) is a boiling cauldron of dysfunction and negativity.
Then in Naked, an intelligent and vicious young drifter, Johnny (David Thewlis), flees Manchester for London and visits an ex-girlfriend. From there he proceeds to berate and abuse nearly everyone he comes across in a haunting and hellish nocturnal odyssey into the Hades-like streets of London. Consider yourself warned, this one is almost unbearably bleak and could be considered a prophecy of the apocalypse.
For more on the subject, Will recently appeared on a podcast series dedicated to the films of Mike Leigh, from Ian Moran. Find Will's episode here:
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/naked-with-will-menaker/id1801773021?i=1000710225808
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1B4pSnHIpFPCIHNrfeO9Fr
Main feed: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/devised-and-directed
Comments
That guy is out of pocket.
Austin Williams
2025-10-31 21:02:18 +0000 UTCBig Dawg Mike Leigh.
Austin Williams
2025-10-31 21:00:35 +0000 UTCThe waitress is Persephone, the only mortal who’s supposed to be there Sophie’s takes the S when she leaves because it’s representative of a spirit clinging to their old name, so as not to forget they were alive The sunrise at the end is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Johnny has finally crossed over
Max Fennig
2025-10-26 19:21:13 +0000 UTCI thought the guy was putting the cancelled poster on the smaller posters one of which inadvertently was already pasted on the posters that man was putting up when he first met Johnny. Anyway tho it goes to show that time is just constantly cycling im just caught up on that detail
professional loaf of bread
2025-07-14 20:11:51 +0000 UTCI know! I found the whole series of scenes quite odd, not sure what I was meant to take from the whole thing. Alison Steadman insists on taking her home and she won't leave after he assaulted and demeaned her and it's just kind of glossed over. Just really stood out as odd to me and didn't seem to fit the rest of the movie.
Liam Dixon
2025-07-12 02:58:36 +0000 UTCBrilliant discussion. Life is sweet as one of my 10 favorite movies now. I can't find naked but I will track it down.
Robert Cantrell
2025-06-16 18:13:12 +0000 UTCThis one was incredible.
Nixper
2025-06-16 05:43:48 +0000 UTCBest episode of the best podcast. Naked is unbelievable
Blown Load Steve Austin
2025-06-15 17:58:38 +0000 UTCI live on the same street as the house from Naked, and I always keep my eye on those steps in case Johnny tumbles down them.
Ben Davies
2025-06-09 16:18:20 +0000 UTCJust watched Life is Sweet for the first time. Such a beautiful movie. But does anyone have a read on Paula the Dogsbody’s character? I don’t think Will and Hesse talked much about her (if they did please correct me!) and I was utterly baffled by her whole deal
Chris Knutson
2025-06-09 15:16:42 +0000 UTChttps://archive.org/details/abigails-party-1977
Ben Walsh
2025-06-09 13:57:01 +0000 UTCReally happy w how this one turned out https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/devised-and-directed-the-films-of-mike-leigh/id1801773021?i=1000705503514
Ian
2025-06-09 11:53:09 +0000 UTCTo help Hesse out, I haven't seen the movie, but "Purple Silk" was a brand of smokes my godmother smoked while I lived with her in England and ireland
Eamon Short
2025-06-09 04:07:03 +0000 UTCHopefully as far away from a podcast mic as possible.
Eamon Short
2025-06-09 01:04:25 +0000 UTCOh haha I just commented I hoped they say that story. Hope he unblocks you too. Unless you were on some wild shit. Could I ask what other trailers you've worked on? It's a cool gig. Honestly I'd be stoked to have Will talk to you about it for 20 minutes or so.
Eamon Short
2025-06-09 01:02:05 +0000 UTCHesse asking Will if he knows what a creepypasta is... of course he knows, Brian Yuzna talked about them in your interview with him 😁
Tim O'
2025-06-08 02:24:33 +0000 UTCThe plumber daughter sounds and acts exactly like saffy from abfab
Kirstwb
2025-06-07 16:37:50 +0000 UTCI would love if you guys did a reverse movie mindset and just shit all over a couple of movies. My nominees are sorceress (from 1982) and any of the Deathstalkker movies
Macon Leighton
2025-06-07 06:43:02 +0000 UTCI think it's really important, thematically, that they're not just "in London," they're in Dalston, a chunk of long-long-long-long-abandoned East London, specifically in the Borough of Hackney – that's your stereotype Jack-the-Ripper London, your squats-and-punk London, but after the massive 1980s Thatcherite Docklands Plan that "revitalized" the whole East London waterfront by sending cops and goons to kick the shit out of everyone there until the Patrick Batemans could move in, Dalston was well on the way to being another endless succession of new expensive apartments and shops, a nowhere place like NYC in AFTER HOURS or the part of AMERICAN PSYCHO where Patrick Bateman kills half a dozen people and blows up a cop car and somehow nothing happens. And the few people in this movie are the last still waiting for the exterminators
Michael S. Judge
2025-06-07 06:05:26 +0000 UTCI gotta admit, the whole sequence with Johnny and the guy who does night security at the office complex is so, so funny to me, the way "normal" people can be pressed to a certain point until the bizarre beliefs and convictions that sustain them burst out of normalcy, and then how easily those beliefs are crushed and they just die for 40 straight years
Michael S. Judge
2025-06-07 05:56:56 +0000 UTCI used to live in St Mark's Rise ... where that Naked house is. Used to pass it every day.
James Helps
2025-06-06 22:57:02 +0000 UTCJust watched Nuts in May on criterion after seeing your comment. So funny. Reminds me of every Portlandia sketch about an annoying couple.
Luna Zeidner
2025-06-06 18:45:23 +0000 UTCGotta have high high hopes for a livin
Luna Zeidner
2025-06-06 12:02:27 +0000 UTCAs an aside, I found the schedule and movie list for the season, are thr guest line ups for S3 poster anywhere?
Eamon Short
2025-06-06 02:47:24 +0000 UTCUnburdened by past associations! 🌴🥥
Will
2025-06-05 22:16:05 +0000 UTCAlan Clarke the GOAT
Michael Bourke
2025-06-05 20:47:51 +0000 UTChere's a "customers who bought this also bought this" rec: the many films (usually made for TV) of Alan Clarke. Road, Christine, Contact, Elephant, Scum, Made in Britain, The Firm, Beloved Enemy, Stars of the Roller-State Disco, Rita Sue and Bob Too, Penda's Fen, The Psy-Warriors, and more.
Rohmer Simpson
2025-06-05 20:03:45 +0000 UTCCisco Pike is a proper banger
Rohmer Simpson
2025-06-05 20:00:15 +0000 UTCThat’s thewlis not spall
Welch
2025-06-05 17:06:39 +0000 UTCNot sure how many folks read these messages, or if MM does, but I found a very MM coded book recently and figured I'd share: Opening Wednesday at a Theater or Drive-In Near You by Charles Taylor. Each chapter is an extended review of a 70s flick, many of which I hadn't seen before. Just watched Cisco Pike because of the book and it was something else. Anyway, hopefully someone sees this and enjoys it!
bill tulast
2025-06-05 16:08:41 +0000 UTCI remember once in college watching a movie (The Hours) that was so fake and exploitative in its cheap sentimentality straining for seriousness, that it made me want to swear off movies forever as hopelessly unserious. It was watching Naked the next day that restored my faith in movies. Despite how bleak it is, really an affirmative experience in reminding me what movies are capable of.
J Fitz
2025-06-05 16:04:53 +0000 UTCGreat episode. The TV films/stage plays filmed for TV that Mike Leigh made in the 70s are great, too, like Abigail's Party (also starring Alison Steadman), and my all-time favorite "Nuts In May," which you can find in full on YouTube. Highly recommend both to anyone who's Leigh-curious.
Susannah
2025-06-05 13:50:11 +0000 UTCChernobyl does mean wormwood. And also 33 is the age at which Jesus died according to Christian tradition
Branden Snyder
2025-06-05 13:01:56 +0000 UTCFun fact on the backrooms, the original backroom photo is from a hobby shop in Oshkosh, WI, subsequently a couple blocks from my house. It has since been turned into an RC car race track, which i think is far more interesting than empty officer space, so hopefully the afterlife is a lot like Wisconsin.
Stealtreasure
2025-06-05 12:50:21 +0000 UTCgreat episode, I wonder if that audience member at the premiere ever watched AbFab and did they immediately burst into flames when Bubble was introduced
Declan Kennedy
2025-06-05 08:26:32 +0000 UTCLupin not wormtail
Keller Warden
2025-06-05 06:30:03 +0000 UTC3 hour Mike Leigh episode. They get it
Bert
2025-06-05 06:05:07 +0000 UTCI was thinking to myself i would be dissatisfied if there was no mention of similarities the Evangelion and Naked share, glad I wasn’t the only person who felt that way
Nicholas Needham
2025-06-05 03:40:27 +0000 UTCThis movie (naked) fucked me up so much when I first saw it.
Roger Peet
2025-06-05 03:19:12 +0000 UTCthat end of evangelion callout fucking sent me
Big-Stink
2025-06-05 03:08:57 +0000 UTC"meantime" introduced me to leigh because im a gary oldman old man. i really felt the bleakness of thatcher from that film.
wailing ken jennings
2025-06-05 01:58:46 +0000 UTChttps://images.app.goo.gl/ATsnZHYRpdayDDVq7
Jonathan Thomas
2025-06-05 01:55:15 +0000 UTCActually, Farewell My Concubine and The Piano won the 1993 Palme D'Or, not Naked.
Connor Schoen
2025-06-05 01:11:58 +0000 UTCI was listening to this ep and reflecting on this series (all seasons) and I just really appreciate how well done it is. I haven't seen half the movies but it's just so easy to listen to the amazing chemistry of Will and Hesse nerding out.
Warbs
2025-06-05 00:48:34 +0000 UTCWhere’s Adam?
Harry Sachs
2025-06-05 00:24:44 +0000 UTCMovie MindShreck, coming in season 4
Tim O'
2025-06-04 22:37:13 +0000 UTCI first saw this on VHS when it first came out, and I was maybe 8 or 9 years old. I became convinced that the Nutella scene was just a completely bizarre nightmare I had as a kid, until I randomly saw this as an adult.
Anthony D Cox
2025-06-04 22:21:33 +0000 UTC*guy who mispronounced Sidney Lumet's name for two decades until last year* Damn, can't believe Hesse is mispronouncing Sidney Lumet's name.
Sean, Sean, the Leopard Khan
2025-06-04 21:14:23 +0000 UTCLoved this episode so much. I actually went on a first date to “Naked” when it first came out in cinemas, and needless to say we both agreed afterward that the movie was incredible and also that the night should end there.
John Harwood
2025-06-04 19:39:00 +0000 UTCLove Mike Leigh. I’d like to shout out “High Hopes,” which somehow didn’t come up. Extremely funny and basically about Mayor Pete avant la lettre.
Chase Padusniak
2025-06-04 18:54:44 +0000 UTCNo one cares about these weird movies for fancy people do Shrek and Shrek 2 you cowards
Smooth Shrek
2025-06-04 16:25:17 +0000 UTCboth of these movies were quite harrowing in their own ways. We live in the hungry ghost world now, it sucks
Anomalie
2025-06-04 15:02:41 +0000 UTCMaybe Will liked my story enough to unblock me ( x.com/Davidhughestwit ) on X 👀
David Hughes
2025-06-04 14:54:58 +0000 UTCOn comedy https://youtu.be/RgprHtUJHxQ?si=p85xrghwKdj6zXGw
NYCM&AHole
2025-06-04 14:35:30 +0000 UTCFuck are you doing walking around at night in a bad mood? Go to bed!
Will
2025-06-04 13:52:07 +0000 UTCNo better time to get into Mike Leigh!
Seymour Butz
2025-06-04 11:38:39 +0000 UTC“I hope I haven’t given you AIDS, Sophie”
Rohmer Simpson
2025-06-04 11:28:51 +0000 UTCThis is great
THEKILLERWHALE
2025-06-04 11:21:03 +0000 UTCMy partner is in north Gaza with his family, hate to be that person but you guys talk about Palestine a lot so please if anyone wants to help share or donate to his fundraiser ❤️ sorry have a good day https://chuffed.org/project/support-suleiman
Rosie
2025-06-04 11:09:46 +0000 UTCI once saw David Thewlis begging for change in London's West End. Grubby, dishevelled, and with a straggly beard, he was sitting in a doorway on the corner of Soho’s Old Compton Street, with his hand out. He gave me a contemptuous look as I passed by, probably because instead of giving him any money, I recognised him from Mike Leigh's Life is Sweet (1990), for which I had helped make the trailer. Wow, I thought. He's really fallen a long way down since Life is Sweet. Then I thought, if I saw him again – I passed the spot almost every day – I would stop and talk to him, find out what had happened, how such a promising young actor had ended up on the street. A year or two later, I was asked to help make a trailer for Mike Leigh's next film, Naked, and as soon as I saw that it was about Johnny, a homeless man played by David Thewlis – grubby, dishevelled, and with a straggly beard – I realised what had happened: he'd been researching. Wow, I thought. He really put his heart into that part. The film was incredible, and even though Mike Leigh wouldn't let us go with my original idea of having the trailer narrated by Johnny himself ("Nobody else writes dialogue for the characters in my films," Leigh explained), he did use my voiceover script almost word for word, albeit transposed to the third person. A few years after this, I ran into David Thewlis again, in almost exactly the same place: Old Compton Street. Appropriately enough, he was buying a copy of The Big Issue from a homeless person. I introduced myself, explaining how I had seen him on this very street, years ago, apparently begging – and that it wasn't until I saw Mike Leigh's Naked that I realised he must have been researching for the role of Johnny. He laughed. "How did it feel," I asked him, "being out on the street like that, begging?" "Actually, it wasn't too bad for me," he admitted. Then he pointed to a door on Old Compton Street. "My flat's just here."
David Hughes
2025-06-04 11:09:28 +0000 UTCBut I don’t know these films! 🥺oh no I’m dumb
This is how Janis Joplin feels
2025-06-04 11:05:20 +0000 UTC
