The Mike Leigh Film Collection : Naked / Bleak Moments / Career Girls / Secrets & Lies / Vera Drake / Topsy Turvy / All Or Nothing / Life Is Sweet / High Hopes / Meantime [1971]

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Customer reviews

review by: grantc date: 2008-09-13 rating:
Essential
This box set, along with Abigail's Party and Happy-Go-Lucky (both available separately), will give you a comprehensive - and comprehensively moving and hilarious - understanding of Mike Leigh's vision. He's always painted in broad strokes, with sometimes heavy-handed caricatures, but within those strokes are subtle moments of great emotional truth, and this set proves how versatile Leigh has been within different genres. A bargain and a treasure.

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review by: date: 2008-04-21 rating:
Genius
What can you say about Mike Leigh that hasn't already been said ?
Sod all thats what !
Suffice to say he's the greatest living British director (only Ken Loach comes close) and all his greatest works are here. I'd already seen most of the films but time has dimmed the memories so i'm looking forward to rediscovering some classic stuff . I am , however , familiar with the three absolute masterpieces which are : Career Girls , Secrets & Lies and All Or Nothing , every one of which is beautiful and heartbreaking in its own subtle way . Worth the money for those three films alone .
PS Mike's newest , Happy - Go - Lucky is a good film in it's own right but does not approach the genius of his greatest work . Maybe a bit unfair to compare it to those but he set the bar really high so has himself to blame !


review by: date: 2008-04-11 rating:
Mike Leigh heaven.
If you know and love Mike Leigh and live in the UK you may be slightly surprised at the way his output has been presented. Naked has never been made available officially (on DVD) until now, while other key films have drifted in and out of print. His TV work is particular hard to get hold of and bizarrely almost never repeated on the medium that originally hosted it.

This collection is particularly welcome then, presenting as it does, all his cinema work (And Meantime which I believe was made for TV just before Channel 4 branched out into Film 4).

It's packaged in a nice compact box set with a disc for each film, one for bonus material and completed with a 44 page "companion booklet" - Not a full book but far more thorough and useful than most DVD's shabby or non existent inserts. The booklet has Mike in conversation with Amy Raphael, a brief filmography and production credits for each film.

As for the films themselves, Mike Leigh is here in all his shades, from the poignant pastel comedy of 'Life Is Sweet' to the jet black rage of 'Naked'. In between you'll find a surprisingly varied mix from the period piece 'Topsy Turvy' to the bang on working class spirit depicted in 'Meantime' and 'High Hopes'. 10 films in all, each one unique and clearly a labour of love for the director and his cast.

Mike Leigh's films almost defy description but anyone who's seen and loved one of them knows that his art transcends the usual confines of drama or comedy and becomes something quite special. I eagerly await Leigh's new film, 'Happy-Go-Lucky' but until then this box set will more than suffice.

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Similar categories

Video . DVD & VHS . Categories . Drama
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Format (binding_browse-bin) . DVD
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . BBFC Rating (intended_use_browse-bin) . 18
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Editions (feature_two_browse-bin) . Box Set
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Region(feature_browse-bin) . Region 2
Video . DVD & VHS . Refinements . Language (theme_browse-bin) . English

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