After decades spent making gritty realist films, Mike Leigh has created
a work of unparalleled joy in Happy-Go-Lucky. Paul Dale talks to him about his motivation and
his methods
t ()5 years of age. it's good to see that
Mike Leigh has learned nothing abottt
handling the press. By turns blustery. crabby. contrary. humourless. paranoid and evasive. Leigh belongs to that generation of no nonsense. taciturn northern men epitomised by ever irritable TV ‘tvvitchen Bill ()ddie.
Along vvith Ken Loach. Leigh is ol'ten perceived as one of the l‘orel‘athcrs of a certain kind ot‘ British lilm realism which developed out ol‘ the kitchen sink dramas ol' the early Wolls (Saturday Night and Sunday .llm'ning. This Sporting Life. .-l 'liis'lc off/mun“) and the relative freedom at‘t‘orded young playvv'rights and filmmakers by the BBC in the late ()05 and early
18 THE LIST lt‘ .31 Apt 3088
7()s. It's a moniker he clearly dislikes. perhaps because it inl'ers decrepitude of years. When I express surprise that he has made a film as
joyous. youthful and humane as his nevv'est.
[lap/iv-(in-Im‘kv. at this stage in his career. his reply is l'rothy: ‘liveryone else is more preoccupied vv ith the lateness ol' my career than I am. It seems like a complete red herring to me. I suppose I could look around at people that vverc born the same year as me. vv ho are behaving like old men and old vvomen in a vvay that I‘m not.~ l’ausing. he adds: ‘But I don‘t want to get smug about it. I‘m only even talking about it because you asked.‘
Leigh's nevv' lilm. his tenth cinema l'eature was. he impatiently points out. made the way he always makes l‘ilms. He says. ‘liirstly l collaborate vvith a gang ol actors and create the characters and relationships. Then I share my feelings vvith the cinematographer and the designers and work out vvhal it‘s going to look like. feel like and all of that and then I go out there and I make the lilm up as I go along. I discover by the journey of making the lilm. the structure ol' the lilm.~
Huppv-(io-lm'lcv l‘ollovv's the adventures ol'
Poppy. a kooky 3()-something primary school teacher living in contemporary London. The character is played by Sally Hawkins. vvho took
the Silver Bear .-\vvard litil' Best .-\cll'css at this year’s Berlin l-‘ilm l‘iestival l'or hcr cl‘l‘orts. l’oppy is open. kind. l‘unny. bavvdy but also responsible and coml‘ortable vvilh being single. She vvorks hard. plays hard vv ith her llatmatc and best lricnd /.oe l.-\le\is '/.egermanl. visits her lamily. takes dl‘i\iltg lcssolls vvith psychotic teacher Scott tliddic .\larsan l. attends l'lamenco and trampoline classes and starts a ncvv relationship \yillt big-cltinned cltlltl social vvorkct‘ il‘illl (Samuel Roukinl. She has time lor everyone and everyone adores her in return.
.\lorc l'i'c'tic‘h nevv vvave than British kitchen sink. l’oppy‘s cinematic antecedents are .ltiliet Bel'to's kinky comical magician in .lacqttcs Riv cttc's ('c/im' and Julie (in [fouling and Jeanne .\loreau's ('atherine in 'l‘l'llllttlllis ./ll/('\ ('1 .lim. With her hall glass lull altitude. l’oppy is the mirror opposite ol' l)av id 'l'llcvv lis‘ pessimistic and nihilistic Mancunian ne‘er do vvell .lohnny in Leigh‘s most conlcnliotts lilm to date Nil/suit 1903).
Leigh linds nothing strange in this shill tovvards more positivist values. llis look at Inc since the end ol the 'l‘lialcher years has been marked by vv hat he calls a ‘l‘airly three dimensional and real. aspect. and as tar as this lilm is concerned he believes that ‘l’oppy ‘s spirit is positive and you get something very much out ol that. I think that Vera Drake's got a positive spirit too but circumstances all'ect vvhat happens to her in a vvay. I guess it‘s too simplistic to say it's optimistic compared to all my other lilms.
Sally Hawkins on set with Mike Leigh. Hawkins won a Silver Bear Award for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival tor her performance in Happy-Go-Lucky