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"A film can only be interesting if it's rooted in reality in some way, things can only be funny if they're rooted in reality, and they can only be tragic if they're rooted in reality." -Mike Leigh

Since October 3 the Walker Arts Center has been screening Mike Leigh: Moments, a retrospective highlighting the career of the iconoclastic British director. Last Saturday was the Minnesota premiere of his latest film Happy-Go-Lucky. The filmmaker will be coming to Minnesota on Wednesday, Oct.15 where he will participate in a Regis Dialogue along with LA Weekly film critic Scott Foundas.

This rarely assembled retrospective--the 19th year of the Walker's ongoing Regis Dialogue and Film Retrospective--includes all the theatrical feature films, screened in 35mm (from archives all over the world), from this multiple Oscar-nominated filmmaker.

The Walker's Sheryl Mousley, film/video curator for the retrospective, saw Leigh's latest film at this year's Cannes Film Festival. "I thought: This is the moment for Mike Leigh," she said. "He was looking at life in a different way that was interesting because Happy-Go-Lucky looks at why can't we find happiness and what is the power of happiness.

"This is very different from his previous films that had a bleaker tone; it's such a refreshing film."

After seeing the film in May, Mousley immediately contacted Miramax (the company in charge of distributing the film in America) and asked for the chance to show Happy-Go-Lucky at the Walker and bring Leigh here. He accepted in June. Leigh will be the 48th guest for the Walker's Regis Dialogue.

Foundas is the perfect choice to chat with Leigh on his long career, according to Mousley. The film critic participated last spring in the Walker's retrospective on director Milos Forman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The People vs. Larry Flint), his first time at the Walker. Leigh and Foundas have a long history, though. When Foundas was still in school at USC -and film editor of the campus newspaper- around the release time of Secrets and Lies (1996), he was given 15 minutes to interview the director. With Foundas' preparation and a slot right before lunch (thus giving him a chance to talk longer without running into another scheduled interview) he ended up talking with Leigh for almost an hour that day. 

"We talked, and when the time was up--we just kept going," Foundas said. "I was already a big fan of his at this point, and I found him to be such a fascinating subject."

Not all filmmakers, even great ones, can talk in great detail about their process, according to Foundas. Leigh can, he said. "It's a way of going deeper in to somebody's work. I ask them questions that are raised by the film and see their response, see if they're in agreement with my own take on the film, and the prevailing, conventional wisdom on the film, and see if they have another take or dimension to offer.

"Especially for somebody who's made as many films as Leigh, it's a way to explore connections in his body of work, see what the filmmaker is trying to accomplish," he said.

Though Foundas has written on all of Leigh's films, the two didn't see each other again until they met in Colorado at the Telluride Film Festival last month. The Regis Dialogue will show clips of Leigh's films and talk about his filmmaking process. Foundas said the Walker does a great job with these retrospectives and looks forward to this chat with Leigh and a full crowd of film lovers.

The crowd can expect a lively dialogue, Foundas said. "What makes Mike Leigh such a fascinating interview subject, and an intimidating one, is that he listens very carefully to the questions and is not afraid to correct or disagree with you. He keeps you on your toes [as an interviewer].

"Mike Leigh is a storyteller," Mousley said. "It will be energized."

According to Foundas, you can see Leigh's work as having a through line of bleakness and pessimism, but not with his newest film Happy-Go-Lucky. The film is blatantly optimistic he said; a film with a central character that always sees the glass half-full and tries to inspire people to see life that way as well.

Foundas saw Leigh introduce Happy-Go-Lucky at the New York Film Festival. The director said there is a close correlation between the main character Poppy from that film, played by Sally Hawkins, and the character Johnny from Naked (1993) played by David Thewlis. "You could say that one is an optimist and the other is a pessimist," Foundas said. "But the way Mike Leigh describes it they are both really ‘utopians in a less than utopian world.'"

Foundas finds Leigh to be a great humanist in the tradition of filmmakers Jean Renoir and Yasujiro Ozu. He celebrates humanity in all its dimensions by showing that people can be horrible to each other just as soon as they can be loving and gentle to each other, he said.

"Unfortunately I think what too often gets praised as being humanism in movies is a kind of cheap, Hallmark-card sentimentality," he said. Leigh creates wonderful, original characters that actually feel like real people, he said. "I think that's a rare thing in the movies these days."

The city of London serves as more than a backdrop in Mike Leigh's films; it's a distinct and integral character. His dissection of Britain's class system involves fully inhabiting London culture with sometimes harsh and always humorous realism. As the Boston Review noted, Leigh's films are the antithesis of the Merchant Ivory variety -not rooted in the glossy, hazy past. Although eschewing any overt political statements, Leigh's films look at the complexity of society and firmly stand for a compassionate yet stark, honest, and humanist world view. His way of telling a story as he uncovers the peculiarity, contradiction, and secrecy intrinsic to ordinary lives has influenced a generation of filmmakers around the world.

This authenticity slowly evolves as he workshops his projects. Because of his theater background, Leigh utilizes a unique collaborative and creative process with actors. Starting with merely a notion or idea for a film and its characters, he assembles his cadre of actors, and they spend an intensive six months of rehearsal to work out the characterizations. As the late Katrin Cartlidge (Naked, Career Girls) once explained, "We're not given storylines. You build a character with him. Once the character is ready, it starts to interact with the other characters, and all of these extensive improvisations/investigations are what Mike will take for the film." Once the camera rolls, the improvisation ends.

The result is intense and personal films, with fully developed personalities and performances of extraordinary depth. From David Thewlis' raw Johnny in Naked to Imelda Staunton's nurturing Vera Drake; from Brenda Blethyn's on-the-edge Cynthia in Secrets & Lies to life-affirming Poppy in the director's newest work -all of Leigh's films are anchored by unforgettable characters.

REMAINING FILM RETROSPECTIVE SCHEDULE

Wednesday, October 15, 7:30 pm
Regis Dialogue: Director Mike Leigh with Scott Foundas
$22 ($18 Walker members) - Cinema
Meet iconoclastic British director Mike Leigh in conversation with LA Weekly film critic Scott Foundas. The Regis Dialogues and Retrospectives program, now in its 19th year, brings to the Walker some of the most innovative and influential filmmakers of our time in discussion with leading critics and writers. The Walker Cinema provides an intimate stage for directors to discuss their creative process, influences, and body of work illuminated with film clips, anecdotes, and personal insights.

Friday, October 17, 7:30 pm
Topsy-Turvy
Leigh breaks new ground (with some familiar friends) in this loving and lavish salute to the creative process. The film details the 1880's London production of Gilbert and Sullivan's masterpiece, The Mikado, and joyously illustrates how art can come from personalities at odds. In this case, those personalities are the staid W. S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) and merrymaking Sir Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner). Leigh takes the viewer behind the scenes in meticulous detail to rehearsals, costume fittings, and final production numbers in all their glory. 1999, 35mm, 160 minutes.

Saturday, October 18, 7:30 pm
Secrets & Lies
Leigh found his widest American audience -and multiple Oscar nominations- with Secrets & Lies. Through the film's story of an adopted daughter confronting her birth mother, he tackles issues of race, class, and family with humor and even a glimmer of hope. Brenda Blethyn as the mother was described by Variety as "creating a central character so big and real she gives emotional life to an entire film." 1996, 35mm, 135 minutes.

Sunday, October 19, 2 pm
Career Girls
Leigh's first foray into a flashback structure juxtaposes the story of two women reuniting over a weekend with a look at their time together in the 1980's as insecure, twitchy youths from broken homes. Career Girls is a disarming tale of friendship renewing itself. 1997, 35mm, 87 minutes.

Friday, October 24, 7:30 pm
All or Nothing
Leigh's continued exploration of the day-to-day existence of working-class Brits divided audiences of All or Nothing over whether it was his bleakest or most optimistic film yet. He focuses his lens on a weekend in the lives of neighbors in a South London housing project whose world is rocked by unforeseen events. It's a true ensemble piece, with Leigh regulars Timothy Spall as a dispirited taxi driver and Lesley Manville as his despairing wife. A. O. Scott of the New York Times gushed, "Their climactic confrontation, in which years of bitterness and dashed expectations pour out, is one of the most moving scenes I've seen in a movie this year." 2002, 35mm, 128 minutes.

Saturday October 25, 7:30 pm
Vera Drake
This character study focuses on a woman in 1950's Britain who is the bedrock of her extended family and also moonlights as a back-alley abortionist whose genuine intent is to help young women in trouble. Imelda Staunton's nuanced performance won awards from the London, Los Angeles, and New York film critics associations and National Society of Film Critics, along with Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. "I wanted to do a film that looked at the whole question of abortion, particularly as it's not a resolved question in many parts of the world," says Leigh. 2004, 35mm, 125 minutes.

Click here to view trailers and clips.

All films are written and directed by Mike Leigh and will be screened in the Cinema. Unless otherwise noted, tickets to each screening are $8 ($6 Walker members).

Cinephile's special: Receive five tickets for the price of three: $24 ($18 Walker members). Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Walker website.