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I just re-watched Mike Leigh's masterpiece Secrets & Lies, and am again extremely impressed by both the acting & the storyline. Leigh handled the difficult subject matter (an adopted adult woman searching for & meeting her birth mother) respectfully & with sensitivity.

Spoiler

The scene that got to me the most was when Maurice (Cynthia's married brother) went off at the end of the dinner & angrily admitted why he & his wife couldn't have children - which in turn led to Cynthia tearfully telling Roxanne who her actual father was (for the first time).

And, though this was obviously a drama first & foremost, Leigh managed to infuse some great humor into the film:

- During the dinner, Cynthia bragged that she could still "turn heads". In response, her daughter Roxanne immediately mutters,"More like turning stomachs..."

-I was also amused by Paul's demeanor (Roxanne's boyfriend) during this confrontational dinner; he was obviously justifiably nervous/uncomfortable during this, and his awkward facial expressions/tics were hilarious; I have seen people make similar expressions when they're uncomfortable, so Leigh's attention to detail here was impressive - though, I'm not sure this was necessarily meant to be funny?!

I wonder if the timing was to coincide with all the expected publicity for Mr Turner in the build-up to the BAFTAs? Whoops.

(Mind you, Mr Turner is getting tons of coverage regardless - but because of the surprise snub, not a raft of nominations!)

domino harvey wrote:Looooong OOP Secrets and Lies coming to Blu-ray in the UK via Channel 4 next month

Got this and it is indeed worth it. FAR better than the 20th Century Fox DVD that's been out-of-print for years (and which goes for a lot of money these days - hint).

I popped this in after checking out the Blu-Ray for Luis Buñuel's Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie and was knocked out by how much better the film stock looked - granted, that's the production itself, not the transfer, but that quantum leap in quality was made clear by how well the grain and the detail looked on this disc. Couldn't ask for anything better, and I got this for at most 10 quid after shipping.

I stumbled on to an old interview with Mike Leigh and before he did Secrets & Lies (1996), he did a stage play called It's a Great Big Shame! where "the first act was set in 1893 in a house lived in by white cockneys [and] the second act was set in 1993 in the same house but everyone was black." Stunning to hear this because the same concept was used in the 2010 Bruce Norris play Clybourne Park (which wound up winning a Pulitzer for Drama and a Tony for Best Play).

Anyone here actually see Leigh's play? I suppose the original production is now lost to the ages.

Is Leigh's BBC television work (including Grown-Ups) available anywhere in HD? They were shot in 16mm, but I've seen some descriptions of the previous DVD collections refer to the content as his "surviving" work for the BBC, so I wonder if there's any implication that the film elements may not have been carefully preserved?

New 4K restoration of Career Girls is coming to BD from Film 4 in February. Finally!

Would’ve appreciated some contextual extras but I’ll take it.

Adam X wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 10:16 am New 4K restoration of Career Girls is coming to BD from Film 4 in February. Finally!

Would’ve appreciated some contextual extras but I’ll take it.

A Sense of History is worth having. As is The Short and Curlies, but that's also on the BFI's release of Naked.

Those shorts are also on Criterion's releases of Topsy-Turvy and Naked, respectively

hearthesilence wrote: Mon Oct 19, 2020 1:24 am Is Leigh's BBC television work (including Grown-Ups) available anywhere in HD? They were shot in 16mm, but I've seen some descriptions of the previous DVD collections refer to the content as his "surviving" work for the BBC, so I wonder if there's any implication that the film elements may not have been carefully preserved?

Might as well bump this. I was disappointed that the current retrospective at Lincoln Center mostly left out his BBC work - only a DCP of the 2K restoration of Meantime (which did get a festival and theatrical release back in the day) is being shown - but I wonder if this is a sign that HD and 4K masters haven't been created for those works. I mentioned this with some other TV works I've seen in theaters, but if a film element even survives, I wonder if it would be something as disappointing as an archival print made of a broadcast video tape master?

hearthesilence wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 4:50 pm

hearthesilence wrote: Mon Oct 19, 2020 1:24 am Is Leigh's BBC television work (including Grown-Ups) available anywhere in HD? They were shot in 16mm, but I've seen some descriptions of the previous DVD collections refer to the content as his "surviving" work for the BBC, so I wonder if there's any implication that the film elements may not have been carefully preserved?

Might as well bump this. I was disappointed that the current retrospective at Lincoln Center mostly left out his BBC work - only a DCP of the 2K restoration of Meantime (which did get a festival and theatrical release back in the day) is being shown - but I wonder if this is a sign that HD and 4K masters haven't been created for those works. I mentioned this with some other TV works I've seen in theaters, but if a film element even survives, I wonder if it would be something as disappointing as an archival print made of a broadcast video tape master?

Not all of Leigh's BBC work was shot on film. Abigail's Party was video, as were the two half-hours he did for Second City Firsts, The Permissive Society and Knock for Knock. The word "surviving" is there because Knock for Knock was wiped.

That said, Leigh did make a twenty-minute piece on the evils of gambling for BBC Schools called A Mug's Game. That apparently survives, but it wasn't on the Mike Leigh at the BBC DVD set. The set doesn't include his one radio play for the BBC, Too Much of a Good Thing (broadcast 1992), either.

Meantime was shot on film, but for Channel 4, not the BBC.

Good to know - I'm certainly guilty of lumping all of his made-for-television work together as "BBC work" due to my shaky familiarity with broadcast in the UK. For the stuff that was shot in film for the BBC, would they save the original film negative, or are they more likely to dispose of them and hold on to a broadcast master instead? Apparently there are 16mm prints of Grown Ups out there, so I'm hoping that's a good sign - if I could only have one, it would probably be that one.

swo17 wrote: Wed Jan 19, 2022 6:40 pm Those shorts are also on Criterion's releases of Topsy-Turvy and Naked, respectively

A Sense of History is also on Film4's Secrets and Lies release, for what it's worth. Interesting that they've duplicated it across releases.

hearthesilence wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 8:11 pm Good to know - I'm certainly guilty of lumping all of his made-for-television work together as "BBC work" due to my shaky familiarity with broadcast in the UK. For the stuff that was shot in film for the BBC, would they save the original film negative, or are they more likely to dispose of them and hold on to a broadcast master instead? Apparently there are 16mm prints of Grown Ups out there, so I'm hoping that's a good sign - if I could only have one, it would probably be that one.

As far as I know, for an all-film production, they would keep the negatives, though it would be case for case as I'm sure there are examples where they didn't. In the 1970s, they might well have been broadcast from film prints, but that wouldn't be the case now. Looking back at the 2009 set, the 16mm-shot films were restored for that release, though presumably in standard definition as that was a DVD release.

GaryC wrote: Wed Jun 01, 2022 6:29 am As far as I know, for an all-film production, they would keep the negatives, though it would be case for case as I'm sure there are examples where they didn't. In the 1970s, they might well have been broadcast from film prints, but that wouldn't be the case now. Looking back at the 2009 set, the 16mm-shot films were restored for that release, though presumably in standard definition as that was a DVD release.

Thanks Gary. I may just stream what I can and hold out for an HD upgrade. The DVD set is very tempting, but I generally don't like the upscale look of DVD's on a 4K monitor.

Anyone had a chance to take a look at the restored Career Girls? It looks very nice, with far richer colors than the washed-out old master that has been streaming. But there are some brief color inconsistencies that stood out to me and I was wondering if anyone else noticed or had any insight into them.

The first one occurs pretty early in the film as Annie is walking through the station after exiting the train. There's a shot of her walking --> a POV shot of Hannah coming toward her --> a reaction shot of her smiling. Here are what the shots of Annie look like on the restoration (resized for convenience but otherwise unaltered):

Spoiler

The second shot is so much bluer than any other shot in the scene, almost like a few frames were outsourced to Eclair. Given the location, I thought perhaps it could simply be the result of some uncooperative natural light changing between shots. But for what it's worth, the old Amazon copy does not seem to display the same inconsistency:

Spoiler

(It's also worth nothing the film sets up a visual dichotomy between the brighter present and the bluer past, so a sudden shift like this would carry certain implications that might seem a bit out of place here, and occurs nowhere else).

The second instance I noticed also only lasts for a single shot, but it takes place indoors. In the famous "Mzzz Brontë" scene, there's a shot reverse shot sequence between Annie and Hannah. Annie asks her question ("Will I find a fella soon?") in close-up --> Cut to Hannah answering ("Must come!") --> Cut back to Annie, blushing.

Here are what the shots look like on the old Amazon copy:

Spoiler

(I've thrown in the shot of the roommate that immediately follows at the end for more context.)

This color is consistent across all the shots with the lighting in the scene, a dark room lit mostly by the lamp on Steadman's right just out of the frame. There's nothing that marks the third shot in any way. In the restored version however, the third shot is markedly different, tinted red:

Spoiler

Again that shot is the only one where this color deviation occurs; all the surrounding shots in the scene look normal. Is this an intentional expressionist flash, the lighting shifted to reflect Annie's momentary embarrassment? Or are these shots minor mistakes in the color timing?

As for the film itself, for me it's magnificent, one of Leigh's best. Warm, funny, wistful, maybe the closest he ever got to something like Rohmer's A Tale of Autumn. And in a tragically truncated career full of memorable appearances, Katrin Cartlidge is perhaps at her very best here. Just an electrifying performance, witty and unpredictable, so carefully layered and modulated between two states.