Originally posted on 16 Jan 2011:
Mike Leigh is a legend - no one creates more compassionate & beautifully observed cinema from the British working class. His latest, Another Year, is said to be one of his best.
He has a brilliant reputation for extraordinarily well-written female parts (his characters are developed, together with his actors, during filming). Just think of Brenda Blethyn & Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Secrets and Lies, Imelda Staunton in Vera Drake &, most recently, Sally Hawkins in Happy-go-lucky. Legendary.
