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Mike Leigh and Les Blair

1 Jan 1972

Reflecting on their first feature, a youthful Mike Leigh and Les Blair reveal the tribulations of ultra-low budget filmmaking.

Bleak Moments was released in 1971 to very positive reviews but didn't fare well at the box office, a failure that Leigh and Blair place firmly at the door of the film's distributor. As many British filmmakers had before them, they learned that it was relatively easy to make a film, but much harder to get it in front of a paying audience.

For all its critical praise, Bleak Moments wasn't an easy sell. Leigh established the working pattern he has followed for the rest of his career: starting with a synopsis, he workshopped scenes with the cast and built a script that way. The story of a shy young woman who looks after her disabled sister is ponderous, with silent longueurs, but it announced Leigh as a unique new voice in British cinema.

It's fascinating to see these two long-haired film school graduates at the start of their careers, discussing their views on cinema and their aspirations. Leigh has become one of Britain's most respected auteurs, while Blair also pursued directing, across film and television.

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Behind the Screen

Get inside the movies with these illuminating insights from the people who make them.

The movies can make us believe in magic, but what they really serve up is illusion: pull back the curtain and what's revealed is a vast enterprise of imagination, skill and invention. When it comes to feature films, a director may preside over a legion of hundreds of actors, artists and technicians. To outsiders - that's most of us - this complex world can seem mystifying and impenetrable. So an insider's perspective is worth its weight in gold, as these rare interviews and talks by filmmakers and performers show.

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