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Bleak Moments
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Wikipedia article
{{infobox film
| name = Bleak Moments
| image = Bleak Moments.jpg
| image_size =
| caption =
| director = Mike Leigh
| producer =
| writer = Mike Leigh
| starring =
| music =
| cinematography = Bahram Manocheri
| editing = Leslie Blair
| studio =
| distributor = Contemporary Films
| released =
| runtime = 106 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| budget = 18,500Alexander Walker, 'National Heroes: British Cinema in the Seventies and Eighties', Harrap, 1985 p 225
}}
'Bleak Moments' is a 1971 British comedy-drama film by Mike Leigh in his directorial debut. Leigh's screenplay is based on a 1970 stage play at the Open Space Theatre, about the dysfunctional life of a young secretary.
Leigh and Leslie Blair had formed their own production company, Autumn Productions, and Leigh wanted to adapt 'Moments'. He was able to realise that desire when Albert Finney and Michael Medwin's Memorial Films, which had recently made 'If....' and was about to produce 'Gumshoe', "delivered the main financial backing, as well as unused spare bits of film rolls."Michael Coveney, p.85
Plot
Sylvia leads a quiet life caring for her sister Hilda who has complex care needs. Their lonely suburban existence is accentuated by a social awkwardness that detaches them from the community and fuels a life of seclusion and despair.
Cast
* Anne Raitt as Sylvia
* Sarah Stephenson as Hilda, Sylvia's sister
* Eric Allan as Peter
* Joolia Cappleman as Pat
* Mike Bradwell as Norman
* Donald Sumpter as Norman's friend
* Liz Smith as Pat's mother
Reception
The critic Michael Coveney (writing in 1996) wrote that "Even though the sound quality is poor and the pace a little on the leisurely side - there is tonal assurance and technical finesse in the presentation of the marvellous performances that proclaims both originality and talent. Sylvia is heard playing Chopin's 'E-flat Nocturne' over the opening credits. The general inability to express inner feelings reinforces a mood of bleak, Slavic despair..[there is a] Chekhovian atmosphere, unrelieved by the sort of cathartic climax that characterises most of Leigh's subsequent work." And Coveney praised Leigh's "poetic sensitivity to what G.K.Chesterton called 'the significance of the unexamined life.' Even the exterior shots have a plaintive, insistent quality, with beautifully composed views of pebbledash houses and garages, of clear roads and tall trees, around West Norwood and Tulse Hill."Coveney, p.86
John Coleman in 'New Statesman' called it, "the most remarkable dbut by a British director, working on an absurdly low budget and with unknown actors, that I have ever seen."
Roger Ebert in the 'Chicago Sun Times' said "'Bleak Moments' is a masterpiece, plain and simple... its greatness is not just in the direction or subject, but in the complete singularity of the performances."
Tony Garnett, the innovative and radical producer, admired the stage performance and was impressed with the subsequent film. He 'spotted Leigh's potential immediately' and his support would prove invaluable. Garnett was providing several films a year for the BBC, and would also produce Leigh's next project, 'Hard Labour', for BBC Television in 1973.
Home video
'Bleak Moments' has been released in 4:3 aspect ratio several times in the UK: VHS (BFI/Connoisseur Video, 2000), DVD (Soda Pictures, 2008, 2015), and as part of 'The Mike Leigh Film Collection' box set (Spirit Entertainment Ltd, 2008).
It has also seen US release by Water Bearer Films, Inc. on VHS (1998), DVD (2004), and in their 'Mike Leigh Collection, Vol. 2' box set (2004).
A remastered Blu-ray of the film was released by the BFI in November 2021.
References
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