txfilmfan wrote: ↑January 1st, 2023, 3:39 pm
The Criterion Channel's January lineup includes 8 TV movies made by Mike Leigh for the BBC in the 1970s and 1980s . . .
I watched
Abigail's Party and
The Kiss of Death.
I've seen less than a handful of
Mike Leigh's movies, and have not been captivated by his brand of "slice-of-life," "realist" cinema, which I find tedious. But reading The Criterion Channel synopsis of
Abigail's Party piqued my interest (I love ensemble pieces), so I took a look at it, and I'm glad that I did.
Abigail's Party is cut from the same hair shirt as
Edward Albee's
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Two married couples (plus one odd divorcée out in Leigh's play) gather together for a lively party (not Abigail's) involving food, drink, music, dance, character assassination, and mariticide.
I was surprised to subsequently learn that this 1977 BBC One
Play for Today was entirely improvised. Improvisation is Leigh's stylistic technique. Considering that "stunt," the performances of the small cast were, IMO, remarkable. Sexy
Alison Steadman (then Mrs. Mike Leigh), as the British equivalent of "Martha" in Albee's play, captured my gaze -- rivaled (for me, for strictly fetishistic reasons) by towering, statuesque
Harriet Reynolds as the shy, unassertive divorcée. Striking (in a peculiar way)
Janine Duvitski also riveted my attention because I instantly recognized her
face (which, to me, resembles the mug on
Minnie Woolsey AKA "Koo-Koo the Bird Girl") from
Dracula (1979).
Although I was less thrilled by
The Kiss of Death -- which, for me, evinced the telltale tedium of a
Mike Leigh film -- I do not regret having invested my time watching it.
Synopsis: A socially challenged undertaker's assistant meets a randy dolly bird, with whom he eventually engages in the titular snog.
There's more to the plot -- such as it is -- than I summarized, but not much more. A typical description of Leigh's works is that they are "character driven." I don't have anything against "character-driven" movies . . . as long as I find the characters
interesting. Watching movies about quotidian characters -- "everyday people" -- and their mundane lives is, for me, not exciting entertainment. In such cases, I focus on the performances of the actors, instead of on the characters. I'm inclined to think that the two principal performers,
David Threlfall and
Kay Adshead, probably did the best that they could with Leigh's almost one-dimensional protagonists. Threlfall's role, IMO, was more challenging because his giggling, gormless numpty is, to me, a frustrating, unappealing, rather annoying character. I found Adshead's exaggerated bit of "business" -- repeatedly flipping her hair -- distracting. I could not help but wonder if the actress developed whiplash during the production.
I haven't decided whether I shall watch all of the movies in the
Mike Leigh at the BBC showcase or not. But, I definitely intend to give
Nuts in May a look.