Just after completing my Analytical Essay (comparing Mike Leigh and Kathe Kollwitz), in October 26 of 2010, I was fortunate enough to attend the first UK screening of 'Another Year', along with a Q&A session with Mike Leigh himself straight afterwards. The film itself is as unique an entity as are every one of Leigh's films, mainly due to his unique collaborate creative process. I generally am always skeptical with artists when they obsess over the medium and the creative process, however in Leigh's case it isn't an obsession, merely an entirely different approach than any well-known filmmaker today. Arguably, due to Leigh's approach, he constitutes a unique brand or genre in his own right - something that one can emulate but never duplicate, primarily because of how personal and therefore secret his process with the actors is. The process itself involves the actors creating their characters from improvisations, guided and orchestrated into a story by Leigh.
It follows therefore that journalists generally spend more time and article space trying to teese out the tenants of his 'secret' process. This Q&A was no exception in terms of the audience’s questions, in-so-much that at one point Leigh himself wryly commented on how there seemed a significant lack of questions about the film they'd just seen. As I was leaving, frustrated with myself for not having a single question to ask him, I realised that it was that the sheer simplicity of his approach, and the enviable coherance displayed within every one of his films that I've seen, is completely self-evident and self-explanatory and leaves nothing lacking. 'Another Year' is justn yet another example of this.
So aside from process, what Leigh feels defines his approach is his interest in people; specifically their behavior, rituals, language, and conversation. It comes from an interest in looking at life in all its details, for which Leigh is compelled to use film or theater to try and capture and do something with. A natural compulsion to tell stories and share what you've experienced. Additionally, this interest extends beyond character to the substance of film; its visual possibilities, as well as the structure and discipline it requires. It was interesting therefore when Leigh highlighted how film is a medium that achieves something he can't achieve in theatre, and that the same applies to theater as opposed to film.
What most moved me however was his reason for never employing a scripted approach. Leigh noted how, in films from 1986 to the end of the 20s when ‘talkies’ began, it was standard to make films through improvisation and collaboration. When ‘talkies’ began, everything became ‘script-bound’. “…it’s simply a natural thing to do, to get everyone into a room, and to create something, working the actual medium itself.” Rather than writing a script, then having to find someone to fit it, which is a process of compromises that continues all the way through to post-production, and often results in a film that merely resembles the original idea. Which is why Leigh believes in a more collaborative process with all levels of crew as well as the cast. He emphasised how actors are real artists “they don’t just show up, learn the lines, and don’t fall over the furniture… but they collaborate, create… they don’t just play themseves, they’re motivate to deal with ‘life out there’, and to use their art, their medium…”. Leigh’s approach to filmmaking is not one of compromise and producing a film where “it's been interfered with”. For Leigh, his uncompromising and completely collaborate approach helps him get result he couldn’t otherwise get. Enough said!
Links:
(Please contact me directly for a link to the recording of the Q&A)
References:
LEIGH. M (2010) Question & Answer Session following screening of 'Another Year'. 12 October.
IMDB (2010) Mike Leigh Filmography: Available at:http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005139/ (Accessed: 01 August 2010)
No comments:
Post a Comment