British auteur Mike Leigh kept the audience captivated with his wit, humor and insights during a lively conversation at New York Film Festival.
Ashley Clark moderated the session and NYFF was honored to host him for an extended conversation that reflected on his rigorously collaborative directorial practice, the creative partnerships that have shaped his work, and his steadfast commitment to the project of building an emphatically humanist cinema.
The conversation took place before the premiere of his latest film to hit the festival – Tender Loving Care. The drama composed of gestures of compassion, extended by two social workers toward their clients amid the gutting of the welfare state; two friends toward each other as they confront the trials of being single, middle-aged working women; and a wife and daughter toward the family’s patriarch, as old age gets the better of him.
A perfect follow-up to the Hard Truths (NYFF62), the new film continues his career-long preoccupations with the lives of England’s working class and the relationships that endure—or break—in the face of precarity.
Leigh has said that Tender Loving Care might be his final film, which would make it a tremendous capstone to a remarkable oeuvre, which made the prolific panel eve more meaningful for the room full of cinephiles who came out to appreciate him.
The 64th New York Film Festival is presented in partnership with Rolex. This talk was supported by Deadline.
