Mike Leigh
by Daniel Robert Epstein for SuicideGirls (http://suicidegirls.com/)

It seems almost redundant to say this but Mike Leigh has once again created an amazing film. It’s called Vera Drake and it takes place in 1950’s London. Vera Drake lives in a small flat with her husband Stan, and their grown-up son and daughter, Sid and Ethel. The family is not rich, but their combined incomes make for a reasonable life. Vera is a cleaner, Stan a mechanic in his brother's Frank's garage, and Ethel works in a light-bulb factory. Sid is an apprentice tailor. The Drakes have something money can't buy; they are a genuinely happy family. Unbeknownst to the rest of the family Vera performs abortions and when the police finally track her down after one of her patients goes to the hospital it has major ramifications.

As Vera Drake, Imelda Staunton gives one of the most powerful performances of the year that is sure to be noticed around Oscar time. Mike Leigh begins creating his films almost a year before they start rolling any film. He works with his actors by giving them their characters and they create the scenes in rehearsal with improvisation.

Check out the official website for Vera Drake

Daniel Robert Epstein: I read that you were very pleased that Vera Drake is coming out so close to the American elections. In a way what happened to those women is almost hypocritical now in light of abortion being made legal. Do you see the film as being critical of the government?

Mike Leigh: You are correct, we did calculate if we made the film when we did it would see the light of day at precisely this time in America. But in fact the film is concerned with a universal matter. I deliberately made a film that doesn’t make any black and white statements, in fact I couldn’t. The film is a function of my own feelings. It’s a moral dilemma that asks questions of you and asks you to see an essentially good person cast in the societal role of a criminal. In the current immediate context of the fact that the law may be changed in the United States people should be aware that if you change the law we will retreat to where we were and go back to the situation that the film portrays.

DRE: Is this the most intense subject you’ve ever tackled?

ML: It’s just different from say what happened in Secrets & Lies. That was someone who brings up a child and doesn’t know she has a half-sibling somewhere. Secrets are how we live our lives. It’s darker because she’s doing something she knows is criminal on a certain level.

DRE: What made you tackle abortion?

ML: It’s always a prevalent issue. I’ve dealt with it peripherally with births and babies and not having babies and unwanted pregnancies. It’s an ongoing preoccupation but I haven’t dealt with it as a central issue. This film isn’t a sudden leap into a new subject. I have a basic preoccupation with life and how we live our lives. This is the film where I decided to deal with it directly. I remember what it was like before the law was changed in 1967. I’ve known lots of people who have directly related experiences. When I was a child I knew many women who had been to prison and you weren’t sure for what but you found out later. But mostly it’s about an issue we have to concern ourselves with; at least I do, as a parent and as a member of society. The population of the world has increased since the beginning of this conversation by rather more babies than you could get into the top floor of this building and not all of them are born into loving environments. That has to be confronted in this chaotic society.

DRE: You’re often dealing with issues of the family and the different kinds of structures within a family. There is an appearance of a normal family but then all these other things come out.

ML: We all have a need to belong. People used to say that Naked [released in 1993] was the first film I made that wasn’t about families. But even there you can see people coagulating together into needy groups or you see someone in denial of family which is just as much of a statement about family.

There are people out there making movies who look for ideas, books and stories. I could go on making films about families as long as I need to make films. Each film has its own particular area of exploration for a different reason. The nature of the family and it’s dynamics in Secrets & Lies is different in context and function from the family in Vera Drake. The reason I set the film in 1950 was to not only be before the law was changed but also because putting it in that point of time shortly after World War 2 showed that these are people who have been through a trauma then put it back together again. So there is a sense of holding it together and wholesomeness. That is important given to what’s going to happen to them.

DRE: What keeps bringing you back to stories about the working class?

ML: I’m naturally and unselfconsciously attracted to stories about how most people in the world live. It just seems like a very natural thing to do. It’s a world I know because my father was a doctor and I grew up in a shop overlooking a working class area.

DRE: Because of the way you create your films have you ever thought about shooting a film on video?

ML: I have in the 70’s worked in a five camera television studio which I didn’t like at all. Now the question is, should we shoot on DV? When it seems like the right time we’ll do it. As a matter of interest we shot this on Super 16 and it doesn’t look like that because of the brilliant cinematography and also because Kodak developed an amazing Super 16 stock. It’s got a great grain quality for blowing it up to 35mm.

DRE: Is budget not of huge importance to you when it comes to film stock?

ML: We did shoot it on Super 16 to save money. It was a tough budget of just under $9 million. At the end of the day the real bottom line is that I am the guy with no script, I won’t even discuss whether Nicole Kidman is going to be in it and I get the final cut.

DRE: Have you seen much of the works that many Americans use to make films or television in a similar fashion to you such as Christopher Guest’s films and Curb Your Enthusiasm?

ML: I think that sometimes people find fresh ways of doing things and sometimes people create the effect of spontaneity but in fact what you are looking at is self-consciousness looking into the camera. For me the art of creating cinema is the art of creating the illusion of total reality in a way that is very complex. You distill and arrive at it in such way that it’s not an accident.

DRE: People don’t ever seem to be searching for their words in your films.

ML: I think the comparison is not fair on them.

DRE: How much research did you do?

ML: I did it in all sorts of ways. I talked to medical and legal people and historical people and people with sociological backgrounds. You name it, I did it. But that’s what I always do. That’s part of the joy of creating a total reality.

DRE: Do you have other political concerns about what is going on in this country?

ML: You bet I do. I don’t remember an American Presidential election that was so much a concern of the general public in the UK. Don’t underestimate people’s direct concern with this ludicrous president.

DRE: What are you doing next?

ML: I’m going to do something I haven’t done for 13 years. That’s to take time out from my day job of making movies and do a play for the National Theatre in London. It should open around this time next year.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Mike+Leigh/