Another Year, the latest project from British director Mike Leigh, returns him to this year's Cannes Film Festival to compete for the event's top prize.
Leigh brings together a familiar cast – including Imelda Staunton, Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville and Phil Davis – for this film which he shot in London in summer and autumn 2009.
If you like this director, best known for his work on Naked and Secret & Lies movie, than you should definitely check out the rest of this report…
As usual, Leigh's stories are really difficult to pin point, so no wonder we already had a chance to hear this kind of description instead of synopsis: …using his trademark production method of improvisation, Leigh will once again deliver a moving and detailed portrait of his characters' inner lives.
This process has yielded some of the finest performances ever put on film, and it has generated an Oscar-nominated screenplay for four of his previous films: Happy Go Lucky, Vera Drake, Topsy Turvy and (above mentioned) Secrets & Lies.
Well, one thing is for sure – as usual, we'll have to wait until the pre-festival synopsis to get word on what this latest Mike Leign entails.
In the mean time, let us remind you what this director said about his work: “I make very stylistic films indeed, but style doesn't become a substitute for truth and reality. It's an integral, organic part of the whole thing.”
We already mentioned some familiar names, but, at the end of this report, let us add that in Another Year you'll have a chance also to watch Michele Austin, David Bradley, Karina Fernandez, Oliver Maltman, Stuart McQuarrie, Martin Savage, Ruth Sheen and Peter Wight.
Of the cast of twelve, only David Bradley and Stuart McQuarrie are working with Leigh for the first time. The film is financed by Focus Features International, the UK Film Council and Film4.
Leigh has presented three films in Cannes, won Best Director for Naked in 1993 and Palme d'or (Golden Palm) for Secrets & Lies in 1996.
We'll just have to wait and see how lucky he is this year.
