Saturday, August 11, 2007

All or Nothing (Mike Leigh, 2002)


In a London housing estate over a long weekend, long-term couple Penny and Phil rediscover their love when their son Rory becomes ill and has to be rushed to hospital.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/britishfilm/summer/films/allornothing.shtml

Showing:

BBC TWO, Saturday August 11, 10.40pm

Synopsis:

(2002) In a London housing estate over a long weekend, long-term couple Penny and Phil rediscover their love when their son Rory becomes ill and has to be rushed to hospital.

Read the full synopsis on BFI Screenonline.

Director:

Mike Leigh

Producer:

Alain Sarde, Simon Channing-Williams

Cast:

  • Timothy Spall (Phil Bassett)
  • Lesley Manville (Penny Bassett)
  • Alison Garland (Rachel Bassett)
  • James Corden (Rory Bassett)
  • Ruth Sheen (Maureen)
  • Marion Bailey (Carol)

    Full cast and credits on BFI Screenonline.

Analysis:

Critical opinion was divided on Mike Leigh's All or Nothing: some considered it is his most self-assured work to date; others felt Leigh's gritty kitchen-sink realism was becoming jaded and his characters becoming caricatures. But there is no doubt that in this strikingly polemic slice of disaffected, cross-generational working-class life, the narrative is given time to evolve. More importantly, the characters are given the space to develop.

Dick Pope's cinematography imbues the subject matter with a certain scruffy realism and authenticity, favouring cramped interiors. In the montage of cab sequences, sense of space is restricted by the camera's static position. Inside Penny and Phil's flat, shots framed by doors and windows heighten this feeling of bleak claustrophobia.

Leigh's meditation on the impoverished human condition highlights the struggles to survive of a cross-section of middle-aged working-class people.

Read the full analysis on BFI Screenonline.


... con piel de oveja.






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