Life Is Sweet Page #3

Synopsis: Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, leads aerobics at a primary school, jokes like a vaudevillian, agrees to waitress at a friend's new restaurant and dotes on Andy, a cook who forever puts off home remodeling projects, and with a drunken friend, buys a broken down lunch wagon. Natalie, with short neat hair and a snappy, droll manner, is a plumber; she has a holiday planned in America, but little else. Last is Nicola, odd man out: a snarl, big glasses, cigarette, mussed hair, jittery fingers, bulimic, jobless, and unhappy. How they interact and play out family conflict and love is the film's subject.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Director(s): Mike Leigh
Production: Republic Pictures Home Video
  8 wins & 3 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.5
Metacritic:
88
Rotten Tomatoes:
100%
R
Year:
1990
103 min
988 Views


Oh shut up

goodie two shoes

What's it like in the first class

dining compartment then?

Listen if I choose to eat in my own

space that's my perogative, right

Hey do you want a

glass of low calorie H20?

Just leave

her alone

Oh there

she goes

It's the year

of the horse

Eh?

Chinese

Oh yeah, do you

want some more?

Yeah

Do you want some?

Yeah go

on then

Cut me a nice big juicy slice

you know that I like mine nice and juicy

Mother

No you can't

rush him

Yeah he's happy going

at that speed isn't he

Yeah, dead slow

and stop

It's the door

Well answer it

It's that

Patsy bloke

Open the

door Nicola

No I don't

know him

Course you

know him

Go on I've got wet hands -

So

Tell you what Nicola

you're an awkward cow

Oh don't

be sexist

Oh hello Patsy -

Hello Wendy

Alright

Sorry to bother you on

a Sunday like but eh...

I was wondering if Andy was in -

Yeah

Only I was hoping to catch him down

in the boozer like but I got a bit held up

Oh yeah

Had to go down

and see me old Mum

Oh did you

Yeah he's down the

bottom of the garden

Oh -

Do you want to see him?

Yeah alright

Here come

in then

Thanks very

much, terrific

Hello girls

Hello boys

Hang on

a minute

Patsy's here -

What

Patsy

Ah there he is, I'll just slip out

and see him if that's alright

Yeah that's alright

Patsy go on

Just watch yourself on that little step -

What?

That's the

one yeah

Andrew -

Hello Patsy how are you?

He must be in

a right state

He's had about

ten pints

Good job he's been

banned from driving

Nice hairstyle

Aw I bet his Wife did

those little streaks

She must of got one of them what's it's

one of them 3.99 kits from the chemists

What you let

him in for eh?

What was I

supposed to do?

Fascist

I tell you what though

I wouldn't trust him

I wouldn't trust anyone

wearing a suit like that

They cost about 300 quid

them suits y'know

What does he

do anyway?

He doesn't do

anything he's unemployed

Can have me hands on

anything in here, you name it

Bit of old rope

Christmas tree, guitar

Ah the old one armed

guitar player eh

Yeah I was gonna fix it up

put a new neck on it, new set of strings

Basically it's

a good box

Mothers don't let your children

grow up to be cowboys

Listen Andy eh do you want to

get yourself out the house for a while?

Hello my friend

I love them

She can't stand them

won't let them through the door

We got

two of them

Car boot sale

Twins

Here have you got

twenty minutes have you?

What for?

I've got

something for you

Listen Patsy whatever it is

I swear to God I can't afford it, I'm broke

Andrew I am advising you to

accompany me to a certain place

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Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English writer and director of film and theatre. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) before honing his directing skills at East 15 Acting School and further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid-1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s his career moved between theatre work and making films for BBC Television, many of which were characterised by a gritty "kitchen sink realism" style. His well-known films include the comedy-dramas Life is Sweet (1990) and Career Girls (1997), the Gilbert and Sullivan biographical film Topsy-Turvy (1999), and the bleak working-class drama All or Nothing (2002). His most notable works are the black comedy-drama Naked (1993), for which he won the Best Director Award at Cannes, the Oscar-nominated, BAFTA and Palme d'Or-winning drama Secrets & Lies (1996), the Golden Lion winning working-class drama Vera Drake (2004), and the Palme d'Or nominated biopic Mr. Turner (2014). Some of his notable stage plays include Smelling A Rat, It's A Great Big Shame, Greek Tragedy, Goose-Pimples, Ecstasy, and Abigail's Party.Leigh is known for his lengthy rehearsal and improvisation techniques with actors to build characters and narrative for his films. His purpose is to capture reality and present "emotional, subjective, intuitive, instinctive, vulnerable films." His aesthetic has been compared to the sensibility of the Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu. His films and stage plays, according to critic Michael Coveney, "comprise a distinctive, homogenous body of work which stands comparison with anyone's in the British theatre and cinema over the same period." Coveney further noted Leigh's role in helping to create stars – Liz Smith in Hard Labour, Alison Steadman in Abigail's Party, Brenda Blethyn in Grown-Ups, Antony Sher in Goose-Pimples, Gary Oldman and Tim Roth in Meantime, Jane Horrocks in Life is Sweet, David Thewlis in Naked—and remarked that the list of actors who have worked with him over the years—including Paul Jesson, Phil Daniels, Lindsay Duncan, Lesley Sharp, Kathy Burke, Stephen Rea, Julie Walters – "comprises an impressive, almost representative, nucleus of outstanding British acting talent." Ian Buruma, writing in The New York Review of Books in January 1994, noted: "It is hard to get on a London bus or listen to the people at the next table in a cafeteria without thinking of Mike Leigh. Like other wholly original artists, he has staked out his own territory. Leigh's London is as distinctive as Fellini's Rome or Ozu's Tokyo." more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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