Mike Leigh

After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to Cynthia, a working class white woman.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Timothy Spall

An unemployed Brit vents his rage on unsuspecting strangers as he embarks on a nocturnal London odyssey.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With David Thewlis, Lesley Sharp, Katrin Cartlidge

Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, Andy is a cook who forever puts off home remodeling projects, Natalie is a plumber and Nicola is jobless. This film is about how they interact and play out family, conflict and love.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Alison Steadman, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Spall

Abortionist Vera Drake finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain – a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Sally Hawkins

Penny works at a supermarket and Phil is a gentle taxi-driver. Penny’s love for Phil has run dry and they lead joyless lives with their two children, Rachel, a cleaner, and Rory, who is unemployed and aggressive.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville, Alison Garland

During a year, a very content couple approaching retirement are visited by friends and family less happy with their lives.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen

A look at a few chapters in the life of Poppy, a cheery, colorful, North London schoolteacher whose optimism tends to exasperate those around her.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman

An epic portrayal of the events surrounding the infamous 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where a peaceful pro-democracy rally at St Peter’s Field in Manchester turned into one of the bloodiest and most notorious episodes in British history. The massacre saw British government forces charge into a crowd of over 60,000 that had gathered to demand political reforms and protest against rising levels of poverty.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake, Pearce Quigley

A working-class family in London's East End is struggling to stay afloat during the recession under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's premiership. Only the mother Mavis is working; father Frank and the couple's two sons Colin, a timid, chronically shy individual and Mark, an outspoken, headstrong young man, are on the dole. This situation is contrasted by the presence of Mavis's sister Barbara, and her husband John, whose financial and social loftiness appears to be a comfortable facade over the unspoken soreness of a lackluster marriage.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Phil Daniels, Tim Roth, Jeffrey Robert

For nearly a decade, Gilbert and Sullivan’s collaborations have delighted the English people. But in 1884, as a London heat wave cuts into the theater trade, their latest work, "Princess Ida", receives lukewarm press. In an effort to reconcile their creative differences and drawing inspiration from Japanese culture, they went on to create the hit opera "The Mikado", one of the duo's greatest successes.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Jim Broadbent, Allan Corduner, Timothy Spall

Eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner lives his last 25 years with gusto and secretly becomes involved with a seaside landlady, while his faithful housekeeper bears an unrequited love for him.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Timothy Spall, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey

Pansy is a woman so full of rage that every interaction she has devolves into lashing out, whether at her utterly cowed husband and son, or random strangers who have the temerity to address her. In contrast, her younger sister Chantelle lives with her two vivacious daughters and plies a successful trade as a hairdresser, putting clients at their ease all day long. Yet beneath Pansy’s abrasive exterior are hints of a more fragile psyche, one motivated by fear and damaged by repressed pain.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Michele Austin, David Webber

Working-class couple Shirley and Cyril are in conflict over whether they should have children, their problems with 'yuppies' moving into the neighbourhood and outpricing them, and the advent of Cyril's ageing mother's seventieth birthday.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Phil Davis, Ruth Sheen, Edna Doré