Mike Leigh vs Woody Allen

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/3/13 at 10:36pm

If you had to choose between Mike Leigh and Woody Allen, whose work would you prefer more?

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 11/3/13 at 10:37pm

Comparisons are odious.

[jnb9872]

Posted: 11/4/13 at 10:31am

I don't know, has Mike Leigh ever even played the clarinet?

Updated On: 11/4/13 at 10:31 AM

[trentsketch]

Posted: 11/4/13 at 12:52pm

I prefer Mike Leigh's troll game to Woody Allen's neuroses. I mean, Leigh made a film about abortion rights where all of three actors knew it was a film about abortion rights until the last couple days of shooting. Everyone else on set thought Vera Drake was an upstairs/downstairs high button drama in a British boarding house starring a lovely grandmotherly type offering everyone a cup of tea. That's a gutsy way to get your cast to genuinely be surprised by a game changing moment in a film.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/4/13 at 2:15pm

"Everyone else on set thought Vera Drake was an upstairs/downstairs high button drama"

That shot of Imelda Staunton when the police show up at her house is one of the most interesting and subtle reactions committed to film.

[Mrs Mangel]

Posted: 11/4/13 at 2:42pm

Both! Alison Steadman's dance class with the children in "Life is Sweet" is one of my favourite starts to a film, period. Also, Judy Davis's phone call to Sydney Pollack in 'Husbands and Wives" is something that always sticks in the back of my mind if I think I'm over-reacting to something.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 11/4/13 at 6:14pm

Very different, especially when you think of their influences (Allen with Bergman and Fellini while Leigh influenced by the British Kitchen Sink Realist dramas and also the more celebrated classicist, formalist dramas like Renoir) and where they started. And you'd be hard-pressed to find an American director who deals with class as well as Leigh.

It is interesting to note that Leigh has publicly stated that he thought Allen's last masterpiece was Radio Days. Honestly, I think he is right. There have been good movies afterward but that is in my Top 5.

Naked and Secrets & Lies is probably my favorite Leigh.

Updated On: 11/4/13 at 06:14 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 11/4/13 at 10:14pm

Both directors heavily use improvisation in their direction.

However, Woody Allen never got anything as good as this starting at 0:55
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