Mike Leigh

British director Mike Leigh once expressed his interest in making films about working-class life by saying: "I am naturally drawn to people with ordinary working lives. I think it important to make films about a side of life that films do not normally deal with." HCC film professors Marie Westhaver and Mike Giuliano deal with Leigh's career in this podcast episode. Among the films they discuss are "Life Is Sweet" (1990), "Secrets and Lies" (1996), and "Vera Drake" (2004). These are contemporary working-class stories, but Marie and Mike point out that Leigh is a versatile director whose other films include period pieces set in the 19th century: "Topsy Turvy" (1999), which is about Gilbert and Sullivan, and "Mr. Turner" (2014), which is about the painter J.M.W. Turner.