British filmmaker Mike Leigh has been in the film game for a long time now. Going back decades now, the director developed his own style, made his films, and released them to an adoring public like clockwork. Along the way, he’s picked up the Palme d’Or at Cannes and 7 Oscar nominations, among countless other awards and nominations. Needless to say, Leigh has seen it all, and now he is starting to notice a change in how films are made, and he’s none too happy about it.
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In an interview with Screen Daily, where he discussed his film “Peterloo,” which is set to debut at this year’s Venice Film Festival (and not Cannes, but more on that later), the director opens up about why Amazon was such a gracious studio that allowed him to have the same freedom he’s enjoyed for decades, and why young filmmakers have to go through hell just to get a studio to back a project.
“Either you get interfered with or you don’t,” Leigh says. “Either you get backing or you don’t. Those are the bottom lines. Now, I’ve been very fortunate that in all of the 21 films I’ve made, nobody has interfered with any of them at any stage. Amazon is no exception. It is the biggest budget we’ve had but it’s not huge.”
And in opposition to how he was treated at Amazon, Leigh notices that most other studios make less-established filmmakers “jump through hoops” and have “boxes to tick” when attempting to create a film, which he feels is counter-productive to the creative process.
Particularly, he explains how there’s one box to tick that really annoys him. Leigh says there’s a “requirement the film has what is called a ‘table reading’, which is actors sitting round reading the script. To me, this is counter-productive, anti-creative and not what films are about. They’re not plays, they’re films. You can’t assess if a film is going to work cinematically by a table reading. It’s nonsense.”
But even with dozens of awards nominations and festival appearances, Leigh still finds himself with his own obstacles. That being said, he doesn’t let it bother him. Clearly, the filmmaking veteran is way past giving a shit, even if the organization denying you is the Cannes Film Festival.
When asked about receiving awards at festivals, Leigh explained his stance very bluntly, saying, “They happen or they don’t happen. You don’t hustle for them. Everybody knows that Cannes rejected ‘Peterloo.’ They said they respected it but it wasn’t for them.”
“They are brilliant conduits for getting the film out into the world,” he says about film festivals. “It is what it is. I just want people to see the films.”
Well, Cannes loss is Venice’s gain as Leigh’s “Peterloo” debuts this week before hitting the rest of the fall festival circuit and opening in theaters in November.
Check out all our coverage from the 2018 Venice Film Festival here.