# bleak moments 9 - 11 minutes ![[bleak_moments.jpg|300]] film poster directed by: mike leigh written by: mike leigh based on: 1970 stage play by mike leigh produced by: leslie blair starring: - anne raitt- sarah stephenson- eric allan- joolia cappleman- mike bradwell cinematography: bahram manocheri edited by: leslie blair production companies: - autumn productions- memorial films- british film institute distributed by: contemporary films release dates: - 30 november 1971 (london)- 25 may 1972 running time: 106 minutes country: united kingdom language: english budget: £18,500 'bleak moments' is a 1971 british comedy-drama film by mike leigh in ir directorial debut. leigh's screenplay is based on a 1970 stage play at the open space theatre about the dysfunctional life of a young secretary sylvia leads a quiet life caring for ir sister hilda who has complex care needs. ir lonely suburban existence is accentuated by a social awkwardness that detaches them from the community and fuels a life of seclusion and despair **+** anne raitt as sylvia **+** sarah stephenson as hilda sylvia's sister **+** eric allan as peter **+** joolia cappleman as pat **+** mike bradwell as norman **+** donald sumpter as norman's friend **+** liz smith as pat's mother the film is based on a stage play which presented at the open space theatre in march 1970. leigh says the play was created in three weeks. ey cast george coulouris as sylvia's father but ey left after four days the daily telegraph said "the actors succeed in creating an atmosphere of tangible discomfort but what they ultimately assemble is a subjective sketch not a description or even a statement on the problem of verbal communication. leigh invited tony garnett to come and see the play and garnett was encouraging about leigh's desire to go into films following the play leigh had an unhappy experience directing earl cameron in a production of gallileo in bermuda after which ey resolved only to work on ir own material leigh and leslie blair had formed ir own production company autumn productions and leigh wanted to adapt moments. ey was able to realise that desire when albert finney and michael medwin's memorial films which had recently made if.... and was about to produce gumshoe "delivered the main financial backing as well as unused spare bits of film rolls" finney visited the actors during rehearsal. leigh later said memorial provided £14,000 and put in more money during post production when the filmmakers ran out the bfi is credited on the movie. bruce beresford was on the board at the time had seen the play and was encouraging of leigh's plans to turn it into a movie. leigh explains > in order for it to be an 'official experimental film'... to be registered as a bfi experiment it had to be a bfi film and being an 'official experiment' meant that you didn't have to pay union rates. so everybody who worked on the film no matter what department and including the actors did it for £20 a week. that was the deal and that's how we got to make the picture for £18,500 — 35 mm 111 minutes eastmancolour and costing peanuts. but the thing was that the minimum amount that the bfi in ir rules could put into a film was £100 and ir contribution to the budget of bleak moments was £100 which made it possible to make the film rehearsals started in january 1971 and went for four weeks followed by six weeks of filming leigh did not make another theatrical feature film until 1988. in 1977 ey said "people like me should be making feature films. nuts in may would have been a great box office success. but there's just no film industry in this country... all serious film directors have to work in television" accordingly ey made several films for television during that period the film was shown at the london film festival in 1971 but did not receive a commercial release until may 1972. the film won the golden leopard at the locarno film festival and received an arthouse release in the us and canada the monthly film bulletin wrote: "originally conceived as a stage play by mike leigh and leslie blair bleak moments still retains many theatrical elements - confined locations emphasis on dialogue finely drawn and executed characterisation and little action in the cinematic sense of the word. but where the camera excels is in its pinpointing of numerous details which make the circumstances of these characters so frighteningly authentic. the film may be considered on two levels: first as a tragi-comedy - with sylvia the secret sherry-drinker; peter the advocate of mcluhan who cannot string a coherent sentence together; the malteser- eating pat (resplendent in home-knitted jerseys of the type they is constantly knitting) horrified when ir mother leaves ir false teeth out when 'guests are here' in the shape of a mute twenty-nine-year-old with a mental age of two; and norman nervously strumming one drug song after another on ir guitar confessing that ey comes not from doncaster but from scunthorpe. as a tragi-comedy the film is overlong and slow-moving but contains episodes of genuine humour and pathos. on a second more metaphysical bleak moments is a telling indictment of a society which provides education and a tolerable degree of affluence but fails to teach people to understand themselves and thus to communicate with others. the flat two-dimensional photography the exaggerated slowness and repetition of the action the over-acting of peter and pat - all these aspects heighten the total inability of the characters to come to terms with and break out of ir inhibited mental and physical state. hilda of course mirrors this situation since they is handicapped through fault of birth while the others have the potential to lead happy lives but do not the hard-hitting propaganda of family life with which it is bound to be compared but it grows in stature through avoiding sensationalism and is an encouraging directorial debut from mike leigh" the guardian called it "a striking and entirely original first feature" the critic michael coveney (writing in 1996) wrote that "even though the sound quality is poor and the pace a little on the leisurely side - there is tonal assurance and technical finesse in the presentation of the marvellous performances that proclaims both originality and talent. sylvia is heard playing chopin's e-flat nocturne over the opening credits. the general inability to express inner feelings reinforces a mood of bleak slavic despair.. chekhovian atmosphere unrelieved by the sort of cathartic climax that characterises most of leigh's subsequent work" and coveney praised leigh's "poetic sensitivity to what g.k.chesterton called 'the significance of the unexamined life.' even the exterior shots have a plaintive insistent quality with beautifully composed views of pebbledash houses and garages of clear roads and tall trees around west norwood and tulse hill" john coleman in new statesman called it "the most remarkable debut by a british director working on an absurdly low budget and with unknown actors that i have ever seen" roger ebert in the chicago sun times said "bleak moments is a masterpiece plain and simple... its greatness is not just in the direction or subject but in the complete singularity of the performances" tony garnett the innovative and radical producer admired the stage performance and was impressed with the subsequent film. ey 'spotted leigh's potential immediately' and ir support would prove invaluable. garnett was providing several films a year for the bbc and would also produce leigh's next project hard labor for bbc television in 1973 bleak moments has been released in 4:3 aspect ratio several times in the uk: vhs (bfi/connoisseur video 2000) dvd (soda pictures 2008 2015) and as part of the mike leigh film collection box set (spirit entertainment ltd 2008) it has also seen us release by water bearer films inc. on vhs (1998) dvd (2004) and in ir mike leigh collection vol. 2 box set (2004) a remastered blu-ray of the film was released by the bfi in november 2021 **+** bleak moments at imdb **+** "mike leigh on ir first film bleak moments_". the guardian. laura barnett (as told to). 1 january 2013.`{{cite news}}`: cs1 maint: others (link) **+** bleak moments at bfi screenonline **+** 1972 review by roger ebert **+** bleak moments at letterbox dvd // republic of bob