When I as a kid consciously started to watch films and notice the performances I liked, I became a big fan of the actresses Jodie Foster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jane Horrocks and Juliette Binoche. Still am, but there's not so much news about them anymore. And yes, I was very aware those are all J's. Since then I've found great actresses of other generations whose name don't start with a J, I am a big fan of Stephanie Leonidas for example. People who have seen posts of me before most likely have seen me mentioning being a huge fan of Jenna Ortega. Yes, I'm back at the J's.
Now I'm watching an old film, one of my all time favourites, with Jane Horrocks: Life is Sweet. The film is directed and written by Mike Leigh, based on improvisations by the actors during rehearsals, as is his process. Mike Leigh is probably the only director I ever followed, once describing one of his films just with 'it's about... people' because I didn't know anything more to say and later realising this is accidentally a good description of all of his films. They're about people.
This one starts with a panning shot across a row of houses, suggesting that the family we are going to watch is just one of many and we could just as well have watched the story of the people in the other houses. (Edit: that's not actually this one, but another one. It was long ago I saw it...)
Life Is Sweet (1990)
#JaneHorrocks #LifeIsSweet #MikeLeigh #NowWatching
Life Is Sweet (1990)
Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, leads aerobics at a primary school, jokes like a vaudevillian, agrees to waitress at a friend's new restaurant and dotes on Andy, a c…letterboxd.com
Gidi Kroon
in reply to Gidi Kroon • •Gidi Kroon
in reply to Gidi Kroon • •Content warning: Life is Sweet (1990)
Gidi Kroon
in reply to Gidi Kroon • •Played this from my own dvd since it's so not available for streaming, rental or buying digitally that it doesn't even have a JustWatch entry (in my country). Most other films I look up there just say 'not available', suggesting they are available in other countries or were available at some point in the past.
Owning dvd's may seem old fashioned, but is still the only way.