Since the heady days of Abigail’s Party Mike Leigh has made some of the funniest and emotionally compelling British cinema around. He returns to the past for tonight’s London Film Festival gala screening, a depth uncharted in the decade since Vera Drake, and before that the giddy dance of Gilbert & Sullivan in his overlooked Topsy Turvy.
Mr. Turner, his acclaimed portrait of the twilight years in the life of the painter J.M.W. Turner, has played marvelously on the circuit before arriving in London this evening. Timothy Spall, in particular, has won the hearts and minds of festival audience as well as the big prize in Cannes earlier this year.
Colin Hart was our man on the carpet this evening and there talked to Messrs. Spall and Leigh about the film.
All of our LFF coverage, including premiere interviews, reviews, features and full press conference videos can be found here.
Mike Leigh
Timothy Spall
Paul Jesson?
Dorothy Atkinson?
Marion Bailey?
