Bleak Moments (1971)

Skipping back in time a little to one of Mike Leigh's first films from the 70s called Bleak Moments.  Although the settings of the previous Mike Leigh film's I have watched were bleak, I think that this film really 'out-bleaks' the others, then again from the title of the film this was kind of what I was expecting.


My first impressions on watching the film was that there was notably less humour and dialogue, and the soundtrack relied entirely on diegetic sound. The diegetic music provided the musical soundtrack for the whole film.

Long shots of characters travelling

In terms of narrative, to be quite honest I found the film quite boring, although I persisted in watching it to make sure I have a justified and balanced opinion of Mike Leigh's work. The lack of dialogue and humour combined with long lengths of shot made the film quite slow paced and dense. However there was a sense of originality in the film and I did find myself wondering what would happen next.

Bleak setting typical to Leigh's films

Although the narrative wasn't particularly thrilling or engaging, I did still take note of a few techniques that Leigh used that I found quite interesting.

For example in the in the long shots of the characters walking in the picture above, I found it interesting that Leigh chose not to attach a mic to the characters. Instead, we hear the sound as if we were really hearing them from across the street, which I think mirrors Mike Leigh's desire to portray every day British life in an almost voyeuristic way.

Overall I preferred the previous Mike Leigh films that I have watched, but I think that this film was still worth watching in order to get a balanced view of his films, and also to see how his style has developed over time.