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The main problem is that the Hollywood system has already made the film before the director shoots a single frame.

Mike Leigh

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Mike Leigh
Age: 81
Born: 1943
Born: February 20
Actor
Author
Film Director
Playwright
Screenwriter
Television Director
Theatrical Director
Writer
Film
Frame
Problem
Director
Made
Main
Directors
Hollywood
Single
Already
System
Shoots

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I hope I make films where you walk away . . . with work to do, arguments to have, things to worry about, things to care about. In that sense, I would regard what I do as political.
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Given the events of even the 19th century, Zionism was inevitable. Given the events of the 20th century, Israel was inevitable.
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I think Michael Caine is a perfectly good actor but it's obvious he's not going to be in one of my films.
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I think it’s important that nobody forgets that although Hollywood commercially dominates the world cinema, in fact what comes out of the filmmaking here is only a tiny slice out of the massive amount of operation that goes on around the world.
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The delineation between the actor and his part is a practical matter. When the camera runs, you want the actor to be the character.
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My job apart from anything else is to build an ensemble composed of actors who all come from a secure place so that they can all work together to make the film.
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Some deeply untrusting actors - the kind that need to know exactly what's what and are completely insecure - might be quite good within the parameters of a certain sort of acting.
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My work is about life as you and I experience it. You're either lucky or you're not lucky either your relationship works or it doesn't.
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The reason my films work is because every actor on set is very secure. They're able to fly.
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There have always been and there always will be the peripheral sideline activities which are a form of entertainment, which is to say you pay a couple of cents and you see something freakish. That is what reality TV is.
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I discover what my film is by embarking on the journey of making it.
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Life is about luck and it's about circumstances and socioeconomic conditions and all the rest of it, but you know, you can also make choices. It's about spirit and generosity and all the other things, too.
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The problem with the British film industry is the nervousness and insecurity about - and genuflection toward - Los Angeles.
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There are plenty of bad actors and there are plenty of bad directors. There are actors who will always be bad and there are good actors who you cry for because they're being badly directed or the material isn't good enough.
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I am very happy to be part of European and world cinema as a British filmmaker.
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There's a constant drip and trickle of life that goes into one's awareness really and consciousness of things.
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But actually I make films that I think are extremely sophisticated and cinematic.
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Film-makers should remain true to their principles and never compromise, there is a real revival in the British film industry but there is a danger that we will become colonial servants of Hollywood. We need to maintain our own integrity.
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One of the reasons the whole Hollywood way of making films wouldn't work for me is because the way I operate would be anathema to anyone who wants to hold a job down in Beverly Hills.
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It's important to be true to the events, but the most important thing is to get to the essence of the experience. Not to be bogged down in an academic way by a notion of the truth. First of all, the truth is an illusive and spurious concept.
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