BLEAK MOMENTS
A film by Mike Leigh
Released on Blu-ray and digitally, including BFI Player, on 29 November 2021
Released in 1971 to widespread acclaim, Mike Leigh’s debut feature film is a haunting study of social isolation. Uncompromising and deeply affecting, the film introduced the director’s unique and highly influential natural style that he has continued to develop over a 50 year film career.
A true landmark in the history of British film,
Bleak Moments has been newly remastered in 4K by the BFI and is presented on Blu-ray for the very first time. Its release on 29 November is part of the BFI’s major celebration of Mike Leigh this autumn which includes the Blu-ray release of
Naked (1993) in November (after its theatrical release on 12 November), a complete retrospective of Mike Leigh’s work at BFI Southbank from 18 October – 30 November, a Mike Leigh collection on BFI Player, a season of Leigh’s work at HOME, Manchester and more. Full details
here.
Sylvia (Anne Raitt) leads a quiet life, working as a secretary in an office with her friend Pat (Joolia Cappleman) and caring for her sister Hilda (Sarah Stephenson), who has complex care needs, in the evening. Into Sylvia’s life come two men, Peter (Eric Allan), a reserved teacher she knows slightly, and Norman (Mike Bradwell), a painfully shy, long haired young man who rents her garage to print an underground magazine.
Imbued with a fragile tenderness, and strong seam of buried humour, the characters in Mike Leigh’s assured feature debut, are struck with an inability to express their inner feelings. Marvellous central performances from Anne Raitt, Eric Allan, Joolia Cappleman. Sarah Stephenson and Mike Bradwell highlight the smallest nuances of human behaviour in Leigh’s masterful study of unfulfilled lives and frustrated desires. Trapped by the grinding continuity of their daily life, the detached and lonely suburban existence, accentuated by paralysing social awkwardness fuels the characters’ sense of seclusion, pain and feeds a general mood of despair.
Special features
• Newly remastered in 4K by the BFI, overseen by Dick Pope and Lee Herrick, approved by Mike Leigh
• Audio commentary by writer and director Mike Leigh (2015)
•
Bleak Moments: 50 Years On (2021, 9 mins): a short interview with Mike Leigh as he looks back on his debut feature
• In Conversation: Mike Leigh and Les Blair (1972, 28 mins): in this rare archive interview director Mike Leigh and producer and editor Les Blair discuss Bleak Moments
• Interview with Mike Leigh (2019, 36 mins): filmed after a screening of his 1976 film
Nuts in May, Mike Leigh discusses his approach to filmmaking with film researcher and programmer Neil McGlone
• Image gallery
• ***First pressing only*** Illustrated booklet with new writing on the film by Ellen Cheshire, an archival review from Sight & Sound and cast and credits
Product details
RRP: £19.99 / Cat. no. BFIB1433 / PG
UK / 1971 / colour / 111 mins / English language, with optional subtitles for the Deaf and partial hearing / original aspect ratio 1.66:1 / BD50: 1080p, 24fps, PCM 2.0 mono audio (48kHz/24-bit), PCM 2.0 stereo audio (48kHz/24-bit)