Bleak Moments

Mike Leigh, UK, 1971, 111 minutes

"I was just saying something to you in my head... I was saying... take your trousers off..."

Okay, so this film is very depressing. The title is accurate - there are absolutely no song and dance numbers and everyone in it has a really bad time. It is also, however, very funny and very moving.

Part of the interest of the film is seeing just how many more terminally repressed introverts Leigh can squeeze into the plot. Sylvia (Anne Raitt) and her handicapped sister Hilda (Sarah Stevenson) live together in a dreary suburban house - a nervous hippy called Norman (Mike Bradwell) rents the garage. Sylvia goes on a date with Peter (Eric Allan), an extremely tense and serious school teacher. They leave Sylvia's workmate, the very stressed Pat (Joolie Cappleman) and her mother (the ever excellent Liz Smith) to look after Hilda. Things go very badly indeed.

This film has moments (bleak) that are so excruciatingly embarrassing that it will take all of your will-power not to curl up into a ball and make grunting noises. Are you up to the challenge?

Review by Danny Carr
Taken from EUFS Programme 1992-93