Well, it looks like British indie auteur Mike Leigh and blockbuster titan George Lucas have one thing in common: they don’t think much of Hollywood and the current studio system. It was just last week when Lucas opined that the suits that run Tinseltown "don’t have any imagination and they don’t have any talent.” And Leigh agrees.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, the director made his opinion about the stateside movie world quite clear. “They are motivated by insecurity, fear, lack of imagination and above all, a lack of flair,” he stated, adding that when he makes his films, he’s in full control.
“We don’t have committees of people on the set crowding around the monitor after every take and arguing the toss. They don’t bugger about with the editing. We don’t get people making us re-cut the film and get a more sexy or commercial ending or all that stuff,” he added.
Indeed, Leigh’s well known process features the kind of rehearsal time and exploration that most filmmakers would kill for in America. And it leads to films that the director himself finds satisfying, and so he’s not afraid to admit he’s proud of his work.
“On the whole I kind of quite like my films without watching them every night like Gloria Swanson in ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ ” he said. “But I do actually think they are alright. A lot of filmmakers say ‘I can’t watch myself’ and, very often it is because the film that got made isn’t the film they wanted to make because a few people had their hands all over it and fucked it up.”
Leigh’s latest (and presumably uncompromised) "Mr. Turner" will open on U.S. shores on December 18th. And here’s two new clips and his full 35-minute talk from the New York Film Festival.
