Naked
Dir. Mike Leigh
DoP Dick Pope
I used to be the Student Body President of the London Film School. Mike Leigh is our most prestigious graduate, and President of the School. As such we met a few times, I talked with him briefly on those occasions yet never had the courage to admit the fact that I had never seen any of his films, other than a short that starred David Thewlis. Well, nearly two years after finishing school there I finally got around to it. I loved the first hour of this. The act of throwing the audience into a hapless situation and following such a grody character was somewhat exhilarating. Chasing him from Manchester to London, and staying in step with him through the decayed fragments of early 90s London, still recovering from Thatcher's work is at once interesting and slightly repulsive. But, once exiled from his only London refuge I think the film wallows in a series of strange and far less engaging decisions. We already know Thewlis's Jonny is an ass with a mouth, spending all that time with him pontificating wasn't as compelling as the earlier material. And the Jeremy subplot was something I never truly got. But, for my first Leigh film I did like it.
Dick Pope's photography was incredible to me. Beautifully simple and at times rather harsh. His camera moves were lovely and his use of the now defunct Agfa Motion Picture stock made me pine for that opportunity more than ever, though it won't happen unless I find a couple cans kicking around the fridge of some mad old Cinematographer.
Grade B+