DL Film Buffs: Films Like Mike Leigh’s “Another Year”?

What about Japanese movies, OP? They aren't my favorite kind, but Ozu might work. Try Tokyo Story. But warning, it's postwar Japan, they are very much not bougie!

Look up Chantal Akerman's classic film "Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles"

Tarkovsky's Mirror (1975):

Did you see Leigh's "Career Girls"? That's a good movie.

You might like Eric Rohmer too.

I love studied movies like this. Try Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies, one of my faves. Also, John Casavettes films are similar.

I hope you watched Fleabag. OP-

Woody Allen’s “Another Woman”

[quote] Not sappy but not grindingly depressing

OP, you are mistaken.

Mike Leigh’s stuff is the apotheosis of 'grindingly depressing'.

Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank and Red Road. Frederic Fonteyne's A Pornographic Affair. Ira Sachs' Frankie. Kyoshi Kurosawa's Tokyo Sonata.

[quote] I know and like Whit Stillman, Richard Linklater, Nicole Holofcenter.

You only know and like American stuff?

Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain and Glory” and “Julieta”.

Its a lovely little film. I didn’t know how brilliant Leslie Manville was in this movie until I saw her in another completely different role.

she's in a couple of Mike's films.

I’ve been a fan of this movie for many years. One of my favorites.

Try the movies of Stephen Poliakoff. “Perfect Strangers” and “Shooting The Past” are both excellent.

[quote] I didn’t know how brilliant Leslie Manville was in this movie until I saw her in another completely different role.

She is brilliant. She can play “needy” like in Another Year, she can be down to earth like in Mum and she can be hard like in Phantom Thread.

she was a depressed wife in All or Nothing.

and cartoony upper-class in High Hopes.

More Lesley Manville

Little Voice starring the brilliant Jane Horrocks

OMG, I spent most of the day yesterday trying to find mr copy of Another Year. There’s got to be something enticing about seeing the average Joe Schmoe get so impassioned about the ordinary life. That it’s these odd collection of people around you that intrigues one’s existence. I guess I’m sorry that I can’t fully describe how the mundane can be experienced differently.

Their are other films with this unique (I can’t really say ‘quaint’ charm, but something along those lines.

I get pulled in by similar ordinary films that find me watching them over and over again…..For no reason, really.

EVIL UNDER THE SON MURDER BY DEATH THE LAST MIMZY THE CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION (Woody Allen). AS GOOD AS IT GETS WILD ORCHIDS (silent Greta Garbo) THE PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN. THE GOODBYE GIRL LOCAL HERO

….and there’s still more…. I simply cannot describe why I’m so deeply connected to these films. It’s like some sort of soul connection(?).

The Curse of the Jade Scorpion is one of Woody's worst. Woody and Helen Hunt have zero chemistry and Charlize Theron recycles her bombshell routine from Celebrity. One redeeming aspect is sexy Brian Markinson.

OP, I think you might like I've Loved You So Long starring Kristen Scott Thomas

R4 I agree with your Eric Rohmer recommendation if OP wants real life and relatable people. I went through those films for some months and was so impressed how into them I got because the stories never sounded so thrilling when I would read the blurbs.

Thanks for the suggestions, I will check them out!

I agree with r18’s recommendation of “Mum” the recent UK series that ran for 3 seasons (18 episodes total). Lesley Manville and Peter Mullan are the greatest - but really the whole cast is perfect and play off one another brilliantly.

I watched this movie one rainy Saturday afternoon. I can't explain it but it just really hit me emotionally. I felt so bad for Lesley Manville's character. It was cringey the way she constantly embarrassed herself with her behavior. The doughboy son led her on but she still should have known better. The way the family acted like she was a nuisance (at the end) was heartbreaking.

Lesley Manville should have several Oscars by now. She is fucking brilliant.

[quote] She is fucking brilliant.

You obviously need to start up a Fan Club Account. I couldn't differentiate her from Esma.

R20 Thanks for that reminder about Local Hero. I used to watch that movie a few times and year and then lost track of it. Can't wait to see it again.

R26 I agree with you COMPLETELY. I found this film so brilliant because I was sympathetic to all the main characters (even the son who was a bit of a phony). I could see the older couple through Mary’s eyes and just how lonely she felt, and like they were glorying in their contentment and happiness (why do they get to have it!!). And I could see Mary through their eyes, getting drunk on the couch and moaning on about things, so obviously the source of her own discontent.

Yes the hosting couple were rather insufferable. They lost me when they got judgemental about Mary and said they were so disappointed in her.

OP, have you seen some of the films of Tom DiCillo? I like Living in Oblivion, Delirious and Double Whammy.

That entire family was insufferable. Especially the girlfriend.

I can just imagine the things the son and girlfriend said about Mary behind her back. But Mary also was deluded.

I'll second Ozu, especially Tokyo Story and Late Spring.

Also highly recommend Summer Hours, an Olivier Assayas film with Juliette Binoche about 3 siblings disposing of their mother's assets after her death.

Rewatched Vera Drake on cable a few weeks back. Grim and slow moving but every performance down to the smallest role is perfection. Imelda has never been better.

OP, you might love David Lynch's The Straight Story. It's his only normal movie. Also, Ozu is fantastic as is Yi Yi by Edward Yang.

Mike Leigh's contemporary Terence Davies makes similar films but far more depressing. Despite admiring the performances in Distant Voices, Still Lives, it was, to quote Pauline Kael on watching Robert Bresson's films, "like taking a whipping and watching every stroke coming."

Films such as that beat you to accepting its' misery.

Speaking of Rohmer, Le Rayon vert ("The Green Ray") should fit your needs perfectly, OP. I absolutely love that film.

Did you say ‘misery’?

Is a slag the equivalent of a vulgarian?

[quote] Terence Davies makes similar films but far more depressing.

They will make you want to slit your wrists.

They will make you want to take up drugs.

Davies did this. It wasn't funny at all.

OP, I’ve been wanting to see “Another Year” again for a while! I thought it was a masterpiece. Nothing happens but so much happens.

I recommend “Beatriz At Dinner”. Never heard of it but watched it was recommended in a thread here. Character-driven, and I felt that shifting of alliances and sympathies throughout.

Also Sofia Coppola. I’m thinking of “Lost In Translation” and “Somewhere”.

R41 I love “the house of mirth” I could not believe how it ended, not having read the book. Wow.

Just started a trial on Britbox to watch Mum. Long live Lesley Manville!

[quote] Did you say ‘misery’?

This is more miserable, R39.

You seem like someone who would like The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It was very realistic and down to earth with earthy people in realistic situations that were resolved in very down to earth manners.

Here’s an interesting one… called Rocks. Found it compelling and accurate of the world it portrayed.

An older one “the pumpkin eater” is good.

Yes, The Pumpkin Eater is also very miserable.

But it has Anne Bancroft at her very best (and I think she's even better here than in THE MIRACLE WORKER).

[quote] Anne Bancroft

Except it was supposed to be Patricia Neal.

The director tried very hard to get Bancroft to suppress herself. He said 'Don't caterwaul! Act with just your eyes'.

You people have very fine taste. I'm proud of y'all!

Another Year brought out the best of DL

[quote] Another Year brought out the best of DL

Most of them want to be a Lesley Manville but they are a Ruth Sheen.

I want to be a Ruth Sheen but I am a Lesley Manville

:-/

No one wants to be Ruth Sheen.

Ruth Sheen’s character is the queen bee of her little group and she scored a kindly husband hotter than she is.

The guy who turned himself into a couch on Harry Potter isn't hot by any stretch of the imagination.

R52 I thought Anne’s English accent was very good. I’m so used to hearing people like gwyneth paltrow and Renee zellweger get praise for theirs but Bancroft to me was more convincing as typical of the brits I know. I don’t think I’ve ever heard English people who actually sound like Bridget Jones or any of paltrow’s English characters. And it also seemed effortless for her and was just so subtle. I thought she was rather beautiful in this film too and for some reason was reminding me of Angelina jolie- perhaps having all the children around her.

No one has mentioned the work of John Sayles yet?

“Passion fish” is my favorite.

I heartily agree with the recommendations of “Tokyo Story” and “Le Rayon Vert”.

I haven’t rewatched it recently but does anyone remember Eric Zonca’s “The Dreamlife of Angels”? It’s about the falling in and falling out of friendship of two young French women. OP you might like this; like “Another Year” it is a study of character interaction that lets you make up your own mind without too many strong signals.

Antonioni films are how you describe OP, maybe “la notte” and “red dessert” are good places to start with him. Also “l’eclisse”

[quote] “red dessert”

Sp.

Haha thanks r64

R52, I completely disagree with you about Bancroft. I think it's her best performance. Plus she's sexy in a way that Neal wasn't (HUD notwithstanding), so you can see why Finch was attracted to her.

Oddly enough, Bancroft wound up replacing Neal in John Ford's SEVEN WOMEN a few years later after Neal suffered her stroke. Considering what a POS that film was, she should have passed on it.