If London forgets us, I will always remember that movie by Mike Leigh. The one for those who know and understand you. The one for you and me. Let London forget us, I won’t forget it. It’s a fucking joke, love. We are just the punchline.

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While trying to take a break from some business I have , I saw a tweet from someone that wrote about Mike Leigh’s High Hopes.

That’s when I remembered. I remembered being in cinema, six years ago, and thinking that cinema had reached its limits: I had the impression that I had seen enough movies to not be able to feel cinema again, or at least not with the same intensity I had experienced before. Cinema was, and (spoiler alert) still is, a fundamental part of my life.

In that context, I decided to watch a Leigh movie for the first time: I watched Naked with David Thewlis. After a long time, I felt that intensity, that love, that tenderness, that hopelessness. I felt the greatness and the tragedy of modern people. As grandiose as it may sound, I felt that Naked depicted life in all its facets. I don't want to go into details about this movie, but I must say that it remains one of my favorites and that Thewlis’s performance is one of the most heartbreakingly generous I have seen.

My faith in cinema was restored: there are still unknown creators and films out there to discover and offer that genuine delight of cinema’s magic (I’ll get to the point at some point, I promise). Next came Leigh’s Secrets and Lies, considered his most successful and recognized film (Palme d'Or, Oscar nominations). Here is the explanation: Leigh has always been a director for actors. A characteristic of his shoots is extensive rehearsals. The core element of his stories: people trying to get by. Working-class people (there are exceptions in Leigh's filmography, mainly Topsy-Turvy and Mr. Turner) constantly encountering difficulty: to be happy, to communicate, to connect in this chaos called London, called modern Western civilization. Secrets and Lies remains a gift, for its portrayal of weaknesses, the need for love and understanding. It still has one of the most wholesome endings I can remember.

I think my issue arose when, reading the tweet about High Hopes, my mind went straight to Leigh’s next film:

All or Nothing

Finally getting here, I’m trying to express what I think. There was an embrace in this film. There was, there is. There is that look from Lesley Manville when she talks to her son, that smile from Timothy Spall. It’s a harsh film, but there is something here that transcends the ugliness.

The world today needs this kind of cinema, the cinema of humanity in crisis. I believe Leigh gave me some of the best stories I will ever see. Watch Mike Leigh, folks.

P.S Watch this movies guys.

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