MovieChat Forums > The Navigators (2002) Discussion > Mike Leigh should just make documentarie...

Mike Leigh should just make documentaries

posted 17 years ago by woowickerwacker
8 replies | jump to latest

Stuff like this slice of life in accents that only a few can comprehend tells the story of why foreign born directors are the only ones making successful films in Britland.

It's okay but it's not really a story and it's not really entertaining. Take his film making money off him and give it to me.

[–] CitrusWithFuschiaTrim 17 years ago

Do you mean Ken Loach?

Seemed entirely comprehensible to me, and I'm on the opposite side of the world. Not to mention "entertaining" and perfectly "successful". To each one's own...

[–] woowickerwacker 17 years ago

Yes I meant Ken, but I do feel that the political rep of both Ken and Mike gets their films funded and the audience is insular. There's a lot of talent that doesn't get a chance......and that's why the best recent Brit films are usually done by foreign born producers and directors.

[–] Gular-Scute 17 years ago

Stick to watching Star Wars, Weewockawoowoo.

[–] ReluctantFan 15 years ago

Stuff like this slice of life in accents that only a few can comprehend tells the story of why foreign born directors are the only ones making successful films in Britland.
It's okay but it's not really a story and it's not really entertaining. Take his film making money off him and give it to me.

English is not my native tongue nor do I live in an English-speaking country but I did not find "Navigators" hard to understand most of the time and certainly not harder than any American movie. Yorkshire English is not more difficult to understand than a New York accent and both I think are easier than a strong Scottish accent.

I've wanted to see this film for a while and I was not disappointed. It's its very Britishness that makes it different and interesting, besides being very funny, and very well acted, too.

Of course Ken Loach always has a political axe to grind though his indictment of railway privatisation certainly seems spot - at least at that particular time and place. After all it is still fiction no matter how realistic it looks. But it is still worth seeing if only for a change from Hollywood stereotyped movies. Ken Loach (and Mike Leigh) have a real talent to depict the life of everyday ordinary people.

[–] boffins 15 years ago

Mike Leigh?? it's Ken Loach you daft wazzock!

The whole fact that this plays out like a documentary with the regional dialect and humour is what makes it. Ken Loach does films like this so well, a cast of actors and non actors all put together perfectly well with as much humour as there is tragedy.
Seen as though you mentioned Mike Leigh, I'd love to know which foreign directors are making better films? or by success are you just into one dimensional action fodder?

[–] woowickerwacker 15 years ago

Too many good foreign films to mention n directors but all time gems would be OLDBOY, RUN LOLA RUN, AMORES PERROS, The PUSHER trilogy.

I'd list some directors but I get the names mixed oop..hehe

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[–] Halifaxdan 13 years ago

What the hell have those films got to do with British filmmaking?

Are you retarded?

[–] woowickerwacker 13 years ago

They are just a yardstick for Brit fimmaker twazzocks to aspire to. They never make anything really good, just stuff a few boozy guardinistas can claim is good.

When a Brit filmmaker makes something as good as the Edukators I'll be happy to say so :)

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