Sohow Jewish are Mike Leigh’s films?
matriarch Wendy that gives it a Jewish heart, although not a Jewish stomach: Tim Spall’s unforgettable restaurateur Aubrey might be a classic Jewish nebbish — were it not for the very unkosher kitchen at The Regret Rien: saveloy on lychees, liver in lager, prawns in jam, tripe soufflé, pork cyst. J Factor:
NAKED 1993
Leigh’s darkest and least obviously Jewish film features an epochal performance from David Thewlis as Johnny, wandering among the destitute on London’s streets. One could regard Johnny and his eloquent, ferocious ramblings, however, as products of a failed system or family. To consider Johnny a “fallen” Jewish boy would add a considerable layer of horror to the film for many viewers. J Factor: Painful: Alison Steadman and Tim Stern star in Mike Leigh’s well disguised tale of bickering North London families, Abigail’s Party. Left, the director
SECRETS & LIES 1996
This Palme d’Or winner is such a classic of family disquiet it needs little Jewish revisionism. However, if we imagine Marianne Jeanne Baptiste’s character Hortense not as black but as Jewish, you wouldn’t need to change much at all. J Factor:
CAREER GIRLS 1997
Unfairly overlooked, this is a great little film about aspiration, flat hunts and interior decor set in west Hampstead. The characters of Hannah (Katrin Cartlidge) and Annie (Lynda Steadman) are universally recognisable. Again, it’s the wide-boy north London estate agent Adrian (Joe Tucker) who would be most possibly Jewish. J-Factor:
TOPSY TURVY 1999
You can’t get much more English than the operettas of Gilbert and Sullivan. But see this is as Leigh’s take on the big, backstage musical, transposing a classic Jewish Broadway staple into the English idiom, and it’s the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern et al J-Factor:
ALL OR NOTHING 2002
One of his saddest, bleakest films, but beautiful. No Jewish characters here on a south London council estate where warmth and communication are in very short supply. J-Factor:
VERA DRAKE 2004
With its East End/Islington
period setting and conver- sation about wartime bombs, this has considerable Anglo-Jewish relevance, particularly in the character of the brother Frank, who moves out to Essex. Secret abortionist Vera herself mightn’t be Jewish, but one can easily imagine she had several local clients who were. J-Factor:
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY 2008
A very north London film, Sally Hawkins’s Poppy isn’t Jewish but her best friend Zoe clearly is (played by Alexis Zegerman, who earlier worked for Leigh on stage in Two Thousand Years). Eddie Marsan’s unstable driving instructor Scott could easily be Jewish, although Marsan himself isn’t, despite often being cast in Jewish roles. J-Factor:
ANOTHER YEAR 2010
A beautiful study in family life, the year in question progresses with no mention of Rosh Hashanah, Chanucah or Pesach. If the characters aren’t Jewish, the Wanstead setting feels instantly knowable and you just know that Tom and Gerri (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen) have Jewish neighbours. J-Factor:
MR TURNER 2014
Surely nothing Jewish here in Leigh’s current and biggest hit? Don’t be so sure: a portrait of the committed artist as outsider, observer, rebel and showman. Ok, so Turner isn’t Chagall, but he is most representative of a very Jewish artist indeed: Mike Leigh. J-Factor: