Life Is Sweet

Synopsis: Just north of London live Wendy, Andy, and their twenty-something twins, Natalie and Nicola. Wendy clerks in a shop, leads aerobics at a primary school, jokes like a vaudevillian, agrees to waitress at a friend's new restaurant and dotes on Andy, a cook who forever puts off home remodeling projects, and with a drunken friend, buys a broken down lunch wagon. Natalie, with short neat hair and a snappy, droll manner, is a plumber; she has a holiday planned in America, but little else. Last is Nicola, odd man out: a snarl, big glasses, cigarette, mussed hair, jittery fingers, bulimic, jobless, and unhappy. How they interact and play out family conflict and love is the film's subject.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Director(s): Mike Leigh
Production: Republic Pictures Home Video
  8 wins & 3 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.5
Metacritic:
88
Rotten Tomatoes:
100%
R
Year:
1990
103 min
1,118 Views


Alright Suzi

are you ready?

Just a little bit that

way darling, that's it

Ok after four

One, two, three, four

Stretch

Yeah

Round, stretch

#You make me

feel so happy#

That's a good

girl Lucy

#You make me

feel so good#

#You make me feel

like dancing#

#And I'm losing

control#

#You make me

feel electric#

#You make me

feel a babe#

#So why don't

you invite me#

#On a holiday#

#Happy happy happy holidays#

Get your legs up

Stretch right up like you're stretching

for sweets on the top shelf

#Happy happy holidays why don't

you take me on a holiday with you#

Come on, enjoy yourself

Hands on your

hip like that

Yeah that's it

and the other one

Now wave with

both hands

Right

That's it

Very good, come on Laura

you can be leader now

Right out here

stick to the edges that's right

Let's have a bit of a

bum swing from you

Above your heads

come on hands up

Oh swing those bums

That's it

and you're doing that

cleaning your mums windows

Alright

and then you see

your best friend

So your shouting out

Hi it's me, I'm here

Say hi

Say it's me

I'm here

Give me a five pound note

I want to go and

spend it on sweets

I thought that would

get you smiling

I thought you

would like that

Come on who's going to

be the leader now then

Right come

on then

Time to

go home

Not too much of a rush now

I don't want you tripping over

Right get your coats and

shoes outside as usual

Alright do you want to put

your little cardigan on Suzi?

Eh put it on

'cause you might get a little chill

You've got your

sleeves inside out

Get your

coats now

If you can't reach your

bags I'll get them down

That's it put your cardy on

hope your headache's better soon

Alright bye

darling bye

My bags

next door

Your bags next door?

Alright don't worry

Who's is the

green coat?

Come on

Isn't it hot?

Gorgeous

Tell you what Andy, your lucky

I'm not in the hospital

What?

That door swung back an

nearly took me head off again

It's the hinge

isn't it

Yeah it's that

catch, it's gone

I'll have a

look at it later

It's lethal

Oh I wish you would do

something with this porch

I will do

It's embarrasing

Just got to get the rest

of the timber, that's all

Oh And, you've been

saying that for two years

Take these boards up to here

bang a bit of trellis on the outside

Slap a coat of

white paint on it

Get some nice creepers

growing up it'll look lovely

I don't want trellis Andy,

it'll look like a Chinese restaurant

It'll be nice

Hello

Oh shut that door it's freezing

Oh you finished

have you?

Nah I'm still

in the bath

Wouldn't

surprise me

Made a mess

have you?

No

No

Oh hello

Alright

Where you been?

Town

Hello Nat

What you been doing?

Shopping

Want a little

sandwich Andy?

Yeah what

you got?

Cheese and toastie?

Yeah lovely

Still got me glasses on,

thought I was going blind

Here you are

Tadaa chocolate!

You're chocoholic

you are

You are, I could give it

up tomorrow no trouble

Do you want coffee?

No thanks

Please

Do you want a little sandwich Nat?

Yeah

Do you want pickle?

Course I want pickle

Gonna get out there this afternoon

finish off that patio

Oh don't give me heart

attack Andy please

I will, make a start

What did

you get Nat?

A shirt

Is this it?

Yeah

Can I have a look?

If you

want to

Oh it's nice

Yeah it's alright isn't it

Why do you always

get a man's?

'cause I

like them

Suits me

thanks alot Nat

Funny man

It's not

for me?

No it's

not for you

Oh shame I thought

my luck had changed

You should get a nice

blouse, short sleeves

Show yourself

off a bit

Shut up

Well

Don't listen to her

Nat -

What?

Did you get

me those fags?

No

Why not?

I told you, if you want to smoke

you can get your own fags

Well could you lend

me some money?

How much?

A tenner

What's it for?

Alright, a fiver

Well what do

you want it for?

Mind your

own business

Suit yourself

You'll be charging

interest next

Yeah it's a

good idea

Capitalist

When did you

get that?

This morning

it's alright isn't it?

Nah, it looks like

a tea towel

Yeah I was quite

pleased with it myself

Hey Andy guess what

What?

I woke up this morning, I felt a little bit

what's it y'know and I thought to myself

Oh blimey don't tell me

I'm in the family way

Oh Jesus Christ

What's the family way

supposed to mean?

You know

what it means

No, I know what

pregnant means

You don't half

talk some rubbish

Well, silly

little sayings

Oh shut up

You shut up

I was lying there Andy

I thought to myself

Aw I would love

another little baby

You're too old to have

a baby ain't you?

Course not

You may not be

I am

You wouldn't see me

for dust, I tell you

Oh don't Andy

don't be rotten

Typical, typical man

Oh shut up, what do

you know about men?

Enough

Anyway I thought

to myself ah nevermind

I'll just have to wait

till I'm a Grandma

You're going to have a long wait

Yeah

Eh?

Who would want them?

Oh that's nice

Stick a couple of brown paper

bags over their heads

Might be able to flog them

off cheap, sight unseen

Anyway I'm not

going to waste my life

No? What're you

doing now then?

Contributing a great deal aren't you

sitting around on your arse all day

Yeah well I'm

thinking about it

Oh yeah thinking about it that's the easy bit isn't it

anyone can do that it's doing it that's difficult

Bollocks

Nicola

Shame though isn't it

They were such lovely

little dolly what's it's

Sitting there in their

matching little outfits

My little Natalie and

my little Nicola

and now look at them

Oh get a sick bucket

and when you have a bath Nicola, don't leave

the towels on the bathroom floor stinking wet

Here we go

Well how many times

have I got to tell you?

It's just two simple

little movements

Down and up and pop

it on the towel rail

Don't be patronising

and I won't tell you again about

using my cotton wool balls

Oh don't be

so selfish

What do you want two baths

a day for anyway?

What, are you

taking their side now?

I'm not taking anyone's side

I'm just asking you a simple question

Yeah well don't

Here you are And

Oh cheers

Here you are Nat

Ta

Don't light that cigarette

Nicola, we're eating

Don't eat

It's lunch time, that's what

you do at lunchtime eat

What's lunchtime anyway?

It's only a convention

Nicola if you want to smoke while

we're eating go up to your room alright

Anyway if you smoked less and you ate more

you wouldn't be sitting there looking like a skeleton

It's better than looking

like a beached whale

Oh thank you

Anyway your Dad likes something

to grab hold of of the night

What blubber?

No

Me little

love handles

We got a set each

ain't we Andy

Oh you're disgusting

Oh shut up

Those sandwiches stink

Listen Nicola I told you if you don't

like it you know what you can do

Yeah well I'm going -

Good

Well go

on then

In a minute

You can't

go can you?

What's keeping

you Nicola? eh?

She's bored

See you want to be with us

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Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English writer and director of film and theatre. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) before honing his directing skills at East 15 Acting School and further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid-1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s his career moved between theatre work and making films for BBC Television, many of which were characterised by a gritty "kitchen sink realism" style. His well-known films include the comedy-dramas Life is Sweet (1990) and Career Girls (1997), the Gilbert and Sullivan biographical film Topsy-Turvy (1999), and the bleak working-class drama All or Nothing (2002). His most notable works are the black comedy-drama Naked (1993), for which he won the Best Director Award at Cannes, the Oscar-nominated, BAFTA and Palme d'Or-winning drama Secrets & Lies (1996), the Golden Lion winning working-class drama Vera Drake (2004), and the Palme d'Or nominated biopic Mr. Turner (2014). Some of his notable stage plays include Smelling A Rat, It's A Great Big Shame, Greek Tragedy, Goose-Pimples, Ecstasy, and Abigail's Party.Leigh is known for his lengthy rehearsal and improvisation techniques with actors to build characters and narrative for his films. His purpose is to capture reality and present "emotional, subjective, intuitive, instinctive, vulnerable films." His aesthetic has been compared to the sensibility of the Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu. His films and stage plays, according to critic Michael Coveney, "comprise a distinctive, homogenous body of work which stands comparison with anyone's in the British theatre and cinema over the same period." Coveney further noted Leigh's role in helping to create stars – Liz Smith in Hard Labour, Alison Steadman in Abigail's Party, Brenda Blethyn in Grown-Ups, Antony Sher in Goose-Pimples, Gary Oldman and Tim Roth in Meantime, Jane Horrocks in Life is Sweet, David Thewlis in Naked—and remarked that the list of actors who have worked with him over the years—including Paul Jesson, Phil Daniels, Lindsay Duncan, Lesley Sharp, Kathy Burke, Stephen Rea, Julie Walters – "comprises an impressive, almost representative, nucleus of outstanding British acting talent." Ian Buruma, writing in The New York Review of Books in January 1994, noted: "It is hard to get on a London bus or listen to the people at the next table in a cafeteria without thinking of Mike Leigh. Like other wholly original artists, he has staked out his own territory. Leigh's London is as distinctive as Fellini's Rome or Ozu's Tokyo." more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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