High Hopes

Theatrical Release Date: 1989 02 24 (USA)

UPC: 066805309496

Studio: BFS Entertainment

MPAA Rating: PG   Contains:[Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Adult Language, Adult Humor]

Summary: In this early film, award-winning director Mike Leigh uses a loose, open-ended narrative structure to unsettle cinematic expectations and create a truly inventive and very honest film. High Hopes opens with the arrival of Wayne, a small-town lad in his twenties, in the London metropolis. Completely lost in the hustle and bustle, Wayne asks for directions from a cyclist named Cyril. Unable to assist him, Cyril brings Wayne to his house to examine a map and meet his long-time girlfriend, Shirley, also a working-class intellectual. After the opening credits roll, Wayne, equipped with directions, leaves and turns to wave goodbye to the helpful couple. Completely unexpectedly the camera stays with Cyril and Shirley, Wayne exits the film as a minor character, and the viewer's notions of what to expect from a narrative drama are completely shaken. Throughout, High Hopes' seemingly innocuous events turn out to be crucial incidents in the characters' lives. After this abrupt change of direction, Cyril and Shirley pay a visit to Cyril's aging mother, Mrs. Bender, and meet her neighbors, the vapid Boothe-Braines. In a parallel story, we meet Cyril's high-strung sister, Valerie, who perpetually neglects her mother as she herself is neglected by her wandering husband, Martin. The remainder of the film explores the dull, unfulfilled lives of the middle class and the wasteful and purposeless lives of the upper-middle class (the Boothe-Braines), and Cyril and Shirley's struggle to decide if they should bring a child into this mess of a world. As with his other films, Leigh did not work from a script in filming High Hopes, relying instead on the actors' improvisations which contribute to the lyrical, open-ended quality of the narrative. ~ Brian Whitener, Rovi

Category: Comedy

Awards: Best Actress – European Film Academy Best Supporting Performance – European Film Academy Best Composer – European Film Academy Best Foreign Film – Independent Spirit Awards Film Presented – Telluride Film Festival

High Hopes

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 06/23/2009

Audio: DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 109 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Chapters: Disc #1 -- High Hopes
2. Chapter 1 [9:19]
3. Chapter 2 [9:43]
4. Chapter 3 [10:09]
5. Chapter 4 [10:55]
6. Chapter 5 [10:44]
7. Chapter 6 [9:24]
8. Chapter 7 [9:18]
9. Chapter 8 [7:09]
10. Chapter 9 [9:16]
11. Chapter 10 [8:02]
12. Chapter 11 [8:42]
13. Chapter 12 [2:42]

Michael Hastings

After working for nearly two decades almost exclusively in British television, writer/director Mike Leigh asserted himself as a feature film director with this sly, rousing study of various malcontents languishing in Margaret Thatcher's upwardly mobile 1980s London. Leigh's loosely devised film is a series of incidents among a half-dozen or so residents of a London neighborhood, of varying ages, political convictions, and economic status. Though each character is essentially an archetype of his or her particular social class, the film never resorts to left-wing posturing or becomes a stale treatise on the state of the nation. Instead, Leigh achieves exhilarating moviegoing highs from his characteristic emphasis on improvisation and genuine human interaction. Despite the film's workshop origins, it's less writerly or actorly than other Leigh movies; an effortless vitality permeates every scene, and Leigh reveals his wider themes -- of social consciousness and human compassion -- through focusing on the details of everyday life. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Diane-Louise Jordan  Actor 
Cheryl Prime  Actor 
Linda Beckett  Actor 
Andrew Dixon  Composer (Music Score) 
Mike Leigh  Director 
Mike Leigh  Screenwriter 
Rachel Portman  Composer (Music Score) 
Andrew Dickson  Composer (Music Score) 
Tom Donald  Executive Producer 
Philip Davis  Actor 
Ruth Sheen  Actor 
Edna Doré  Actor 
Philip Jackson  Actor 
Heather Tobias  Actor 
Lesley Manville  Actor 
David Bamber  Actor 
Jason Watkins  Actor 
Judith Scott  Actor 

Country: UK