High Hopes - DaaVeeDee

High Hopes (DVD) (*)

$24.99

Screened, competed or awarded at:
European Film Awards
Venice Film Festival
Other Film Festival Awards

Language Selections:
English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 )
English ( Subtitles )

Product Origin/Format:
United Kingdom ( PAL/Region 2 )

Running Time:
107 min

Aspect Ratio:
Anamorphic Widescreen (1.78:1)

Special Features:
Interactive Menu
Scene Access
Remastered

Movie filmed in 1988 and produced in:
United Kingdom ( Great Britain, Ireland )

Directed By:
Mike Leigh

Written By:
Mike Leigh

Actors:
Philip Davis ..... Cyril Bender
Ruth Sheen ..... Shirley
Edna Doré ..... Mrs. Bender
Philip Jackson ..... Martin Burke
Heather Tobias ..... Valerie Burke
Lesley Manville ..... Laetitia Boothe-Brain
David Bamber ..... Rupert Boothe-Braine
Jason Watkins ..... Wayne
Judith Scott ..... Suzi
Cheryl Prime ..... Martin's Girl Friend
Diane-Louise Jordan ..... Chemist Shop Assistant
Linda Beckett ..... Receptionist

Synopsis:

Slice-of-life look at a sweet working-class couple in London, Shirley and Cyril, his mother, who's aging quickly and becoming forgetful, mum's ghastly upper-middle-class neighbors, and Cyril's pretentious sister and philandering husband. Shirley wants a baby, but Cyril, who reads Marx and wants the world to be perfect, is reluctant. Cyril's mum locks herself out and must ask her snooty neighbors for help. Then Cyril's sister Valerie stages a surprise party for mum's 70th birthday, a disaster from start to finish. Shirley holds things together, and she and Cyril may put aside her Dutch cap after all.

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.

This product was added to our catalog on Tuesday 13 May, 2008.

Customers who bought this product also purchased

Secrets & Lies (1996) (DVD)	The Terence Davies Trilogy (DVD)	Willie Boy (DVD)
Toni (DVD)	Bigger Than Life (DVD)	That's it!!! (DVD)