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Hard Labour is a film of genre Drama directed by Mike Leigh with Liz Smith
Hard Labour (1973)
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Add to a movie listHard Labour is a 1973 television film, directed by Mike Leigh and produced by Tony Garnett which aired as part of the BBC anthology series Play for Today. The film stars Liz Smith in her first major role. The film is the most clearly drawn in all Leigh's work from the background in Higher and Lower Broughton where he grew up. "Though elements of autobiography are buried in all Leigh's films and plays, only Hard Labour is set in Salford, – the scenes in the Stones' house were shot in a house just two doors along from where the Leighs had lived in Cavendish Road."
Actors
Liz Smith
(Mrs. Thornley)
Bernard Hill
(Edward Thornley)
Alison Steadman
(Veronica Thornley)
Ben Kingsley
(Naseem)
Polly Hemingway
(Ann Thornley)
Alan Erasmus
(Barry)
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Suggestions of similar film to Hard Labour
There are 139 films with the same actors, 20 films with the same director, 85586 with the same cinematographic genres (including 11584 with exactly the same 2 genres than Hard Labour), to have finally 70 suggestions of similar films.If you liked Hard Labour, you will probably like those similar films :
Secrets & Lies (1996)
, 2h15Directed by Mike Leigh
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Comedy
Themes Films about adoption, Films about children, Films about families
Actors Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Phyllis Logan, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Claire Rushbrook, Liz Smith
Rating79%
The film tells the story of Hortense Cumberbatch, a successful black middle class optometrist in London, who is adopted and has chosen to trace her family history after the death of her adoptive mother. After being warned by public officials about the troubles she could face by tracking her birth mother down, she continues her investigation and is baffled to learn that her birth mother is white but does not resent her and wants to know more about her past. Her birth mother, Cynthia Purley, is working class and downwardly mobile. Hortense meets her and later meets Cynthia's brother, Maurice Purley, a photographer, his wife Monica, and Cynthia's daughter Roxanne, a street cleaner.
Life Is Sweet (1990)
, 1h43Directed by Mike Leigh
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Comedy
Themes Films about sexuality, BDSM in films
Actors Alison Steadman, Jim Broadbent, Claire Skinner, Jane Horrocks, Timothy Spall, David Thewlis
Rating73%
Andy (Jim Broadbent), a senior chef in a large London catering facility, buys a dilapidated fast-food van from a disreputable acquaintance named Patsy (Stephen Rea). He plans to clean, restore and put it into service on a local fast-food round. Wendy, his hard-working, good-natured and innuendo-prone wife, (Alison Steadman) is sensibly sceptical about the project but understands her husband's ambitions. Their twin 22-year-old daughters (Natalie and Nicola) have profoundly different attitudes: tomboyish Natalie, who works as a plumber's mate (Claire Skinner), thinks it is a good idea if it will make her father happy, whereas the bitter, shut-in Nicola (Jane Horrocks), contemptuously and typically dismisses Andy as a "Capitalist!" Late at night, an anguished Nicola binges on chocolate and snacks, then forces herself to vomit. Natalie – awake in the next room – overhears her.
Bleak Moments (1971)
, 1h51Directed by Mike Leigh
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romance
Themes Films based on plays
Actors Donald Sumpter, Liz Smith, Eric Allan, Stephen Churchett
Rating68%
Bleak Moments looks at the 'tortured, semi-articulated anguish' in suburban West Norwood, between Sylvia, and her developmentally delayed sister Hilda; Sylvia's friend at work, Pat; a teacher, Peter, Sylvia's reticent, prospective boy-friend; and Norman, a 'gormless hippie'.
Nuts in May (1976)
, 1h24Directed by Mike Leigh
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy
Actors Roger Sloman, Alison Steadman, Anthony O'Donnell, Richenda Carey, Eric Allan Kramer, Eric Allan
Rating1%
The main couple, childlike Candice Marie (Alison Steadman) and eccentric-obsessive Keith (Roger Sloman), arrive at the campsite and pitch their tent in a quiet spot suitable for appreciating nature's wonders while keeping other human beings safely at arm's length. Their usual routine (which includes performing their own guitar-banjo compositions, preparing healthy vegetarian dinners and following the Country Code) is rudely interrupted by Ray (Anthony O'Donnell), a lone student who camps down nearby and switches on his radio: this is treated by the couple as an unforgivable crime, and they force Ray to turn it off. Later, on the way home after a trip to Stair Hole, it begins to rain and the couple notice a figure (which turns out to be Ray) walking along the road and give him a lift home.
The Short & Curlies (1987)
, 18minutesDirected by Mike Leigh
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Comedy, Romance
Actors Alison Steadman, Sylvestra Le Touzel, David Thewlis
Rating65%
Another Year (2010)
, 2h9Directed by Mike Leigh
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Comedy
Themes Films about alcoholism, Medical-themed films, Films about drugs
Actors Lesley Manville, Jim Broadbent, Ruth Sheen, David Bradley, Peter Wight, Imelda Staunton
Rating73%
Tom Hepple, a geologist, and Gerri Hepple, a counsellor, are an older married couple who have a comfortable, loving relationship. The film observes them over the course of the four seasons of a year, surrounded by family and friends who mostly suffer some degree of unhappiness. Gerri's friend and colleague, Mary, works as a receptionist at the health centre. She is a middle-aged divorcee seeking a new relationship, and despite telling everyone she is happy, appears desperate and depressed. She often seems to drink too much. The Hepples' only child, Joe, is 30 and unmarried and works as a solicitor giving advice on housing.
Topsy-Turvy (1999)
, 2h40Directed by Mike Leigh
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Biography, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Historical, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Jim Broadbent, Allan Corduner, Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville, Eleanor David, Dexter Fletcher
Rating72%
On the opening night of Princess Ida at the Savoy Theatre in January 1884, composer Sir Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner), who is ill from kidney disease, is barely able to make it to the theatre to conduct. He goes on a holiday to Continental Europe hoping that the rest will improve his health. While he is away, ticket sales and audiences at the Savoy Theatre wilt in the hot summer weather. Producer Richard D'Oyly Carte (Ron Cook) has called on Sullivan and the playwright W. S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) to create a new piece for the Savoy, but it is not ready when Ida closes. Until a new piece can be prepared, Carte revives an earlier Gilbert and Sullivan work, The Sorcerer.
Meantime (1984)
, 1h52Directed by Mike Leigh
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Comedy, Crime
Themes Skinheads
Actors Tim Roth, Marion Bailey, Phil Daniels, Gary Oldman, Pam Ferris, Alfred Molina
Rating71%
Le film constitue une « étude d'un point de vue sentimental de l'état du monde à une période donnée » selon Mike Leigh lui-même. La période en question est le thatchérisme, caractérisé par le chômage de masse. Le film mêle en permanence le tragique au comique.
Naked (1993)
, 2h11Directed by Mike Leigh
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Comedy
Themes Films about sexuality, Rape in fiction
Actors David Thewlis, Lesley Sharp, Katrin Cartlidge, Claire Skinner, Peter Wight, Ewen Bremner
Rating76%
After a sexual encounter with a married woman in an alley in Manchester turns into a rape, Johnny steals a car and flees for Dalston, "a scrawny, unpretentious area" in the east of London, to seek refuge with his former girlfriend, fellow Mancunian Louise.
All or Nothing (2002)
, 2h8Directed by Mike Leigh
Origin United-kingdom
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romance
Themes Films about families, Transport films, Films about the labor movement, Films about automobiles
Actors Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville, James Corden, Ruth Sheen, Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson
Rating74%
The film begins with a day nearing end. Rachel, the daughter in the first family, is shown working in a nursing home. Phil, her father, is shown driving people around in his minicab. Penny, Rachel's mother, is shown working as a cashier at Safeway store alongside Maureen, the mother in the second family. When Penny leaves work, she cycles home to find her eighteen-year-old son Rory in a fight with a local boy for taking his football. Rory is a lazy, obese, ill-mannered teenager who stays home all day and doesn't work. Complications with Rory's obesity arise when after an altercation with a gang of youths playing "Piggy in the Middle", he ultimately runs out of breath, begins to hyperventilate and is hospitalised after suffering a heart attack.