Naked

Q&A with Mike Leigh on May 27

Dancing on a razor’s edge between the sordid and the hilarious, between violence and tenderness, Mike Leigh’s astonishing fourth theatrical feature (for which he won Best Director at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival) takes us into the complex world of a London drifter named Johnny (David Thewlis, Best Actor at Cannes). We follow Johnny as he undertakes a true journey to the end of the night, encountering a succession of familiar and alien faces, ranting, raving, and generally behaving badly all along the way. As the golden-tongued antihero, a repugnant sadist with quicksilver charm, Thewlis is a revelation. Arguably Leigh’s most visually striking film, and perhaps his most influential in its bold portrayal of a violently, explosively flawed yet nevertheless magnetic protagonist, Naked endures as one of the great film portraits of a lost soul. An NYFF31 selection. 4K Restoration. A Janus Films release.

Audio description is available per request.