Meantime (film)
Meantime | |
---|---|
Directed by | Mike Leigh |
Written by | Mike Leigh |
Produced by | Graham Benson |
Starring | Tim Roth Phil Daniels Gary Oldman |
Cinematography | Roger Pratt |
Edited by | Lesley Walker |
Release dates | |
Running time | 112 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £357,000[1] |
Meantime is a 1983 British
Plot
The film unfolds in brief episodes, detailing the travails of the working-class Pollock family, who live in a shabby flat in a
Cast
- Marion Bailey as Barbara
- Phil Daniels as Mark
- Tim Roth as Colin
- Pam Ferris as Mavis
- Jeffrey Robert as Frank
- Alfred Molina as John
- Gary Oldman as Coxy
- Tilly Vosburgh as Hayley
- Paul Daly as Rusty
- Leila Bertrand as Hayley's Friend
- Hepburn Graham as Boyfriend
- Peter Wight as Estate Manager
- Eileen Davies as Unemployment Benefit Clerk
- Herbert Norville as Man in Pub
- Brian Hoskin as Barman
Production
Filming locations in London included the areas of Chigwell, Woodford Green, and Trafalgar Square.[3] The Pollock family flat was filmed at Bryant Court on Whiston Road, London E2, while Barbara and John’s house was filmed at 10 Gwynne Park Avenue, Woodford Bridge, London IG8 8AB.[3] The unemployment office scene was filmed on Enfield Road[4] and the canal scene was filmed on Dunston Road, London E2.[3]
An incident occurred at the rehearsal space in a factory in Homerton, when Roth and Oldman were throwing a milk bottle around. Suddenly Roth threw it up and it hit a fluorescent lighting strip. Leigh saw "Gary's shaven head erupt into a thousand red blotches; in the film you can see the stitch marks." He rushed Oldman to hospital. "As I drove him there, all done up in his skinhead stuff, covered in blood, Gary said to me, 'For fuck's sake, tell 'em I'm an actor!' He could easily have lost his eyesight in the accident, and I do not know to this day what I would have done if that had happened."[5]
References
- ^ "Back to the Future: The Fall and Rise of the British Film Industry in the 1980s - An Information Briefing" (PDF). British Film Institute. 2005. p. 26.
- ^ Coveney 1996, p. 174.
- ^ a b c "Meantime". Reelstreets. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
- ^ "A film-by-film guide to Mike Leigh's London... then and now". BFI. 20 February 2018. Retrieved 11 January 2023.
- ^ Coveney 1996, p. 176.
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-0-00-255518-0.
External links
- Meantime at IMDb
- Meantime at BFI Screenonline
- Meantime: Margins and Centers an essay by Sean O’Sullivan at the Criterion Collection