Mike Leigh's "Peterloo" (Amazon, 11.9), has had a strange journey ever since it was rejected by Cannes. Venice picked it up as a premiere, but a dark shadow looms all over this movie. Is it as bad as the rumors say it is? The trailer doesn't necessarily give you that impression. However, this does look like the kind of film that Ken Loach consistently produces in his sleep.
Leigh's film is a recreation of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, a clash between government officials and protesters which ended with 15 civilians being killed. What originally started as a march of 60,000 citizens at St. Peter’s Field, to demand Parliamentary reform and an expansion of voting rights, turned into a police state bout of violence that still stings to this day.
When asked by Screendaily about receiving awards at festivals, Leigh mentioned the Cannes fiasco, “Everybody knows that Cannes rejected ‘Peterloo.’ They said they respected it but it wasn’t for them.”
His last film was 2014's "Mr. Turner," a biopic of artist J.M.W Turner. His stock has slightly tumbled over the last few years, although he still remains one of the greatest British directors of all-time. The director's indisputably great movies will always be, for me at least, "Secrets and Lies," and "Naked."