Life Is Sweet

This invigorating film from Mike Leigh was his first international sensation. Melancholy and funny by turns, it is an intimate portrait of a working-class family in a suburb just north of London—an irrepressible mum and dad (Alison Steadman and Jim Broadbent) and their night-and-day twins, a bookish good girl and a troubled, ill-tempered layabout (Claire Skinner and Jane Horrocks). Leigh and his typically brilliant cast create, with extraordinary sensitivity and craft, a vivid, lived-in story of ordinary existence, in which even modest dreams—such as the father’s desire to open a food truck—carry enormous weight.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New, restored 2K digital film transfer, supervised by director of photography Dick Pope, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• New audio commentary featuring director Mike Leigh
• Audio recording of a 1991 interview with Leigh at the National Film Theatre in London
• Five short films written and directed by Leigh for the proposed television series Five-Minute Films, with a new audio introduction by Leigh
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: A new essay by critic David Sterritt
• New cover by Eric Skillman