I indulged my Mike Leigh fetish again over the holiday weekend. With good reason: this man has made some of the most unusual films and feature-length TV projects of anyone, anywhere. The director, who works with his actors in an elaborate collective process to come up with the finished script, manages to be both hilariously funny and unendingly sad at once.

Hard Labour (’76) is an unbelievably grim portrait of a working-class woman’s existence. There aren’t too many major plot points; the middle-aged woman simply goes about her business, dealing with a wildly insensitive husband and daughter and toiling to make a pittance as a housemaid. The final sequence, in which she attempts to discuss her sorrow with her priest during confession, is devastating.

Nuts in May (’76) is decidedly lighter in tone, with an incredibly anal couple’s adventures as they attempt to go for a quiet bit of camping in the countryside. Leigh’s attention to detail is fantastic; the couple grow irritated with the other campers at the site and dire trouble follows. A highlight comes when the two decide to sing camp songs (while playing banjo and guitar), laden with the most inane lyrics ever uttered. Alison Steadman, Leigh’s then-wife and a feature of both movies, is, as always, excellent, typical of the films’ universally outstanding casts. Both available at Bôite Noire. :

—Matthew Hays