Louise (Lesley Sharp) is none too pleased to find her loquacious lout ex-boyfriend Johnny (a relentless David Thewlis in his breakout role) at the door. Just as her fragile, “hippy-dippy” housemate Sophie (Katrin Cartlidge) takes a liking to the intellectual bully and his impeccably articulated slew of tidbits, philosophy and conspiracy theories, Johnny suddenly takes off on a nocturnal odyssey to prey upon the ears of lonely Londoners. In his place, a vile man claiming to be the landlord (Greg Cruttwell) menaces the two women.

Audience note: contains depictions of sexual violence.

Cold, dark and volatile, Naked is perhaps Mike Leigh’s most revered work – deservedly winning him the Best Director award at Cannes and David Thewlis Best Actor – now presented in a recent 4K remaster by the BFI Archive. Amid all the cruelty of this bleak “post-punk” vision of London, Leigh treats each and every one of his characters as rich fully-formed people including Thewlis’ utterly captivating, fiercely intelligent and terribly mean Johnny; revealing the sad humanity behind his prosaic babble and schoolboy precociousness as he lingers and wanders.

This film plays as part of our Mike Leigh: Difficult People series, a complete feature retrospective that tracks the evolution of the British director’s style, relationships with long-term creative collaborators and his truly unique creative process.