Mike Leigh: his 12 best films Bleak Moments (1971) With this, his first film, Leigh started as he meant to go on - portraying an instantly recognisable reality with a raw, utterly uncompromising intensity (though with fewer laughs than would pepper his later work). Shy, withdrawn Sylvia (Anne Raitt) is a typist, who also cares for her difficult, mentally impaired sister and who endures awkward encounters with her socially inept teacher boyfriend and an irritating work colleague in scenes that frequently verge on the excruciating. Venerable US critic Roger Ebert hailed it at the time as "a masterpiece, plain and simple."