Details

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.

With a newly restored 2K digital film transfer, supervised by director of photography Dick Pope, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, Life is Sweet is released on Blu-ray 16th February 2026 from Spirit Entertainment as part of the Criterion Collection.

Special 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
  • A new essay by critic David Sterritt
  • New cover by Eric Skillman