British director Leigh returns for fifth competition at Cannes

Having won a Palme d'or for "Secrets and Lies" in 1996, and four years after "Another Year", British director Mike Leigh returned to competition for the fifth time at the Cannes Film Festival this year, with his new film "Mr. Turner". "In this biopic with a Victorian touch, the British director turns his attention to the life of the Romantic painter J.M.W Turner (1775-1851): a way of exploring the psychological meanderings of other artists, filmmakers included," said the festival daily on Thursday. Leigh, who is known for his "sensitive portraits of ordinary life," focused on 25 years in the life of Turner, a master painter of the 19th century. During a press conference on Thursday, Leigh described Turner as "a great, sublime radical painter." "I found it possible to generate plenty of interesting content from the life of this fascinating man. A director must feel certain empathy towards his subject. Turner's life was hard, and I certainly feel that empathy," said the director. In a bid to reveal the art of the painter, the filmmaker reconstructed certain scenes from the artist's works. "The film also sets out to capture the subtleties of the character, vacillating between depth and derision", commented the daily of the festival. Timothy Spall plays the role of the "Painter of light", a precursor of Impressionism, celebrated for his watercolor landscapes. On his preparatory work, Spall told the press conference that "In order not to come across as ridiculous on screen, I took some time - two years in fact - to learn to draw and paint. I worked on his emotions." "Mr. Turner" is Leigh's third period film after "Topsy-Turvy" (1999) and "Vera Drake" (2004) and his first biopic. A total of 18 films were chosen to be in the main competition section during the 67th Cannes Film Festival, which runs during May 14-25.