Naked

Naked - 1993 | 131 mins | Drama | Colour

The Production Team

Director: Mike Leigh.
Producer: Simon Channing-Williams.
Script: Mike Leigh.
Cinematography: Dick Pope.
Editing: Jon Gregory.
Art Direction: Eve Stewart.
Production Design: Alison Chitty.
Costume Design: Lindy Hemming.
Make-up Department: Christine Blundell.
Sound: Ken Weston.
Original Music: Andrew Dickson.

The Cast

David Thewlis - Johnny
Lesley Sharp - Louise
Katrin Cartlidge - Sophie
Greg Cruttwell - Jeremy
Claire Skinner - Sandra
Peter Wight - Brian
Ewen Bremner - Archie
Gina McKee - Cafe Girl

Plot Synopsis

Mike Leigh's brutal and raw character study of a fictional motor mouth named Johnny; Naked is an examination of loneliness, male chauvinism and inner city decay in the early Nineties.

Naked begins with 27-year old Johnny (David Thewlis) in the darkened back-alleys of Manchester, pinning a woman against a building as he rapes her. Then, fearing reprisal, Johnny steals a car and drives to London to visit his old girlfriend, Louise (Lesley Sharp). Their reunion is less-than-affectionate, and while there he meets her roommate Sophie (Katrin Cartlidge), and so begins a violent sexual relationship with Louise's flatmate. Not long after, feeling smothered by Sophie's constant attention, Johnny takes to the streets, wandering through the back-ways and alleys of the city's underprivileged districts, meeting an assortment of strangers even more bizarre than him. During his journey through modern London, Johnny meets a homeless Scottish couple, a lonely night watchman, a shy waitress who invites Johnny home, then has an unexpected change of heart.