Figgis Unfiltered

Filmmaker Mike Figgis on love: why it never quite works, what makes true love closer to friendship, and the films and songs that get it right. Figgis Unfiltered S2 E3.

Season 2 of Figgis Unfiltered examines the human emotions, one at a time. In Episode 3, director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) takes on the most complex subject of all — love. He begins with the love songs of the American songbook and asks why love has all but vanished from modern music, then turns to Einstein and the philosopher Georges Bataille to ask why desire so often curdles into disappointment, and why the truest love might look more like deep friendship than romance.

Along the way: a year-long love affair sustained entirely through perfumed letters he couldn't actually read, why the suffering of love has always drawn him more than happy endings, the films that define love for him — from Elvira Madigan to Bonnie and Clyde — and what a single look on Billie Holiday's face reveals about the whole thing. Then he takes your questions: on inviting your exes to your wedding, whether love is worth the pain, and how love shifts across a lifelong marriage.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Love — the most complex subject of all

00:37 A roll-call of love songs — and what vanished from them

03:23 Einstein on marriage, desire and disappointment

04:20 Why his films are all about broken love

05:05 Georges Bataille: desire, and why marriage palls

07:51 "True love is deep friendship"

09:04 A fool for love — chasing the unattainable

09:51 The perfumed letters he couldn't read for a year

12:36 Why the suffering of love appeals to him

14:00 "I like you": how language fails love

14:47 Saying "I love you" — the point of no return

16:06 When a friendship turns into love

16:52 True love stories — Leaving Las Vegas & One Night Stand

17:36 Elvira Madigan — his favourite love film

20:04 Love as a clash of two forces

21:01 Listener questions — Nithya (Hong Kong): exes at your wedding?

25:28 Mark (Toronto): is love worth the pain?

31:11 Carol (Ottawa): love across a lifelong marriage

38:04 The most profound love on film — Billie Holiday & Lester Young

🎬 Mentioned in this episode

Films — Elvira Madigan · Bonnie and Clyde · My Girlfriend's Boyfriend (Éric Rohmer) · One Night Stand · and Mike's own Leaving Las Vegas

Thinkers — Albert Einstein · Georges Bataille (Story of the Eye) · Albert Camus · Michael Ondaatje

Music — the American love-song standards · Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21 · Billie Holiday & Lester Young, "Fine and Mellow" (from the 1957 TV special The Sound of Jazz, on YouTube)

🎙️ Got a question for Mike? Send it as a voice note on Instagram: https://instagram.com/figgisunfiltered

🔔 Subscribe and hit the bell for new Season 2 episodes across all podcast platforms and here on YouTube.

Follow: Instagram → https://instagram.com/figgisunfiltered

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Filmmaker Mike Figgis on rage: the violence that shaped him, the fury he learned to turn into film, and why anger still needs an outlet. Figgis Unfiltered S2 E2.

Season 2 of Figgis Unfiltered examines the human emotions, one at a time. In Episode 2, director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) takes on anger and rage — beginning with a man who insists he isn't angry, then tracing where that belief cracks. From a childhood thrown from colonial East Africa into a violent Newcastle school, to the friend who taught him to stand his ground, to the "psychedelic rage" of an out-of-body fantasy in a Hollywood studio meeting, he examines how a lifetime of watching for danger became both a survival instinct and a filmmaker's eye.

He tells the story behind his near-fight with Ridley Scott in an edit suite — and how that exact moment became a scene in Leaving Las Vegas — then opens out into rage on screen (Taxi Driver, Network), the difference between anger and rage, and how punk turned fury into something a whole generation could use. Then he takes your questions: what he does with his own rage, when we shouldn't trust our instincts, and what Muhammad Ali might have made of the age of outrage.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 "I don't think of myself as an angry man"

00:20 From colonial Africa to a brutal Newcastle school

02:53 Reg Easton, and learning to fight back

04:07 A radar for violence — "always watch the room"

04:52 Hollywood, and a fantasy of "psychedelic rage"

08:02 Ridley Scott, The Browning Version & a near-fight

12:09 Turning that rage into a scene in Leaving Las Vegas

13:56 Repressed rage on screen — Taxi Driver & Network

14:54 Rage vs anger — and "creative anger"

16:35 Bad rage vs productive rage — punk and "mad as hell"

18:02 A digression: Network and Faye Dunaway

20:31 Listener questions — Mark (Ontario): what do you do with rage?

24:24 Annie (Mumbai): when should we not trust our instincts?

26:37 Bob (London): Muhammad Ali, Trump & the age of outrage

29:43 "Bring on the rage" — a closing note

🎬 Mentioned in this episode

Films — Taxi Driver · Network · The Browning Version · Internal Affairs · Thelma & Louise · and Mike's own Leaving Las Vegas

People — Ridley Scott · Albert Finney · Anthony Hopkins · Julian Sands · Elisabeth Shue · Faye Dunaway · David Lynch · Muhammad Ali · the Coen brothers · Powell & Pressburger

Music — the rage of punk: the Sex Pistols and The Clash

🎙️ Got a question for Mike? Send it as a voice note and it could feature in a future episode — DM us on Instagram: @figgisunfiltered

🔔 Subscribe and hit the bell for new Season 2 episodes across all podcast platforms and here on YouTube.

Follow: Instagram → https://instagram.com/figgisunfiltered

Note: this episode includes frank discussion of childhood violence and abuse.

#MikeFiggis #FiggisUnfiltered #Rage

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Filmmaker Mike Figgis on happiness: why it's dangerous, the childhood moment that defined it, and why he distrusts happy endings. Figgis Unfiltered S2 E1.

Season 2 of Figgis Unfiltered examines the human emotions, one at a time. In Episode 1, director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) begins with happiness — a kitchen table stripped at 3am, a boyhood night hearing Louis Armstrong's trumpet cut through the red velvet curtains of the Newcastle Odeon beside his father, and a lifetime spent watching people to understand what a genuine smile really is.

He explores why happiness can only be measured against sadness (by way of John Berger's Ways of Seeing), the actor's exercise that exposes sadness as our default setting, the "mask of happiness" he strips away when taking portraits, and the newspaper photograph of a rescued Australian family that moved him to tears. Then he answers your questions — on what gets him out of bed, the spirituality running through his films, why he casts actors who've stepped away from the mainstream (Kim Novak, Nastassja Kinski, Richard Gere), and whether Leaving Las Vegas could be made in 2026.

He closes with his own recommendations on happiness: two books, two live jazz recordings, and one perfect Hitchcock film.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 Welcome to Season 2 — what happiness really is

01:14 A boy, his father & Louis Armstrong at the Odeon

04:04 Edinburgh: a failed comedian and his father's cough

05:18 Why happiness is dangerous — John Berger

06:13 "Show me happiness": the actor's exercise

07:33 Portraits and the mask of happiness

08:36 The Australian beach rescue that moved him

12:10 Listener questions — Clarissa (Toronto): what gets you out of bed?

14:16 Happiness is meant to be shared

17:14 A people-watcher's joy: stations & airports

19:06 Sasha (Ukraine): spirituality in his films

23:01 Doug (Boston): casting actors who stepped away

26:28 Jay (Amsterdam): could Leaving Las Vegas be made today?

29:22 Recommendations — books, live jazz & a Hitchcock film

33:22 Final thoughts: don't plan happiness

📚 Mentioned in this episode

Books — A Fan's Notes (Fred Exley) · Something Happened (Joseph Heller) · Ways of Seeing (John Berger) · Diary of a Mad Old Man (Tanizaki)

Music — Louis Armstrong's 1948 live all-star concert · Duke Ellington at Newport '56, "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue" (Paul Gonsalves)

Films — Notorious (Hitchcock) · Festen · and Mike's own Leaving Las Vegas

🎙️ Got a question for Mike? Send it as a voice note and it could feature in a future episode — DM us on Instagram: @figgisunfiltered

🔔 Subscribe and hit the bell for new Season 2 episodes across all podcast platforms and here on YouTube.

Follow: Instagram → https://instagram.com/figgisunfiltered

#MikeFiggis #FiggisUnfiltered #Happiness

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In his new book, Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945, Ian Buruma explores the complexities of survival and daily life under Nazi rule. He talks to Mike about the book, his longtime interest in China and Japan, and their shared experiences with a legendary Dutch avant-garde theatre.

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Mike Figgis and Josh Karp talk about what AI means for the movie industry, and whether there’s a positive side to the disruption. They also talk about what to do when the artists you love have done harmful things. And Mike recounts his thoughts after a trip to Berlin for the 30th anniversary screening of Leaving Las Vegas. 

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Mike and Josh Karp discuss the Oscar nominations, a favourite that didn’t make the cut, and what Mike learned from attempting to get MEGADOC into the Academy screening rooms. Then, Mike shares more strange stories from Hollywood, his performance art roots, and being a concerned dad.

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Mike keeps a notebook filled with memories – those strange, touching, unsettling or funny moments that stick with you for one reason or another. Today, he opens up the notebook and shares some of his favourites, including a couple of near-death experiences, the time he bought a bootleg DVD of his own movie, and an extreme art performance that ended with the destruction of a Picasso.

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Mike and Josh Karp dissect Quentin Tarantino’s brutal comments about Paul Dano, the bizarre process of getting an Academy Award nomination, and what they’ve been watching. 

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After Leaving Las Vegas became a surprise hit, Mike was a hot name in Hollywood. He talks to writer Josh Karp about the bizarre ritual of the Oscars ceremony, his brief entry into the Hollywood club, and why he ultimately decided not to pursue big budget studio movies.

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More recollections of Leaving Las Vegas, this time focusing on the cast, the feel of the movie, and the three-week shoot. Mike talks to writer Josh Karp about what it was like working with Nicholas Cage, Elisabeth Shue and a dream list of actors in smaller parts, as well as battles to maintain the film’s iconic sound, and shooting a movie in a city that didn’t want them there. 

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