Mike Leigh on Roger Ebert: 'His analysis of my films was consistently profound'

Roger Ebert was unique among film critics in his warmth, his compassion, his enthusiasm and his unerring perception. Devoid of cynicism or gratuitous judgment, he never failed to grasp the deeper essence of what one was trying to do.

Of my first offering, Bleak Moments, he wrote: "The film is a masterpiece, plain and simple." Of course, it wasn't just this excessive praise that endeared him to me. Of that and all my subsequent films, his analysis was consistently and totally profound.

And he was a wonderful interviewer, charming and witty, even after cancer, when his voicebox had been removed, and he was talking bravely through a machine.