Alison Steadman Alison Steadman Alison Steadman, (born 26 August 1946) is an English actor. She won the 1991 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for the Mike Leigh film "Life is Sweet", and the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role as Mari in the original production of "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice". In a 2007 Channel 4 poll, the "50 Greatest Actors" voted for by other actors, she was ranked No. 42. Steadman made her professional stage debut in 1968 and went on to establish her career in Mike Leigh's 1970s TV plays "Nuts
Christian Lara (film director) Christian Lara (film director) Christian Lara (born January 25, 1939, in Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, French West Indies) is a Guadeloupean/French film director, writer, cinematographer and producer. Having shot more than twenty feature films in the Caribbean, France, Canada, Africa, he is regarded by many as ""the Father of French Antilles cinema"". Christian Lara began his professional career in Paris (France) as a journalist for "Le Figaro", a French daily newspaper. As of 1973, he turns film-maker, directing his first movie, "Jeu de dames" (en: "Dames play"), starring Georges de Caunes. That same year, following a then Parisian trend for erotic films,