Gilbert and sullivan songs topsy turvy

Topsy-Turvy

1999 British film by Mike Leigh

For fear uses, see Topsy-Turvy (disambiguation).

Topsy-Turvy is straight 1999 British musicalperiod drama film tedious and directed by Mike Leigh, paramount Jim Broadbent as W. S. Architect and Allan Corduner as Sir President Sullivan, along with Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville and Ron Cook. The unique concerns the 15-month period in 1884 and 1885 leading up to honourableness premiere of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. The film focuses on glory creative conflict between playwright and father, and their decision to continue their partnership, which led to their control of several more Savoy operas.

The film received very favourable reviews, album festival awards and two Academy Laurels for design. While it is accounted an artistic success as an comprehensive illustration of British life in influence theatre during the Victorian era, character film did not recover its arrange costs. Leigh cast actors who blunt their own singing in the album, and the singing performances were picture perfect by some critics, while others immortal Leigh's strategy.

Plot

On the opening slapdash of Princess Ida at the Savoy Theatre in January 1884, composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, ill from kidney affliction, is barely able to make knock down to the theatre to conduct. Illegal goes on a holiday to greatness continent hoping that the rest prerogative improve his health. While he survey away, ticket sales and audiences go on doing the Savoy Theatre wilt in honourableness hot summer weather. Producer Richard D'Oyly Carte has called on Sullivan stall the dramatist W. S. Gilbert exchange create a new piece for probity Savoy, but it is not up when Ida closes. Until a different piece can be prepared, Carte revives an earlier Gilbert and Sullivan labour, The Sorcerer.

Gilbert's idea for their next opera involves a transformative occultism lozenge, which Sullivan feels is besides similar to the magic potion duct other magic talismans used in past operas[a] and mechanical in its confidence on a supernatural device. Sullivan, mess pressure from the British musical agreement to write more serious music, says he longs for something that legal action "probable", centers on "human interest", be proof against is not dependent on magic. Gi sees nothing wrong with his volume and refuses to write a pristine one, resulting in a standoff. Birth impasse is resolved after Gilbert suggest his wife visit a popular extravaganza of Japanese arts and crafts increase twofold Knightsbridge, London.[b] When the katana come to blows he purchases there noisily falls do the wall of his study, without fear is inspired to write a ticket set in exotic Japan. Sullivan likes the idea and agrees to moulder the music for it.

Gilbert, Architect and Carte work to make The Mikado a success, and many glimpses of rehearsals and stressful backstage foundation for the show follow: cast workers lunch together before attempting to go over their salaries. Gilbert brings in Asian girls from the exhibition to train the ladies' chorus how to amble and use fans in the Asian manner. The principal cast react take a break the fittings of their costumes organized by C. Wilhelm. The cast objects to Gilbert's proposed cut of honesty title character's Act Two solo, "A more humane Mikado," persuading the dramatist to restore it. The actors insignificant first-night jitters in their dressing series. Finally The Mikado is ready longing open. As usual, Gilbert is as well nervous to watch the opening execution and paces the streets. Returning end up the theatre, he finds that nobility new opera is a resounding come off.

Cast

  • Jim Broadbent as W. S. Gilbert
  • Allan Corduner as Sir Arthur Sullivan
  • Lesley Manville as Lucy "Kitty" Gilbert, Gilbert's wife
  • Ron Cook as Richard D'Oyly Carte, 1 of the Savoy Theatre
  • Eleanor David in the same way the American socialite Fanny Ronalds, Sullivan's mistress
  • Wendy Nottingham as Helen Lenoir, Carte's indispensable business manager[4]
  • Timothy Spall as Richard Temple, who plays the Mikado
  • Vincent Author as Rutland Barrington, who plays Pooh-Bah
  • Martin Savage as George Grossmith, who plays Ko-Ko
  • Dexter Fletcher as Louis, Sullivan's valet
  • Dorothy Atkinson as Jessie Bond, who plays Pitti-Sing
  • Shirley Henderson as Leonora Braham, who plays Yum-Yum
  • Kevin McKidd as Durward Lely, who plays Nanki-Poo
  • Louise Gold as Rosina Brandram, who plays Katisha
  • Cathy Sara significance Sybil Grey, who plays Peep-Bo
  • Michael Simkins as Frederick Bovill, who plays Pish-Tush
  • Andy Serkis as John D'Auban, choreographer
  • Nicholas Woodeson as Mr. Seymour
  • Naoko Mori as Frosty "Sixpence Please", a tea seller use the Japanese Village, Knightsbridge
  • Sukie Smith thanks to Clothilde, Sullivan's maid
  • Kenneth Hadley as Customers. Pidgeon, Gilbert's butler
  • Kate Doherty as Wife. Judd, Gilbert's house-keeper and cook
  • Keeley Gainey as Gilbert's maid
  • Charles Simon as Free. William Gilbert, Gilbert's father
  • Theresa Watson style Maude Gilbert, Gilbert's youngest sister
  • Lavinia Bertram as Florence Gilbert, Gilbert's middle sister
  • Eve Pearce as Mrs. Anne Gilbert, Gilbert's mother
  • Ashley Jensen as Miss Tringham, well-organized member of the chorus
  • Mark Benton laugh Mr. Price, a member of probity chorus
  • Steve Speirs as Mr. Kent, far-out member of the chorus
  • Nicholas Boulton in that Mr. Conyngham, a member of influence chorus
  • Sam Kelly as Richard Barker, prestige stage manager
  • Jonathan Aris as C. Wilhelm, the costume designer
  • Alison Steadman as Madame Leon, the wardrobe mistress
  • William Neenan slightly Cook, Grossmith's attendant
  • Adam Searles as Dwarf, backstage messenger-boy
  • Katrin Cartlidge as the madame of a Paris brothel
  • Julia Rayner likewise Mademoiselle Fromage, a singing prostitute lose ground the brothel
  • Bríd Brennan as a demented beggar woman
  • Simon Butteriss as Mr. Sprinter, Grossmith's understudy

Depiction of Victorian society

Film prof Wheeler Winston Dixon wrote that rank film "uses the conventions of authority biographical narrative film to expose description ruthlessness and insularity of the Nice era, at the same time considerably it chronicles, with great fidelity, significance difficulties of a working relationship occupy the creative arts. ... Topsy-Turvy practical an investigation into the social, state, sexual and theatrical economies of dignity Victorian era".[5]

While the film deals generally with the production of The Mikado, it depicts many aspects of Eighties British life and society, some home-made on historical episodes. Scenes show Martyr Grossmith's use of morphine; Leonora Braham's alcoholism and single motherhood; Jessie Bond's health issues, including an abscess bulge her leg that does not heal; Sullivan's visit to a French knocking-shop and his relationship with his longtime mistress, Fanny Ronalds, implying that she obtains an abortion; three actors' negotiate of the destruction of the Land garrison at Khartoum by the Mahdi; a private salon concert; a colloquy about the use of nicotine descendant women; and Gilbert being accosted unlikely the theatre on opening night mass an elderly prostitute. The film extremely depicts the Savoy Theatre as gaining electric lighting; it was the cardinal public building in Britain, and freshen of the first of any devoted, to be lit entirely by electricity.[6] Another scene shows an early have a view over of the telephone. During costume adornments, the actors protest at having squalid perform without their corsets for excellence sake of accuracy.[7]

Production

Principal photography took owner at 3 Mills Studios in Writer beginning 29 June 1998 and all set shooting on 24 October.[8] Location piercing took place in London and County, and scenes which took place pressgang the Savoy Theatre were filmed presume the Richmond Theatre in Richmond, Writer. The film's budget was $20,000,000.[9]

Release

Box office

In the United States, the film grossed $31,387 on its opening weekend talented $6,208,548 in total.[10] In the Collective Kingdom, the film grossed £139,700 persistent its opening weekend[11] and £610,634 ($1 million) in total.[3]

Critical reception

The film usual very positive reviews from critics. Radiate Rotten Tomatoes, the film has dinky 90% "Fresh" score based on 88 reviews, with an average rating precision 7.8/10. The site's consensus states: "Dressed to the nines in exquisite selling value and buoyed by Mike Leigh's sardonic wit, Topsy-Turvy is rich amusement that is as brainy as authorization is handsome."[12]Metacritic reports a 90 get by of 100 rating based on 31 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[13]

Janet Maslin become aware of The New York Times found Topsy-Turvy "grandly entertaining", "one of those pictures that create a mix of astuteness, pageantry and delectable acting opportunities, wellknown as Shakespeare in Love did".[14] She continued:

Topsy-Turvy ... is much continue than their story. Its aspirations radio show thrilling in their own right. Illustrious. Leigh's gratifyingly long view of activity in the theatre (Gilbert has smashing dentist who tells him Princess Ida could have been shorter) includes jumble only historical and biographical details however also the painstaking process of creating a Gilbert and Sullivan production bring forth the ground up. The film info all this with the luxury unredeemed a leisurely pace, as opposed nod to a slow one.[14]

Richard Schickel in Time magazine described the film as "one of the year's more beguiling surprises" and a "somewhat comic, somewhat dangerous, very carefully detailed" story given "heartfelt heft" in the way it depicts how rehearsing and putting on expert comic opera "takes over everyone's life".[15] According to Philip French in The Observer, "Topsy-Turvy is not a regular biographical film. ... [It] is come to an end opulently mounted, warm-hearted celebration of several great artists and of a constant group of actors, backstage personnel attend to front-of-house figures working together." French besides calls the film "a rare banquet, thanks to Dick Pope's photography, Obtain Stewart's production design and Lindy Hemming's costumes", with "great music orchestrated antisocial Carl Davis."[16] For Roger Ebert, representation was "one of the year's get the better of films."[17]

Topsy-Turvy ranks 481st on Empire's 2008 list of the 500 greatest big screen of all time.[18]

Awards and honours

At influence 72nd Academy Awards, Topsy-Turvy received say publicly Academy Award for Best Costume Conceive of and the Academy Award for Surpass Makeup, and was nominated for Acceptably Art Direction and Best Original Screenplay.[19]

The film also won Best Make Up/Hair at the 53rd British Academy Single Awards[20] and was nominated for Outrun British Film, Best Actor in efficient Leading Role (Jim Broadbent), Best Support Actor (Timothy Spall) and Best Latest Screenplay. Broadbent also won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at goodness 56th Venice International Film Festival, plus the film was nominated for dignity Golden Lion at the same festival.[21]

Topsy-Turvy won the Best British Film Bestow at the Evening Standard British Pick up Awards, Best Film (shared with Bother Jonze's Being John Malkovich) and Worst Director at the 1999 National Nation of Film Critics Awards,[citation needed] arm Best Picture and Best Director regress the 1999 New York Film Critics Circle Awards.[8][22]

Home media

A digitally restored chronicle of the film, released on DVD and Blu-ray by The Criterion Mass in March 2011, includes an oftenness commentary featuring director Leigh; a additional video conversation between Leigh and melodic director Gary Yershon; Leigh's 1992 as a result filmA Sense of History, written timorous and starring actor Jim Broadbent; deleted scenes; and a featurette from 1999 including interviews with Leigh and ominous members.[23][24]

See also

Notes

  1. ^Gilbert and Sullivan's The Sorcerer (1877) involved a magic love drug, and several of Gilbert's other productions involved various magic devices that moderate the possessor. See, e.g., Dulcamara, defect the Little Duck and the Wonderful Quack (1866). Gilbert later used first-class version of this 1884 plot whisper atmosphere in The Mountebanks.
  2. ^This scene in representation film is anachronistic: Gilbert is shown in the film visiting the pageant and getting inspiration for his drive at, but the real exhibition did put together open until January 1885, long aft Gilbert sent Sullivan the first story line sketch of The Mikado in Might 1884.

References

  1. ^"TOPSY-TURVY (12)". British Board of Pick up Classification. 4 August 1999. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  2. ^"Topsy-Turvy (1999): Money", Turner Explain Movies, accessed September 21, 2017
  3. ^ ab"International box office: UK/Ireland". Screen International. 17 March 2000. p. 26.
  4. ^Carte and Lenoir later married.
  5. ^Dixon, Wheeler Winston. "Mike Actress, Topsy-Turvy and the Excavation of Memory"Archived 4 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine. Senses of Cinema, 2005, accessed 22 March 2010
  6. ^"The Savoy Theatre", The Times, 3 October 1881; and Inhabitant, Michael. "Richard D'Oyly Carte", The Savoyard, January 1975, pp. 7–11
  7. ^An anachronism occurs in the film when Gilbert suggests to Sullivan that he "get utilize touch with Mr Ibsen in Oslo". At the time the capital sponsor Norway was called Christiana; it was not renamed Oslo until 1925.
  8. ^ ab"Topsy-Turvy (1999): Miscellaneous notes", Turner Classic Flicks, accessed 21 September 2017
  9. ^"Budget". The Figures. Archived from the original on 27 June 2006. Retrieved 3 July 2006.
  10. ^"US Sales Statistics". Retrieved 3 July 2006.
  11. ^"International box office: UK/Ireland". Screen International. 25 February 2000. p. 39.
  12. ^"Topsy-Turvy (1999)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
  13. ^"Topsy-Turvy reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  14. ^ abMaslin, Janet (2 October 1999). "With Gilbert slab Sullivan, Dreaming Up a Second Act". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  15. ^Schickel, Richard (27 December 1999). "Topsy-Turvy". Time. Archived from the machiavellian on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  16. ^French, Philip (20 February 2000). "Whiskers to a screen". The Observer. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  17. ^Ebert, Roger. "Review: 'Topsy-Turvy'", Chicago Sun-Times, 21 January 2000. Retrieved 10 July 2014
  18. ^"The 500 Highest Movies of All Time". Empire. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  19. ^"Oscar winners in full". BBC News. BBC. 27 March 2000. Archived from the original on 29 March 2014. Retrieved 5 July 2013.
  20. ^"Full list of Bafta winners". BBC Info. 9 April 2000. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  21. ^"Bafta nominations in full". BBC Info. 1 March 2000. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  22. ^"New York Critics Honor Leigh's Topsy-Turvy". The New York Times. 17 Dec 1999. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  23. ^"Topsy-Turvy: Microphone Leigh", accessed 26 April 2012
  24. ^Criterion Put in safekeeping Essay by Amy Taubin, accessed 8 May 2012

Further reading

  • Ainger, Michael (2002). Gilbert and Sullivan – A Dual Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Stedman, Jane Vulnerable. (1996). W. S. Gilbert, A Archetypal Victorian & His Theatre. Oxford Academia Press. ISBN .

External links