Topsy-Turvy [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Mike Leigh Mike Leigh

Overview

Noted for intimate character studies created in collaboration with his actors, director Mike Leigh makes a dramatic change of pace with this biography of comic opera composers W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) is an easily angered but otherwise emotionally remote lyricist who works in collaboration with composer Sullivan (Alan Corduner), a genial and fun-loving sort who feels unsatisfied writing light operettas and longs to work with more serious material. While Sullivan is having a creative crisis, Gilbert is facing a failing marriage to Lucy (Lesley Manville), who loves her husband even if he can't return her affections, and must deal with his ailing father (Charles Simon). When they suffer their first failure, both men are depressed, and Sullivan announces that he's giving up operetta for good. However, a visit to an exhibit of Japanese art sparks an idea in Gilbert, and soon he and Sullivan are hard at work on what will become one of their greatest successes, The Mikado. Much of the film is devoted to the staging of this classic, with Shirley Henderson, Dorothy Atkinson, Martin Savage, Timothy Spall, and Kevin McKidd as members of the operetta's cast. Jim Broadbent won Best Actor at the 1999 Venice Film Festival.

Product Details

Release Date:	03/29/2011
UPC:	0715515068918
Original Release:	1999
Rating:	R
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Language:	English
Time:	2:40:00
Sales rank:	11,187

Special Features

Audio commentary featuring director Mike Leigh; New video conversation between Leigh and musical director Gary Yershon; Leigh's 1992 short film A Sense of History, written by and starring actor Jim Broadbent ; Deleted scenes ; Featurette from 1999 including interviews with Leigh and cast members ; Theatrical trailer and tv spots

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jim Broadbent	William Schwenk Gilbert
Allan Corduner	Arthur Sullivan,Arthur Sullivan
Timothy Spall	Richard Temple
Lesley Manville	Lucy Gilbert
Ron Cook	Richard D'Oyly Carte
Wendy Nottingham	Helen Lenoir
Kevin McKidd	Durward Lely
Shirley Henderson	Leonora Braham
Dorothy Atkinson	Jessie Bond
Martin Savage	George Grossmith
Eleanor David	Fanny Ronalds
Alison Steadman	Madame Leon
Dexter Fletcher	Louis
Sukie Smith	Clothilde
Roger Heathcott	Stage Door-Keeper
Stefan Bednarczyk	Frank Cellier
Geoffrey Hutchings	Armourer
Francis Lee	Butt
William Neenan	Cook
Adam Searle	Shrimp
Kate Doherty	Mrs. Judd
Kenneth Hadley	Pidgeon
Keeley Gainey	Maidservant
Gary Yershon	Pianist in Brothel
Katrin Cartlidge	Madame
Julia Rayner	Mademoiselle Fromage
Jenny Pickering	Second Prostitute
Sam Kelly	Richard Barker
Charles Simon	Gilbert's Father
Philippe Constantin	Paris Waiter
David Neville	Dentist
Matthew Mills	Walter Simmonds
Nicholas Woodeson	Mr. Seymour
Nick Bartlett	Stagehand
Gary Dunnington	Stagehand
Amanda Crossley	Emily
Kimi Shaw	Spinner
Toksan Takahashi	Calligrapher
Akemi Otani	Dancer
Kanako Morishita	Shamisen Player
Theresa Watson	Maude Gilbert
Lavinia Bertram	Florence Gilbert
Togo Igawa	First Kabuki Actor
Eiji Kusuhara	Second Kabuki Actor
Naoko Mori	Miss `Sixpence Please'
Eve Pearce	Gilbert's Mother
Neil Humphries	Boy Actor
Vincent Franklin	Rutland Barrington
Michael Simkins	Frederick Bovill
Cathy Sara	Sibyl Grey
Angela Curran	Miss Morton
Millie Gregory	Alice
Jonathan Aris	Wilhelm
Andy Serkis	John D'Auban
Mia Soteriou	Mrs. Russell
Louise Gold	Rosina Brandram
Shaun Glanville	Mr. Harris
Julian Bleach	Mr. Plank
Neil Salvage	Mr. Hurley
Matt Bardock	Mr. Tripp
Brid Brennan	Madwoman
Mark Benton	Mr. Price
Heather Craney	Miss Russell
Julie Jupp	Miss Meadows
John Warnaby	Mr. Sanders
Kacey Ainsworth	Miss Fitzherbert
Ashley Artus	Mr. Marchmont
Richard Attlee	Mr. Gordon
Paul Barnhill	Mr. Flagstone
Nicholas Boulton	Mr. Conyngham
Lorraine Brunning	Miss Jardine
Simon Butteriss	Mr. Lewis
Wayne Cater	Mr. Rhys
Rosie Cavaliero	Miss Moore
Michelle Chadwick	Miss Warren
Debbie Chazen	Miss Kingsley
Richard Coyle	Mr. Hammond
Monica Dolan	Miss Barnes
Sophie Duval	Miss Brown
Anna Francolini	Miss Biddles
Teresa Gallagher	Miss Coleford
Sarah Howe	Miss Woods
Ashley Jensen	Miss Tringham
Gemma Page	Miss Langton-James
Paul Rider	Mr. Bentley
Mary Roscoe	Miss Carlyle
Steven Speirs	Mr. Kent
Nicola Wainwright	Miss Betts
Angie Wallis	Miss Wilkinson
Kevin Walton	Mr. Evans
Carl Davis	Composer

Technical Credits

Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh	Director,Screenwriter
Simon Channing-Williams	Producer
Nina Gold	Casting

Editorial Reviews

He captured searing existential anguish in Naked and the travails of the working class in Life is Sweet and Secrets and Lies. In his latest film, Mike Leigh sets his sights on what would seem an unlikely subject: operetta composers Gilbert and Sullivan. Far more than a chocolate-box costume drama -- though it is indeed most beautiful to look at -- this return to the Victorian age and stage is a strangely logical continuation of Leigh's fascination with class and culture. The composers' careers have brought them nearly to the end of a beautiful partnership: Sullivan (Allan Corduner) hungers for artistic respect and challenges, while Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) would happily continue writing little fairy tales that show a fantasy world gone "topsy turvy." The solution to their creative quandary emerges from the Victorian craze for Orientalism, the inspiration for the Mikado. Leigh once again pulls compelling performances from his company -- and he is just as comfortable in London's 19th-century opera houses as he is on London's 20th-century streets. Topsy-Turvy is a sensual delight from one of the world's most accomplished directors.

Barnes & Noble - Karen Backstein

Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy is such a faithful rendering of a past era, it's as though the director time-warped his cinematographer back to 19th century England. In his first period piece, Leigh transplants the grittiness of his films' usual working-class British milieu, and the result is a Victorian England with a lived-in look, rather than one glossed over by a fanciful sheen. Armed with this sort of authenticity, Topsy-Turvy becomes a new classic among movies, documenting the behind-the-scenes fits and foibles of a dramatic production. And what better production than The Mikado, the hilarious turning point in the careers of Gilbert and Sullivan, whose precarious professional status made the choice of a Japanese-themed operetta all the more fraught with peril. Leigh lets loose and gets big laughs from his cast of prima donnas getting fitted for kimonos and taking lessons from the misinformed about how to "act Japanese." But the film also contains Leigh's noted finesse for examining emotional distance, most notably between Gilbert and his long-suffering wife (Leslie Manville). And Leigh regular Timothy Spall is unforgettable as he tries to swallow his wounded pride, learning only days before the premiere that his big number will be cut. Topsy-Turvy is the rare film in which grand-scale art direction and intimate character study both feel absolutely true. To echo the succinct praise of Broadbent's Gilbert, Topsy-Turvy is "capital."

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