Synopsis
Topsy-Turvy (1999) is Mike Leigh's period drama about the making of The Mikado, and you can watch online on iFILM. London, 1884: the celebrated team of librettist W.S. Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan has hit a wall.
Their latest piece lands with a thud, Sullivan (Allan Corduner) longs to write serious opera and chafes at another of Gilbert's topsy-turvy plots, while Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) refuses to abandon the winning formula. The deadlock breaks almost by accident, when a Japanese exhibition in Knightsbridge hands Gilbert the idea for The Mikado. From there Leigh skips the glory and shows the grind: rehearsals, prima-donna tantrums, stage fright, songs cut for time. Timothy Spall and Lesley Manville round out the company.
For Leigh, usually the chronicler of ordinary modern British lives, this was an unlikely costume picture — and it became a detailed, wry, genuinely warm look at the craft behind Victorian theater. It won Oscars for costume design and makeup. A long, unhurried film for anyone who loves watching the camera linger backstage. Stream Topsy-Turvy (1999) online on iFILM.
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