Topsy-Turvy
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Topsy-Turvy
''Topsy-Turvy'' is a 1999 British musical period drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh, starring Allan Corduner as Sir Arthur Sullivan and Jim Broadbent as W.S. Gilbert, along with Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville and Ron Cook. The story concerns the 15-month period in 1884 and 1885 leading up to the premiere of Gilbert and Sullivan's ''The Mikado''. The film focuses on the creative conflict between playwright and composer, and their decision to continue their partnership, which led to their creation of several more Savoy operas. The film received very favourable reviews, film festival awards and two Academy Awards for design. While it is considered an artistic success as an in-depth illustration of British life in the theatre during the Victorian era, the film did not recover its production costs. Leigh cast actors who did their own singing in the film, and the singing performances were faulted by some critics, while others lauded Leigh's strategy. Plot On the opening n ...
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Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English film and theatre director, screenwriter and playwright. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and further at the Camberwell School of Art, the Central School of Art and Design and the London School of Film Technique. He began his career as a theatre director and playwright in the mid-1960s, before transitioning to making televised plays and films for BBC Television in the 1970s and '80s. Leigh is known for his lengthy rehearsal and improvisation techniques with actors to build characters and narrative for his films. His purpose is to capture reality and present "emotional, subjective, intuitive, instinctive, vulnerable films." His films and stage plays, according to critic Michael Coveney, "comprise a distinctive, homogenous body of work which stands comparison with anyone's in the British theatre and cinema over the same period." Leigh's most notable works include the black comedy-drama ''Naked'' (1993), for ...
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Allan Corduner
Allan Corduner (; born 2 April 1950) is a British actor. Born in Stockholm to a German mother and a Russo-Finnish father, Corduner grew up in a secular Jewish home in London. After earning a BA (Hons) in English and Drama at Bristol University he trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He has worked extensively on stage, TV, and film, both in the UK and in the United States. His voice is familiar from many BBC radio plays, audio books and TV documentaries. Corduner made his feature film debut in '' Yentl'', with Barbra Streisand and Mandy Patinkin. Of his 44 films he is perhaps best known for his portrayal of Sir Arthur Sullivan in Mike Leigh's ''Topsy-Turvy''. He also voiced Gehrman the first hunter in the 2015 video game ''Bloodborne''. Early life Corduner grew up in a secular Jewish home in North London with his parents and younger brother. His mother had escaped to Great Britain from Nazi Germany with her family in 1938. His father was born in Helsinki, Finland, ...
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Timothy Spall
Timothy Leonard Spall (born 27 February 1957) is an English actor and presenter. He became a household name in the UK after appearing as Barry Spencer Taylor in the 1983 ITV comedy-drama series ''Auf Wiedersehen, Pet''. Spall performed in '' Secrets & Lies'' (1996), and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Subsequently, he starred in many films, including ''Hamlet'' (1996), ''Still Crazy'' (1998), ''Nicholas Nickleby'' (2002), ''The Last Samurai'' (2003), '' Enchanted'' (2007), '' Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street'' (2007), ''The Damned United'' (2009), ''The King's Speech'' (2010), ''Ginger and Rosa'' (2012), ''Denial'' (2016), and '' The Party'' (2017). He voiced Nick, a cynical, portly rat in ''Chicken Run'' (2000). He played Peter Pettigrew in five ''Harry Potter'' films, from ''Prisoner of Azkaban'' (2004) to '' Deathly Hallows – Part 1'' (2010). Spall has collaborated with director Mike Leigh, making six films together: ''Hom ...
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Lesley Manville
Lesley Ann Manville (born 12 March 1956) is an English actress known for her frequent collaborations with Mike Leigh, appearing in the films ''Grown-Ups'' (1980), '' High Hopes'' (1988), '' Secrets & Lies'' (1996), ''Topsy-Turvy'' (1999), '' All or Nothing'' (2002), ''Vera Drake'' (2004), '' Another Year'' (2010), and ''Mr. Turner'' (2014). She has been nominated for two British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in ''Another Year'' (2010) and ''Phantom Thread'' (2017); with the latter earning her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Manville has also appeared in the films '' Dance with a Stranger'' (1985), '' A Christmas Carol'' (2009), ''Maleficent'' (2014), '' Maleficent: Mistress of Evil'' (2019), ''Let Him Go'' (2020), and '' Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris'' (2022), as well as the television series ''Emmerdale'' (1974–1976), '' Cranford'' (2007), '' Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond'' (2014), ''River'' (2015), and '' Mum ...
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56th Venice International Film Festival
The 56th annual Venice International Film Festival was held between 1 and 11 September 1999. The Golden Lion was awarded to '' Yi ge dou bu neng shao'' directed by Zhang Yimou. Jury The following people comprised the 1999 jury: * Emir Kusturica (FR Yugoslavia) (head of jury) * Marco Bellocchio (Italy) * Maggie Cheung (Hong Kong) * Jonathan Coe (UK) (critic) * Jean Douchet (France) (critic) * Shôzô Ichiyama (Japan) * Arturo Ripstein (Mexico) * Cindy Sherman (USA) * Erick Zonca (France) (short films) (head of jury) * Hilke Doering (festival curator) (short films) * Andrea Occhipinti (Italy) (short films) Official selection In competition Autonomous sections Venice International Film Critics' Week The following feature films were selected to be screened as ''In Competition'' for this section: * '' A Texas Funeral'' by William Blake Herron (United States, United Kingdom) * ''Franck Spadone'' by Richard Bean (France) * ''Getting To Know You'' by Lisanne Skyler (United States) * ...
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Jim Broadbent
James Broadbent (born 24 May 1949) is an English actor. He won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for his supporting role as John Bayley in the feature film ''Iris'' (2001), as well as winning a BAFTA TV Award and a Golden Globe for his leading role as Lord Longford in the television film ''Longford'' (2006). Broadbent received four BAFTA Film Award nominations and won for his performance in ''Moulin Rouge!'' (2001). He was also nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards. A graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1972, Broadbent first came to prominence in the 1980s, chiefly appearing in television comedy including playing Roy Slater in the BBC sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses''. He appeared in the Terry Gilliam films ''Time Bandits'' (1981) and ''Brazil'' (1985) before a breakthrough role in Mike Leigh's independent comedy drama '' Life Is Sweet'' (1990). His notable film roles since include ''The Borrowers'' (1997), ...
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Ron Cook
Ronald G. Cook (born 1948) is an English actor. He has been active in film, television and theatre since the 1970s. Early and personal life Cook was born in 1948 in South Shields, County Durham, England, the son of a school cook and a car worker. When he was six his family moved to Coventry; he went to Wyken Croft Junior School and then Caludon Castle School and is a graduate of Rose Bruford College. Career On stage, he appeared in the original 1988 production of Timberlake Wertenbaker's play ''Our Country's Good''. He was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award in the category of Best Supporting Actor in 2000 for his role in '' Juno and the Paycock'' at the Donmar Warehouse. He also appeared in a new play by Conor McPherson, '' The Seafarer'', at the Royal National Theatre. In 2008–2009, he took part in the Donmar's West End season at Wyndham's Theatre, playing Sir Toby Belch in ''Twelfth Night'' and Polonius in ''Hamlet''. In 2011, he played The Fool in ''King Lear'' st ...
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Arthur Sullivan
Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (13 May 1842 – 22 November 1900) was an English composer. He is best known for 14 comic opera, operatic Gilbert and Sullivan, collaborations with the dramatist W. S. Gilbert, including ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', ''The Pirates of Penzance'' and ''The Mikado''. His works include 24 operas, 11 major orchestral works, ten choral works and oratorios, two ballets, incidental music to several plays, and numerous church pieces, songs, and piano and chamber pieces. His hymns and songs include "Onward, Christian Soldiers" and "The Lost Chord". The son of a military bandmaster, Sullivan composed his first anthem at the age of eight and was later a soloist in the boys' choir of the Chapel Royal. In 1856, at 14, he was awarded the first Mendelssohn Scholarship by the Royal Academy of Music, which allowed him to study at the academy and then at the Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre, Leipzig Conservatoire in Germany. His graduation piece, inc ...
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The Mikado
''The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu'' is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, their ninth of fourteen Gilbert and Sullivan, operatic collaborations. It opened on 14 March 1885, in London, where it ran at the Savoy Theatre for 672 performances, the second-longest run for any work of musical theatre and one of the longest runs of any theatre piece up to that time.The longest-running piece of musical theatre was the operetta ''Les Cloches de Corneville'', which held the title until ''Dorothy (opera), Dorothy'' opened in 1886, which pushed ''The Mikado'' down to third place. By the end of 1885, it was estimated that, in Europe and America, at least 150 companies were producing the opera.H. L. Mencken, Mencken, H. L.]Article on ''The Mikado'', ''Baltimore Evening Sun'', 29 November 1910 ''The Mikado'' is the most internationally successful Savoy opera and has been especially popular with amateur and school productions. The work has ...
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Gilbert And Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan was a Victorian era, Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the dramatist W. S. Gilbert (1836–1911) and the composer Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900), who jointly created fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which ''H.M.S. Pinafore'', ''The Pirates of Penzance'' and ''The Mikado'' are among the best known.Davis, Peter G''Smooth Sailing'' ''New York'' magazine, 21 January 2002, accessed 6 November 2007 Gilbert, who wrote the libretti for these operas, created fanciful "topsy-turvy" worlds where each absurdity is taken to its logical conclusion; fairies rub elbows with British lords, flirting is a capital offence, gondoliers ascend to the monarchy, and pirates emerge as noblemen who have gone astray.Mike Leigh, Leigh, Mike"True anarchists" ''The Guardian'', 4 November 2007, accessed 6 November 2007 Sullivan, six years Gilbert's junior, composed the music, contributing memorable melodies that could convey both humour and pathos. Their operas have enj ...
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Princess Ida
''Princess Ida; or, Castle Adamant'' is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It was their eighth operatic collaboration of fourteen. ''Princess Ida'' opened at the Savoy Theatre on 5 January 1884, for a run of 246 performances. The piece concerns a princess who founds a women's university and teaches that women are superior to men and should rule in their stead. The prince to whom she had been married in infancy sneaks into the university, together with two friends, with the aim of collecting his bride. They disguise themselves as women students, but are discovered, and all soon face a literal war between the sexes. The opera satirizes feminism, women's college, women's education and Charles Darwin, Darwinian evolution, which were controversial topics in conservative Victorian era, Victorian England. ''Princess Ida'' is based on a narrative poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson called ''The Princess (Tennyson poem), The Princess'' (1847), and Gilb ...
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Simon Channing Williams
Simon Channing Williams (10 June 1945 – 11 April 2009) was a British film producer. After having worked as a production assistant and producer of TV films and TV series in the 1970s and early 1980s, he and Mike Leigh formed the film production company Thin Man Films in 1988.Duedil: Thin Man Films Limited
Linked 2013-05-27
This company has produced all of Mike Leigh's films since then, among them the double Oscar-winning '''', the Oscar-nominated '''' and the Palme d'Or-winning ''
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