Product Details

• Actors: Allan Corduner, Jim Broadbent
• Directors: Mike Leigh
• Format: Full Screen, NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Run Time: 161 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (152 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000PCXB18
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #160,501 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

See what critics and theater audiences are raving about in the most talked-about and critically acclaimed film of the year - Topsy-Turvy! Winner of two Academy Awards, this delightful film, filled with great music and outstanding performances, was chosen by 23 film critics as one of their Top 10 Films of 1999! Tensions abound and the music swells in the story about the famous musical team of Gilbert and Sullivan. The two men, who were extremely different in size and stature, were even more different in temperament and style. Yet, they still managed to create memorable theater. This is the story of the making of one of their most famous collaborations, The Mikado.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best biopic ever! Not just for Gilbert & Sullivan fans!, November 8, 2002

By 

bensmomma "bensmomma" (Ann Arbor, Michigan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Topsy-Turvy (DVD)

Topsy-Turvy is the story of the creation of the Gilbert & Sullivan operetta, "The Mikado." It contains not just the story of the musical's creation but many scenes from Mikado and other G&S musicals. Long-time "G&S" (Gilbert & Sullivan) fans probably found this movie a long time ago. I am one of them, so first I'll say that I found the performance of the G&S material in this movie absolutely superb. I've never seen a Mikado as genuinely funning and eccentric as Tim Sprall's, or a Yum-Yum as winsomely self-centered as Shirley Hendersen's Leonora Branham.

Viewers who find musicals simplistic or shallow or generally silly should make an exception in the case of Topsy-Turvy. It is none of those things. In true Mike Leigh fashion, the actors inhabit their characters like second skin. No one is simple or shallow. Nor does Leigh avoid the seamier side of London theatrical life. I particularly liked Jim Broadbent's bitterly comic and misanthropic Gilbert, Martin Savage as the opium-addicted George Grossmith (the 'patter baritone' who rips through Gilbert's rapidfire lyrics like a rap song), and Lucy Manville as Gilbert's long-suffering wife.

Finally, the film is visually beautiful and detailed; wonderful costumes, lighting, and sets that seem faultless in their historical detail.

One of the best, if not the best, bio-pic ever made.

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An improbably great film from an unexpected source, November 23, 2003

By 

Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Topsy-Turvy (DVD)

This delightful retelling of the creation of the Gilbert and Sullivan masterpiece THE MIKADO is as improbable a product from the hands of Mike Leigh as a Hollywood shoot-'em-up would have been from Jane Campion. Leigh had made his reputation by crafting some amazingly intimate films about human relationships in films like the astonishing SECRETS AND LIES (which features in Brenda Blethyn one of the two or three greatest performances ever by an actress in any film). The idea of doing a historical recreation of Gilbert and Sullivan is not one that easily attaches itself to Leigh. Nonetheless, this film is in every sense masterful and entertaining.

With a director of the ability of Mike Leigh, it is no surprise that the film is superb as a production. Everything is superb about the film. The art direction and set design is extraordinary, and I can't imagine a historical film more compellingly done than this one. Moreover, the musical numbers are exquisitely done, and always convincing.

In the end, however, as superb as the direction and the design are, what drives this movie are the performers. This is a very fine ensemble cast, many of them Mike Leigh regulars, like the very fine Timothy Sprall, who winningly plays Richard Temple. Jim Broadbent has since the release of TOPSY-TURVY managed to establish himself as a superstar character actor through films like MOULIN ROUGE, NICHOLAS NICKLEBY, and IRIS (for which he won an Oscar). I always marvel at his range and his ability to sell any role. He is stellar here as the Stoic and emotionally conservative W. S. Gilbert. I really enjoyed Shirley Henderson (who I recently saw in a great Danish/Scottish film WILBUR WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF, which I hope will get released in the United States) in her smallish role as a musical performer who is struggling with problems of addiction (like many others in the D'Oyly Carte company). The relatively unknown (at least in the U.S.) Martin Savage stands out as George Grossmith, the person who not only starred in the Gilbert and Sullivan musicals, but was the foremost musical stage performer of the late Victorian age, sort of London's answer to Mandy Patinkin a hundred years later. Grossmith also wrote a highly popular book with his brother Weedon, THE DIARY OF A NOBODY. I could go on and on about other performers who stood out in small but impressive roles, such as Lesley Manville, who has a heartbreaking scene as Gilbert's unfulfilled and quietly unhappy wife.

It has to be emphasized that this is not a movie only for fans of light opera. It really is irrelevant whether someone does or does not enjoy Gilbert and Sullivan. This is primarily a movie about people, about show business, and about how a group of flawed and merely human beings can collaborate in producing something phenomenal. This is not a niche film. It is a film to be enjoyed by anyone who enjoyed movies at their best.

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty. Entertaining. A Bit Challenging., April 17, 2002

By 

RWM "RWM" (Rural New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Topsy Turvy [VHS] (VHS Tape)

It took me two viewings to understand what was going on in the first half of the film -- a dark and confusing period in the lives of the two artists. On a second viewing the whole thing came together for me.

I found the rendering of the historical period to be splendid --as convincing as Rossellini's "Louis XIV".

The actual creation and staging of the Mikado (in the second half of the film) is likely to delight anyone familiar with the works of G&S -- or anyone who has ever struggled to put together an effective theatrical production. The poignant illnesses and psychic suffering of the Savoy actors -- as well as the suffering of G&S -- set one up for goosebumps when they soared triumphantly into song on opening night.

The language and witty word play in many scenes were like the first stages of a multi-stage rocket that ultimately hurled Gilbert's wonderfully silly and witty libretto into artistic orbit. (Forgive me. I am an intellectual chap.)