Mike Leigh movies, much like the works of Yasujiro Ozu or Jim Jarmusch, have an incredibly insightful yet casual quality in their observations of everyday life. So it's interesting that much like with his 2014 work Mr. Turner, Leigh departs from his norm of chronicling exclusively run-of-the-mill souls for his 1999 feature Topsy-Turvy. This particular film explores the lives of artistic duo Gilbert & Sullivan, a far cry from the ordinary individuals who were in the spotlight of other Leigh endeavors like Happy-Go-Lucky or Another Year. As ever, though, Leigh maintains his gift for capturing naturalistic behavior as well as the engaging nature of his other projects.
Picking up in January 1884, Topsy-Turvy begins with W.S. Gilbert (Jim Broadbent) and Sir Arthur Sullivan (Allan Corduner) at a crossroads. The sickly Sullivan is more aware than ever of how finite his time as a human being is and he doesn't want to spend any more of it writing what he dubs to be disposable operas. Gilbert is appalled by this and refuses to compromise on lending what Sullivan perceives as depth to his newest creation. However, a trip to an exhibition of Japanese culture provides Gilbert with the spark of inspiration that leads him to develop a script for a show Sullivan is passionate about working on. It's a little program called The Mikado.
Though Gilbert and Sullivan are our lead characters for Topsy-Turvy, Leigh's script bounces around to explore the perspectives of other people closely tied to their artistic endeavors. Actor Richard Temple (Timothy Spall) or single mother & performer Leonora Braham (Shirley Henderson) are just two of the many figures Topsy-Turvy gives ample time to fleshing out. Through their eyes, we can see the importance of Gilbert and Sullivan's shows, both as a means of putting a roof over one's head and especially of understanding how artistically fulfilling these endeavors can be. The innately intimate gaze of Leigh's work really gets to the heart of why staged theatre can be so important.
That's not the only area where Leigh's style of filmmaking benefits this particular story. His gradual pacing is put to great use in Topsy-Turvy as a way to allow the audience to get a realistic view of how a play comes together. It isn't barrelled through in a montage, it slowly but surely comes together like a challenging jigsaw puzzle. This means Leigh lingers on realistically realized scenes like Gilbert overseeing a rehearsal of three actors that has to keep stopping and starting due to the slightest line flubs. As someone who's been in plays, I was giggling at just how accurate this segment was, ditto the rest of Topsy-Turvy's depiction of all the tasks needed to bring one of these projects into the world.
These glimpses into the behind-the-scenes process are captured through camerawork from Leigh and cinematographer Dick Pope that occasionally take on a voyeuristic quality as if they're replicating the sensation that we're in the same room as these people, listening in on their conversations. A great example of this is a small scene where Temple is talking to another actor, an exchange captured through a single-take framed through a doorway. With no other camera movements and the shot framed to suggest it's at the eye-level of a person, Topsy-Turvy quietly immerses the viewer in its thoughtful depiction of period-era theatrics.
This kind of detailed camerawork extends throughout the rest of the film, as does a gaggle of talented performances from a stacked ensemble cast. Spall is, per usual, exemplary, and watching him in so many different Leigh movies over the last few months has really opened my eyes to how versatile he is as an actor. Henderson also impresses with her supporting work but it was Allan Corduner who most fascinated me. Lending Sullivan a constant thirst for the artistic wonders of the world yet also conveying his similarly persistent awareness of his own mortality, Corduner pulls off an impressing balancing act with this performance. His quiet but no less powerful depiction of Sullivan's emotions after the first performance of The Mikado is especially exemplary.
In my experience, any movie directed by Mike Leigh is bound to be worth something, but Topsy-Turvy is an especially impressive effort from this filmmaker. Expanding his horizons a bit (in terms of chronicling famous figures from history), Leigh still delivers something that exemplifies his very best traits as an artist.
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