558 - Topsy-Turvy (1999)
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In our first break from format we\\u2019re following up last week\\u2019s movie - The Mikado (1939) - with a film exploring the men behind that comic opera: Gilbert and Sullivan. At first, Mike Leigh\\u2019s historical drama does some work to explain the circumstances that led to setting The Mikado in imperial Japan, and the second seeks to humanize that choice my exploring the efforts and daily dramas of the entire production leading up to its premiere in 1885. Does Topsy-Turvy\\xa0justify The Mikado for a post-modern audience or does it lay bare the problematic choices of a culture incapable of finding issue in the infantilization of an entire civilization? Don\\u2019t worry, we totally figured it out.\\xa0
If you\\u2019d like to watch ahead for next week\\u2019s film, we will be reviewing and discussing Alfred Hitchcock\\u2019s\\xa0Spellbound (1945).
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