Mike Leigh and the "huge, crass mistake" in Topsy-Turvy
Vložit
- čas přidán 5. 03. 2021
- Leigh, Ibsen, Gilbert & Sullivan! At the 1999 Venice film festival Norwegian film journalist and former filmmaker Pål Bang-Hansen makes writer/director Mike Leigh aware of a historical blunder in his new film "Topsy-Turvy".
The capital of Norway was known as Christiania/Kristiania from 1624 to 1924 (changing back to Oslo from January 1, 1925). Therefore people living in the 1880's, like those in the film "Topsy-Turvy", would never have referred to the city as "Oslo".
Added fun fact: in Leigh's film "Vera Drake" (2004) the title character lives in 'Oslo street". During a interview at the Tromsø film festival (with Kalle Løchen) Leigh admitted that he gave Vera Drake's address as "Oslo street" to make up for his grave mistake in "Topsy-Turvy"! - Zábava
😮 I was expecting the mistake to be middling; eg, he didn't live in Oslo or he wasn't well-known yet. I did not expect that there was no Oslo!! lol. Well, Gilbert was the master of topsy-turvydom.
Amazing that he acknowledges that mistake but doesnt touch on the "sword falling from the wall" myth! Regardless, still one of my favorite films of all time!
Sadly being a nerd I spotted this but the film is such a treasure I forgave it, besides the film is not a documentary and makes no direct claims to historical accuracy - though of course it is essentially accurate in much that is presented.
Such a treasure indeed. It's like enrering a time machine. I find most other period movies so disapointing. They have actors dressed in period garment but behaving like modern people. The excuse is that they were ahead of their time.🙂
There are no mistakes in this film.
The film did also use music from The Grand Duke, which had not yet been written.
I seem to recall it also used music from The Gondoliers.
That's easy to fix. Just ask Jim Broadbent to redub this part, making sure we don't see him while he says this line.
It would have been ‘easy’ to fix if the production had enough budget to do so and if there was existing footage to cut away too. Leigh was not being disingenuous when he said he was angry at himself, if there had been opportunity to correct it, he would have
@@bigred8432 still think It would be easy to correct It. If there's no existing footage you can for exemple zoom in to cahange the angle or cut to another actor and slow down the speed while he says his line.
@@justaguy1451 Yes but someone has to pay for it.
@@bigred8432 How expensive could it be to fix a 3s audio? We live in a digital era and I'm sure Jim wouldn't charge anything to redub It.
@@justaguy1451 Whether or not Jim Broadbent would wave his fee or not, it means studio time (at best you send someone to wherever Mr Broadbent is with some digital equipment but you have to pay for that person and their time) a sound editor (the original individual tracks for the soundtrack may no longer exist, if there is no music under that portion of dialogue that saves a lot of issues but it would still have to be edited to match the sound of the existing dialogue. Not an overly complex process but a sound editor still needs to be paid for their time) a film editor (simple or complex, someone has to be paid to do it) and redistributing a new edit of a film to any platform that has it - that means an enormous amount of admin, the original distribution company are not going to foot the bill for it, so who pays the staffing cost of actually distributing a new edit. Making the change will not bring in any revenue but it will cost a lot more than you think it will. It's definition of something for nothing.
FANTASTIC!
for what it's worth this isn't really a big deal, if you watched the film without any knowledge of Norwegian history it doesn't really stand out (as a matter of fact I didn't notice it my 2nd or 3rd viewing). it would be a lot worse if leigh had included some songs from the "yeoman of the guard" (written three years after the mikado) or had grossmith and barrington discussing dracula (written in 1897), it's human nature mistakes do happen and it's one of those things!.
That's the kind of secret you take to the grave, Leigh.
But if he had said Kristiania nobody would know where it was. It wasn't actually a documentary however well researched.