Mr. Turner
2014 film by Mike Leigh From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2014 film by Mike Leigh From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mr. Turner is a 2014 biographical drama film based on the last 25 years of the life of artist J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851). Written and directed by Mike Leigh, the film stars Timothy Spall in the title role, with Dorothy Atkinson, Paul Jesson, Marion Bailey, Lesley Manville, and Martin Savage.Describing Turner as "a great artist: a radical, revolutionary painter", writer/director Leigh explained, "I felt there was scope for a film examining the tension between this very mortal, flawed individual, and the epic work, the spiritual way he had of distilling the world".[6]
| Mr. Turner | |
|---|---|
Theatrical film poster | |
| Directed by | Mike Leigh |
| Written by | Mike Leigh |
| Produced by | Georgina Lowe |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Dick Pope |
| Edited by | Jon Gregory |
| Music by | Gary Yershon |
Production companies |
|
| Distributed by | Entertainment One Films[1] (United Kingdom) Diaphana Films (France) Prokino Filmverleih (Germany) |
Release dates | |
Running time | 150 minutes[3] |
| Countries |
|
| Language | English |
| Budget | $14 million[4] |
| Box office | $25.2 million[5][4] |
It premiered in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival,[7] where Spall won the award for Best Actor[8] and Dick Pope received a special jury prize for the film's cinematography.[9] The film was critically acclaimed and received four nominations each at the 87th Academy Awards and 68th British Academy Film Awards. Its soundtrack, by Gary Yerson, was also nominated for multiple awards.
Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by his housekeeper, Hannah Danby, whom he takes for granted and occasionally uses sexually, painter J. M. W. Turner forms a close and loving relationship with a seaside landlady, Mrs. Booth, with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea.
Turner travels, paints, stays with the country aristocracy, visits a brothel, is a popular if anarchic member of the Royal Academy of Arts, has himself strapped to the mast of a ship so that he can paint a snowstorm, and is both celebrated and reviled by the public and by royalty.[10]
The story recreates the memorable occasion during the Royal Academy salon of 1832 when Turner's seascape Helvoetsluys was placed next to Constable's The Opening of Waterloo Bridge seen from Whitehall. Seeing how the muted tones of his own painting paled next to Constable's vibrant work, in a quick stroke Turner adds a smear of red paint representing a buoy. Recognising Turner's genius, Constable says, "He's been here and fired a gun."
The original screenplay was written by Mike Leigh with research by historian Jacqueline Riding. Mr. Turner was filmed in several locations around the UK. Margate was not used to represent Turner's Margate, which was filmed at Kingsand in Cornwall. The production visited Kent to shoot a couple of scenes. Wentworth Woodhouse in Rotherham stood in for the Royal Academy in London, with the production crew meticulously recreating the way the paintings of the era were displayed. HMS Gannet in the Historic Dockyard Chatham was used in the scene where Turner has himself strapped to the mast of a sailing ship during a storm. Stangate Creek doubled as the Thames when Turner and his friends are rowed along the Thames and discuss HMS Victory, then toast HMS Temeraire.[13]
Mr. Turner had its premiere at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival,[14] where it competed for the Palme d'Or, with Spall winning Best Actor and Dick Pope winning the Vulcan Award. Entertainment One released the film in the United Kingdom on 31 December 2014. Sony Pictures Classics handled the United States distribution, with a release date of 19 December 2014. It was screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.[15]
The film was leaked by the hacker group "Guardians of Peace" onto peer-to-peer file-sharing websites on 27 November 2014, more than three weeks ahead of its intended U.S. theatrical release, as part of the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack. Along with it came Fury and three other then unreleased Sony Pictures films (Annie, Still Alice and To Write Love on Her Arms).[16] Within three days of the initial leak, an estimated 63,379 unique IPs had downloaded Mr. Turner.[16]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 97% based on 196 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Led by a masterful performance from Timothy Spall and brilliantly directed by Mike Leigh, Mr. Turner is a superior Hollywood biopic."[17] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 94 out of 100 based on 44 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[18]
Critic Katie Kilkenny of The Atlantic called it "a gorgeous, important film".[19] Observer critic Mark Kermode described the film as a "portrait of a man wrestling light with his hands as if it were a physical element: tangible, malleable, corporeal".[20] Slate reviewer Dana Stevens wrote, "Writing about Mr. Turner a few weeks after seeing it, I feel a craving to be again immersed in its world, which is rich with colors, textures, and, it sometimes almost seems, smells".[21]
The consonance between the film and its subject was addressed by Sir Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate Galleries in England: “Mike Leigh and Timothy Spall’s great achievement is showing us how the artist approached the physical business of painting. But they also convey the spirit of a man whose reputation as a curmudgeon is unwarranted, given his passionate interest in people and the world around him. There is a great humanitarian streak in Turner and Mike Leigh has found a way of capturing this on film, as he has done so often before.”[22]
Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave the film three and a half out of four, writing that like Leigh's 1999 film Topsy-Turvy, about the creation of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado, "[Mr. Turner] understands creative people on every conceivable level, and translates that understanding with a deftness rarely seen outside of astute documentaries about creative people. To watch it is to feel as though you're a part of its world... experiencing tiny fluctuations in received wisdom and sudden changes of artistic direction that can only be sensed by professionals who are plugged into their art form, and completely in command of their talents."[23]
| List of awards and nominations | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Award / Film Festival | Category | Recipient(s) | Result |
| 87th Academy Awards[24] | Best Cinematography | Dick Pope | Nominated |
| Best Costume Design | Jacqueline Durran | Nominated | |
| Best Original Score | Gary Yershon | Nominated | |
| Best Production Design | Suzie Davies, Charlotte Watts | Nominated | |
| 29th ASC Awards[25] | Theatrical Motion Picture | Dick Pope | Nominated |
| 23rd Britannia Awards[26] | Excellence in Directing | Mike Leigh | Won |
| 68th British Academy Film Awards[27] | Best Cinematography | Dick Pope | Nominated |
| Best Production Design | Suzie Davies, Charlotte Watts | Nominated | |
| Best Costume Design | Jacqueline Durran | Nominated | |
| Best Makeup & Hair | Christine Blundell, Lesa Warrener | Nominated | |
| 17th British Independent Film Awards[28] | Best British Independent Film | Mr. Turner | Nominated |
| Best Director | Mike Leigh | Nominated | |
| Best Actor | Timothy Spall | Nominated | |
| Best Supporting Actress | Dorothy Atkinson | Nominated | |
| Best Technical Achievement | Dick Pope | Nominated | |
| 67th Cannes Film Festival[29] | Best Actor | Timothy Spall | Won |
| Vulcan Award | Dick Pope | Won | |
| Palme d'Or | Mike Leigh | Nominated | |
| 34th Hawaii International Film Festival[30] | EuroCinema Hawai'i Award for Best Film | Mr. Turner | Won |
| 35th London Film Critics' Circle Awards[31] | Film of the Year | Mr. Turner | Nominated |
| British Film of the Year | Mr. Turner | Nominated | |
| Actor of the Year | Timothy Spall | Nominated | |
| Supporting Actress of the Year | Marion Bailey | Nominated | |
| British Actor of the Year | Timothy Spall | Won | |
| Director of the Year | Mike Leigh | Nominated | |
| Technical Achievement Award | Dick Pope | Nominated | |
| 86th National Board of Review Awards[32] | Top 10 Independent Films | Mr. Turner | Won |
| 49th National Society of Film Critics Awards[33] | Best Actor | Timothy Spall | Won |
| 80th New York Film Critics Circle Awards[34] | Best Actor | Timothy Spall | Won |
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