This film is magnificently reflective of the Late Victorian Era in England. I may never have seen it better recreated, but at least there are competitors. I'm going to concentrate, therefore, on what makes this film so special to a movie-lover who also loves all kinds of classical music, but most especially Opera. There have been untold numbers of what might be called "backstage" films, and many of them work quite well - think of ALL ABOUT EVE, THE GREAT CARUSO and SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, (even CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA works well!), but counting this film, I now know of only three that quite literally give you the smell, the aroma, and the excitement of backstage anywhere in the performing arts. The greatest of these is probably THE RED SHOES. I am not a ballet fan (although I love the music), but I recall the first time I saw this wonderful film, at about 18 or so years of age, and I thought that, had I seen it at a particular time in my development, I might have become quite a ballet fan and developed interests in that line. I didn't, but every time I see the film I feel like I am part of a great ballet company and am watching the premier artists of that art, including choreographers, directors, musicians, etc. It reeks of atmosphere. The second of these films, one which had an immense effect on my subsequent life, may surprise the reader. It was the 1943 Claude Rains version of THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. I was only 8 when I first saw it, but I started loving Opera and everything having to do with Opera at that time, although I didn't become fully appreciative of the singing aspects of Opera until THE GREAT CARUSO came along. But that film has, again, the smell and aroma of a great opera company, and the most fantastic backstage sets I've ever seen in a film on Opera. It also has the most wonderful 'overnight sensation discovery' scene of any film I've ever seen, ten times better than Warner Baxter telling Ruby Keeler that she was going to go out on that stage and come back a star. Okay, now we come to Gilbert and Sullivan. An excellent film of their relationship was made in the early 1950s, with Maurice Evans and Robert Morley as the composer and his librettist. But although it was an excellent film, and peopled with star singers from the then current D'Oyle Carte Company, it did not draw me into it, nor give me an immediate love for G&S. That had to wait 7 or 8 years, and came through the medium of recordings. But if I had seen THIS film back then, my adventures along the G&S trail would have commenced at that moment. There is hardly anything covered in this film that I didn't already know to a large extent, yet I sat there mesmerized by it throughout, most especially by Gilbert's direction of the singers in the THE MIKADO. The characters of the two men are beautifully drawn, but perhaps the film had come along (in 1999) too late to appeal to young people whose musical senses these days are usually pummeled into submission by rock and roll, heavy metal, hip-hop and what have you by the time they start school. The picture, from beginning to end, is a thing of absolute beauty. Amazingly, all the actors seem to be doing their own singing and they do very well at it, although that superb actor Timothy Spall, who plays Richard Temple, does not sound like a baritone who had also sung Verdi and Mozart. But it's good enough, and his reaction to having his big solo number cut is almost truly tragic in scale, that's how great an actor he is. My only complaint: This is a film that I would love kids to see, just to find out if the music heard might have any hold on them, but near the beginning of the film we see Sullivan in what I assume is a brothel, with some nude women seeming to make out with each other. The scene is somewhat superfluous, if not gratuitous, but it is enough to deny the film the rating that would let unaccompanied-by-an-adult children in to see it, and that is unfortunate. (As I said, I saw PHANTOM OF THE OPERA at 8, and went to see it all by myself!) Other than that, though, an absolute masterpiece! Bravo, Mike Leigh.