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IMDbPro

Mr. Turner

  • 20142014
  • RR
  • 2h 30m
IMDb RATING
6.8/10
26K
YOUR RATING
Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner (2014)
Mr. Turner explores the last quarter century of the great if eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851). Profoundly affected by the death of his father, loved by a housekeeper he takes for granted and occasionally exploits sexually, he forms a close relationship with a seaside landlady with whom he eventually lives incognito in Chelsea, where he dies. Throughout this, he travels, paints, stays with the country aristocracy, visits brothels, 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.
Play trailer2:12
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BiographyDramaHistory
An exploration of the last quarter century of the great, if eccentric, British painter J.M.W. Turner's life.An exploration of the last quarter century of the great, if eccentric, British painter J.M.W. Turner's life.An exploration of the last quarter century of the great, if eccentric, British painter J.M.W. Turner's life.
IMDb RATING
6.8/10
26K
YOUR RATING
    • Mike Leigh
    • Mike Leigh
  • Stars
    • Timothy Spall
    • Paul Jesson
    • Dorothy Atkinson
    • Mike Leigh
    • Mike Leigh
  • Stars
    • Timothy Spall
    • Paul Jesson
    • Dorothy Atkinson
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 200User reviews
    • 272Critic reviews
    • 94Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 4 Oscars

    Videos14

    Theatrical Trailer
    Trailer 2:12
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    Official Trailer
    Trailer 2:11
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    International Trailer
    Trailer 2:02
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    Mary Sommerville
    Clip 2:07
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    An Oar
    Clip 0:52
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    Clip
    Clip 1:46
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    Clip 1:12
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    Clip 1:06
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    Photos151

    Dorothy Atkinson, Paul Jesson, Ruth Sheen, Sandy Foster, and Amy Dawson in Mr. Turner (2014)
    Timothy Spall and Dorothy Atkinson in Mr. Turner (2014)
    Marion Bailey in Mr. Turner (2014)
    Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner (2014)
    Timothy Spall and Marion Bailey in Mr. Turner (2014)
    Paul Jesson in Mr. Turner (2014)
    Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner (2014)
    Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner (2014)
    Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner (2014)
    Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner (2014)
    Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner (2014)
    Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner (2014)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Timothy Spall
    Timothy Spall
    • JMW Turner
    Paul Jesson
    Paul Jesson
    • William Turner Snr
    Dorothy Atkinson
    Dorothy Atkinson
    • Hannah Danby
    Marion Bailey
    Marion Bailey
    • Sophia Booth
    Karl Johnson
    Karl Johnson
    • Mr Booth
    Ruth Sheen
    Ruth Sheen
    • Sarah Danby
    Sandy Foster
    Sandy Foster
    • Evelina
    Amy Dawson
    • Georgiana
    Lesley Manville
    Lesley Manville
    • Mary Somerville
    Martin Savage
    Martin Savage
    • Benjamin Robert Haydon
    Richard Bremmer
    Richard Bremmer
    • George Jones
    Niall Buggy
    Niall Buggy
    • John Carew
    Fred Pearson
    Fred Pearson
    • Sir William Beechey
    Tom Edden
    Tom Edden
    • CR Leslie
    Jamie Thomas King
    Jamie Thomas King
    • David Roberts
    Mark Stanley
    Mark Stanley
    • Clarkson Stanfield
    Nicholas Jones
    Nicholas Jones
    • Sir John Soane
    Clive Francis
    Clive Francis
    • Sir Martin Archer Shee
      • Mike Leigh
      • Mike Leigh
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

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    • Trivia
      At the request of Mike Leigh, Timothy Spall spent almost two years learning how to paint in preparation for his role.
    • Goofs
      In one of the first outdoor scenes of a street, two extras dressed in period costume can be seen stepping over a very modern looking BT manhole cover in the pavement.
    • Quotes

      [last lines]

      J.M.W. Turner: The sun is God! Ha ha ha!

    • Connections
      Featured in The Graham Norton Show: Benedict Cumberbatch/Miranda Hart/Timothy Spall/Maroon 5 (2014)
    • Soundtracks
      Dido's Lament
      from opera "Dido and Aenas"

      Composed by Henry Purcell

      Libretto by Nahum Tate

      (1689)

      Sung by Timothy Spall

      [Turner sings]

    User reviews200

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    8/10
    The Sun is God
    Mike Leigh is perhaps best-known for his serio-comic social-realist dramas about contemporary British life, films like "Abigail's Party" and "Life Is Sweet", but he also seems to be developing a sideline in biographies of nineteenth-century cultural figures. First there was "Topsy-Turvy" about Gilbert and Sullivan, and now we have "Mr. Turner" about the life and career of the artist J. M. W. Turner. Or rather about the latter part of his life and career; when we first meet him he is already middle-aged.

    Leigh has described Turner as "a great artist: a radical, revolutionary painter," and this is undoubtedly true; Turner's work, especially his later work, seems to prefigure Impressionism, perhaps at times even abstract Modernism. We must not, however, allow our appreciation of the progressive side of Turner's work to degenerate into that lazy cliché about the great artist starving in a garret, scorned or neglected by his contemporaries but later discovered by a grateful posterity. (Very few great artists, except perhaps Van Gogh, have ever conformed to this stereotype). He was greatly admired by his contemporaries, was praised in the highest terms by many critics, especially Ruskin, became a full Royal Academician while still in his twenties, never lacked for patrons and died a wealthy man. By contrast his great contemporary and rival, John Constable, whose art seems much less radical to our eyes, had a much harder struggle to establish himself.

    Leigh's purpose in making the film was to "examine the tension between this very mortal, flawed individual, and the epic work, the spiritual way he had of distilling the world." This tension is something very obvious in the film. Turner, especially in later life, was noted for his eccentricity. Unlike many working-class Georgians and Victorians who rose in the world, he never attempted to hide his humble origins. He was untidy, had no social graces and could be rude and tactless. He never married but had a number of mistresses. He was estranged from the first of these, Sarah Danby, and refused to acknowledge his two illegitimate daughters by her. (Sarah appears in the film as do two other mistresses, Hannah Danby Sarah's niece and Turner's housekeeper and Sophia Booth, a seaside landlady).

    And yet this uncouth, boorish-seeming man was an artist not only of genius but also of a deep spirituality. His obsession with accurately recording light and atmospheric conditions- he once had himself strapped to the mast of a ship so that he could paint a snowstorm- was born not only of a concern with fidelity to nature but also of a belief that light was a visible manifestation of the Divine. (His last words are said to have been "The sun is God").

    How, then, could any actor hope to play so contradictory an individual? The answer to this question comes from Timothy Spall, one of Leigh's favourite actors. Spall is someone I have normally thought of as a "character actor", but here he gets the chance to prove himself as a leading man and makes the most of it. His Turner is a grumpy old man, and in his dealings with women something of a dirty old man as well, forever grunting and spitting and forever speaking in a sort of Cockney whine, and yet we are never allowed to forget that underneath his unpromising exterior he is a sublime artist. This is probably the finest performance I have seen Spall give; it won him "Best Actor" at the Cannes Film Festival and I hope that the Academy will bear him in mind when it comes to next year's Oscars. There is insufficient space to single out all the deserving supporting performances, although I should mention Martin Savage as Turner's friend and fellow-painter Benjamin Haydon, forever trying to borrow money off him, Paul Jesson as Turner's father, to whom he was very close, and Joshua McGuire in a comic turn as an effeminate, lisping Ruskin, very different to the way Greg Wise portrayed him in the recent "Effie Gray".

    The other outstanding feature of the film is its visual beauty. Leigh and his cinematographer Dick Pope were clearly aiming to make it one of those films where every shot looks like a painting in its own right, and certainly succeed in this ambition. Some cinematic biographies of great artists, such as "Girl with a Pearl Earring" about Vermeer, do succeed in capturing the distinctive "look" of their subject, but I think that Leigh and Pope were not actually aiming to make every shot look like a Turner; their palette of colours, for example, is rather too muted for that. Possibly they felt that the peculiar luminosity of Turner's work would be too difficult to reproduce on film. There are, however, some memorable shots, such as the opening scene by the river in Holland, complete with windmill, and the one where Turner watches "the fighting Temeraire" being towed up the Thames, thereby getting the inspiration for one of his best-known works.

    I am not sure if "Mr Turner" quite justifies the label "masterpiece" which some have tried to pin on it; it can at times be too slow-moving for that. Spall's wonderful acting, however, and Pope's striking cinematography make it a film that stands out from the crowd. 8/10
    helpful•62
    7
    • JamesHitchcock
    • Nov 14, 2014

    FAQ4

    • When is this film set?
    • Why does that man run out after the "Pretty Kitty" song?
    • What was wrong with madam'selle?

    Details

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    • Release date
      • October 31, 2014 (United Kingdom)
      • United Kingdom
      • France
      • Germany
      • United States
      • Official Facebook
      • Official site (Japan)
      • English
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Kingsand, Cornwall, England, UK
    • Production companies
      • Amusement Park Films
      • British Film Institute (BFI)
      • Canal+
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 2 hours 30 minutes
      • Color
      • Dolby Digital

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