Tipping the Velvet
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alexei Sayle, Anna Chancellor, Jodhi May, Keeley Hawes, Rachael StirlingBrand: Acorn
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 178 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-01-27
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Acorn Media
Movie Reviews of Tipping the Velvet
Movie Review: Rachel Stirling Offers Star Turn in Good BBC Victorian Soap Opera
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the little things to which we must all accommodate ourselves is the endlessly exasperating nuisance of being forced to watch and listen to the BBC proclaiming its virtues and products at the beginning of each show it issues on disk. Endless repetition, it seems, finally drove home the notion that a mini-series called "Tipping the Velvet" might possibly be worth a look.
I looked.
And I was impressed.
"Tipping the Velvet" is a successful bit of soft-core lesbian pornography cast in the form of a soap opera set in Victorian times. To any who would deny or debate the validity of that description, I advise that you turn to the featured joint-interview with the (female) author of the original book and the (male) author of the screenplay. Those two are in no doubt whatsoever about the point.
The story of "Tipping the Velvet" focuses on a small town girl who becomes infatuated with a stage performer working in male drag. The girl, Nan, falls deeply in love with her stage idol, joining her in a male drag double act, and a different kind of double act in private, only to receive a harsh kick in the emotional teeth. The stunned Nan quits the act, hits rock bottom hard in various ways, unexpectedly finds herself a warm and comfortable birth as the gilded girl-toy of an older, wealthier woman, and then manages to blow that gig. Rock bottom again. Pondering life at the bottom of the heap, Nan backs up, seeks out a young woman to whom she had been attracted before, worms her way into that woman's household, and before you can say Bob's your uncle, she's a socialist-oriented, proto-suffragette, making a comeback on the London stage and about to give the hairy eyeball to an offered reconciliation with her first lover.
Soap opera of the soapiest sort, of course, but skillfully done.
If that were all, I'd stop at this point, give "Tipping the Velvet" four slightly weak stars and move on. I am glad to say, however, that there is something more, specifically Rachel Stirling as Nan. If ever a star turn were captured on a DVD, Ms. Stirling's Nan is it. Just consider those scenes in which she is supposed to be a popular stage performer: she really can't sing and she doesn't move especially well--but I can't imagine that anyone would care, because you can't take your eyes away from her. Now, that's a star!
Stirling looks great, whether her boyish form is wrapped in plain country clothes, male drag of sundry types, completely starkers, or ninety percent undressed with ... ahem, attachments.
When she is at bottom and busily engaged in the grungiest of pursuits, she somehow contrives to be both winsome and--dare I say it?--adorable.
All through the three episodes of the series, I found myself thinking that there was something oddly familiar about this performer who was otherwise unknown to me. I was sufficiently puzzled to look her up on the Net. She turned out to be the daughter of that delightful actress [aka "actor" for those among you of strong PC persuasion], Diana Rigg. Of course! The resemblance, once perceived, is obvious, down to body language and facial expressions. I would even go so far as to say that she is Emma Peel's daughter more than Diana Rigg's.
(While looking up Ms. Stirling on the Net, I stumbled across an article that stated that the "boyfriend"--their term--of Ms. Stirling at the time of "Tipping the Velvet" had broken up with her because he could not stand the lesbian associations from her role in the series. On the off-chance that there might be some truth in that report, I can only shake my head in dismay and say in the words of that great philosopher, B. Bunny, "What a maroon!")
"Tipping the Velvet" is a soap opera in which the heroine rises to the heights and falls to the depths with the regularity of a sine wave. It is also the vehicle for a fine piece of star acting. On the basis of the latter, it fully deserves five demimondaine stars.
Summary of Tipping the Velvet
Smitten by music hall life, and by the beautiful male impersonator Kitty Butler (Keeley Hawes), Nan Astley (Rachael Stirling) leaves her family?s Whitstable oyster parlor and follows her heart to London. There she finds unimaginable joy?and misery?as she explores the secret side of fin de siècle life.Based on the acclaimed novel by Sarah Waters and adapted by Andrew Davies (Bridget Jones?s Diary, Doctor Zhivago), this powerful BBC drama is both a frank depiction of lesbianism and a witty and moving account of a young woman who will win your heart while searching for her own. Also starring Anna Chancellor (Pride and Prejudice), Jodhi May (The Last of the Mohicans), Hugh Bonneville (Iris) and John Bowe (Poldark). "Provocative and uplifting" ??The Baltimore Sun. "Flat-out sublime" ??The Seattle Times.
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