It was a bit wet and attendance was low but it was still a good day for the stalwarts who were able to brave it. With only 12 playing  a team challenge was thrown down with best 3 from 4 scores counting for £5 in the pot which was won by Terry, Mike Battle, JR and Phil Burrows with 116 points.

In the individual event the first 3 places were as follows:

The final scores for the year are posted on both the handicaps and scores page and in the sidebar below. Apologies for only posting them initially in the sidebar last month which caused unneccessary confusion.

So another season comes to a close and we thank this year’s Captain Jerry for his monthly speech which was given in unison by all members this month – only joking Jerry!  All that remains is the Annual General Meeting and this date will be published on the site once it is arranged.

One of the greatest cinematic love affairs of the past half-century has been between British film fans and an angular, accident-prone beanpole of a Frenchman named Monsieur Hulot. The iconic comedy character created by the mime-turned-star and writer-director Jacques Tati has been tickling the funny bones of filmgoers since the release of the movie which introduced him – M. Hulot’s Holiday – in 1953. And it’s a love affair which is being celebrated at this year’s French Film Festival, with a retrospective of all of Jacques Tati’s screen work.

Tati may only have made a handful of films, but they have made a lasting impression on generations of viewers – and it’s not just the popular vote which they’ve earned. His admirers have included Orson Welles, David Lynch, Steven Spielberg and Belleville Rendez-Vous creator Sylvain Chomet who is currently transforming a previously unfilmed Tati script into an animated film.

Tati’s brilliance as a comedy actor has influenced at least two generations of comedians: John Cleese, Paul Merton and Rowan Atkinson, who described seeing M Hulot’s Holiday as “a defining moment in my life” (and paid homage to it in his 2007 film Mr Bean’s Holiday), are just some of the British comics who owe a clear debt to Tati and his very physical comedy style.

But what is it about Tati that makes him so well-loved – even by viewers who wouldn’t ordinarily go to see a foreign film? The main reason has to be his “everyman” appeal. Tati created easily identifiable types who everyone can recognise from their own experience – the postman who takes himself and his work too seriously in his 1949 film Jour de Fete (could he have been the inspiration for Cliff Clavin, the super-officious mailman in the sitcom Cheers?) and the eager-to-please social misfit M Hulot, who creates chaos out of order and is baffled by the technological trappings of modern life.

M Hulot’s fellow holidaymakers are also brilliantly drawn and would fit in to Fawlty Towers as comfortably as they do the Hotel de la Plage. There’s the veteran soldier who drones on about his wartime experiences, the meek, middle-aged sweety-wifey of a husband who is always several steps behind his banality-spouting spouse (“Oh, there’s another boat … and another … oh!”) during their saunters around the beach, and the workaholic businessman whose holiday is punctuated by frequent trips to the telephone (rather like the Tony Roberts character in Woody Allen’s Play It Again Sam).

The humour in Tati’s films is very physical – and therefore universal. Tati said that the way a comic actor used his legs was paramount, and he used his to maximum comedy effect, mixing loping strides with hesitant little shuffles as he tries to ingratiate himself into new people’s company. Physically, M Hulot is every bit as recognisable – even in silhouette – as Charlie Chaplin’s iconic Little Tramp.

The characteristic Hulot pose is of him tilting forward, with his head at a quizzical angle, his hat tipped over his eyes, his ubiquitous pipe at a right angle to his long nose, his arms bent behind him with his hands resting on his hips. Like Chaplin’s alter ego, he always wears the same kit – trousers that aren’t quite long enough, his Tyrolean-esque hat and stripy socks. He nearly always has his umbrella handy. He walks with a lolling gait, on well-sprung tiptoes and is undoubtedly a French cousin d’un certain Basil Fawlty.

Tati’s background as a mime meant that he was most at home devising visual gags, rather than writing and delivering one-liners or trading witter banter with another actor. Terry Gilliam, the Monty Python team member who became a director, has said: “One of Tati’s great qualities is that his films contain almost no dialogue. I find this particularly brilliant – these divinely French films that create no problem when it comes to subtitling. In terms of dialogue, Monty Python learnt everything from Tati. We owe everything to him.”

Tati’s films feature soundtracks of exaggerated, cartoon-like noises which heighten the effect of the visual comedy – the putt, putt, putt of M Hulot’s old jalopy as it chugs along the road, the be-doing of the restaurant door as the motley crew of hotel guests assembles for lunch, the crashing noise made by our hero’s racquet as he serves in the funniest tennis match in movie history.

The gags which Tati created for his films worked on a number of levels. Many of today’s Tati fans have grown up with M Hulot’s Holiday and have found that their appreciation of it has only increased with time, as they find more and more humour in it.

There’s the obvious, laugh-out-loud slapstick sequences, which appeal enormously to children, but most of the humour lies in the beautifully observed, often whimsical, details which are not flagged up, but are quietly unfolding in a corner of the screen. It pays to see Tati’s films in the cinema as so much happens in the background – and he actively avoided filming close-ups. Orson Welles once said: “There are performers who are only good in full figure. Move in on Tati and he literally disappears.”

Of course, the films also appeal to anyone with a fondness for France and the French way of life. They celebrate the quaint, the eccentric and a lifestyle which Tati saw being replaced by a faster, more consumer and technology-driven one. Jour de Fete and M Hulot’s Holiday are lovely to look at, since they are set in unspoilt rural France, and they move at such a leisurely pace that you can soak up the detail of both the comedy and the setting.

Terry Jones, another Monty Python graduate, has said of Tati: “He was a visual genius. His films, without being silent, all have the qualities, the beauty and the richness of silent film.”

Even by the time he made his third film, Mon Oncle (1958), Tati was beginning to show signs of self-indulgence in his work. His subsequent films – PlayTime (1967),  Trafic (1971) and Parade (1973) – are reviled and revered in equal measure. But Jour de Fete and M Hulot’s Holiday are perfect comedies that showcase Tati’s comedy at its most pure – and most appealing.

* The Totally Tati retrospective is on at the Glasgow Film Theatre and the Edinburgh Filmhouse now. The BFI’s new box set of five Tati films is out now.

THE SPANISH INQUISITION
Remaining expected by no-one since September 22, 1970

(Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam)

Picture by: wikipedia Caption by: Cobaltmotari via Poster Builder

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The Savage Goths

As a historical minded person of European descent, I have always had a bit of an inferiority complex with regard to European past.  Other places in the world have had great and glorious pasts.  Africa had the Egyptian civilization.  China developed many inventions and were far ahead of the rest of the world in technology.  Persia was a center of learning and advancement long ago.  However, the Europeans were mired in grass huts and stupidity until the powerful Roman empire came along and brought Europe out of its backwardness.

Well, it turns out this is not true:  it is simply Roman propaganda. Terry Jones of Monty Python made a series of videos debunking these commonly held beliefs.  The video on the goths is above.  The other three are below.

The Primitive Celts

The Brainy Barbarians

The End of the World

This is the third week of the course Introduction to Philosophy at the Objectivist Academic Center.  During the week we will be discussing four major positions regarding this subject

1. Rational Theology
2. Atheism
3. Agnosticism
4. Non-Rational Theology

As a rational atheist I have my mind pretty clear on this subject.  I am continuously reading books on this subject, and love to remind my friends and colleagues about the infinite list of death and suffering caused by religions during thousands of years.  That being said, I hope you’ll enjoy the video “Life of Brian” made by the guys from Monty Python in 1979.

Monty Python’s Life of Brian (part 1 of 11)

From Monty Python’s flawed and uneven but sporadically brilliant The Meaning Of Life… it’s Terry Jones as the unforgettable Mr Creosote.

Say no more!

Monty Python

Monty Python:
Celebrating 400 Years Of Monty Python (17 Discs)

Mit der Veröffentlichung von “MONTY PYTHON´s 40th Anniversary Boxset Celebrating 400 Years of MONTY PYTHON” feiert das bahnbrechende und unwiderstehlich komische Team des Monty Python’s Flying Circus ein wahrhaft denkwürdiges Ereignis.

Beide Discs sind auf den deutschen Markt bis dato unveröffentlicht und ausschließlich in dieser Box erhältlich! Zum Trojanischen Hasen geht es hier!

Mehrfach ausgezeichnet, erhielten die „Monty´s“ u.a. 1983 den „großen Preis der Jury“ beim Cannes Film Festival oder den Europäischen Filmpreis für ihr Lebenswerk 2001. Das Boxset, bestehend aus 17 DVDs, erscheint anlässlich des 400. Jubiläums von Monty Python (oder ihres 40. Jubiläum, kommt ganz darauf an, aus welcher Sicht man es betrachtet …) und enthält die beliebten Filme der unerschrockenen Truppe, darunter Die Ritter der Kokosnuss, Das Leben des Brian, Der Sinn des Lebens, Die wunderbare Welt der Schwerkraft und Monty Python Live At e Hollywood Bowl.

Erweitert wird die Box durch 2 Bonus Discs: eine über 2-stündige Dokumentation zum FLYING CIRCUS sowie einen 30-minütigen Zusammenschnitt von PERSONAL BESTS! Beide Discs sind auf den deutschen Markt bis dato unveröffentlicht und ausschließlich in dieser Box erhältlich!

Abgerundet wird diese sagenumwobene Box, neben der grandiosen Umverpackung Marke „Trojanischer Hase“ – in Anlehnung an eine Szene aus Die Ritter der Kokosnuss – durch ein kultiges Monty Python Wristband, 4 Monty Python´s Sammler-Buttons sowie ein limitiertes und nummeriertes Senitype (Kunstgrafik aus dem Film Die Ritter der Kokosnuss).

Das Leben des Brian (Disc 1-2)

Brian wird im Jahre des Herrn geboren, allerdings im Kuhstall nebenan. Und die Heiligen Drei Könige, die sich versehentlich zuerst in Brians Stall begeben, bemerken ihren Irrtum schnell, als sie von Brians Mutter angekeift werden: „Der echte Jesus liegt nebenan“.

Auch sonst scheint Brians Lebensweg vorbestimmt: Widerstandskämpfer der Judäischen Volksfront, äh … Volksfront von Judäa, neuer Messias und zum Schluss – Kreuzigung. Aber alles halb so schlimm, am Kreuz stimmen schließlich alle mit ein: „Always Look On ¬ e Bright Side Of Life“ …

Wer ist der wahre Messias? Na klar, Brian, wer sonst? Englands Kult-Komikertruppe Monty Python beweist auch in ihrem zweiten Spielfilm, dass sie wieder mal vor nichts und niemandem Respekt hat, weder vor Bibelverfilmungen noch vor der Heiligen Schrift … Einer der größten Hits des Prittischen Plödelteams.

Die Ritter der Kokosnuss (Disc 3-4)

Im frühen Mittelalter durchwandert König Artus das noch relativ unbewohnte England mit seinen edlen Recken, um das Reich von den einfallenden Franzosen zu befreien und den sagenhaften Heiligen Gral zu erobern. Leider handelt es sich bei seiner Truppe um eine Ansammlung irrer Trottel und sein Unternehmen erleidet schnell zahlreiche Rückschläge …

„Halt! Wer da?“ „Ich bin es, Artus, Sohn des Uther Pendragon, von der Burg Camelot, König aller Briten, Bezwinger der Sachsen, Herrscher über ganz England.“ „Verschwindet!“ Ein Gag- und Nonsensfeuerwerk der Extraklasse vom legendären Monty-Python-Team – ein absolutes Highlight im Schaffenswerk der britischen Comedians!

Bonus:
DISC 3:
• Film
• Das Killer-Karnickel
• Kommentare von Terry Gilliam und Terry Jones, John Cleese, Eric Idle und Michael Palin
• Untertitel: Drehbuch: Lies mit, was du siehst!
• Untertitel: Für alle, die den Film nicht mögen

DISC 4:
• Lieder zum Mitsingen
• Die Suche nach dem Heiligen Gral
• Heilige Relikte • Nicht verwendetes Material
• Extraordinäres: Prüft Euer Wissen über den Heiligen Gral
(für Eingeweihte, Fanatiker und Leute, die den Film nicht mögen…), Monty Python‘s Spamalot, Geheimnisse um den Heiligen Gral

Der Sinn des Lebens (Disc 5-6)

Die sechs verrückten Pythons (John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam und Michael Palin) mit ihren irren Abenteuern sind wieder da!

In diesem Kultfilm der 80er Jahre werden überaus witzig und ohne alle Hemmungen die einzelnen Abschnitte des menschlichen Lebens sehr verzerrt dargestellt, wie das Wunder der Geburt, des Krieges und eines supermodernen Himmels. Wer nach den großen Mysterien unserer Zeit sucht, findet sie in „Der Sinn des Lebens“. 1983 gewann diese irrwitzige Filmkomödie den Cannes Film Festival Special Jury Prize.

Die Wunderbare Welt der Schwerkraft (Disc 7)

Die Wunderbare Welt der Schwerkraft ist Monty Pythons erster Kinofilm – eine urkomische Sammlung der witzigsten Szenen, Sketche und Parodien aus ihrer beliebten TV-Serie. Hier gibt es Oma-Banden, Mörder-Autos und den legendären Papageien-Sketch (er ruht sich bekanntlich nur aus!) sowie wertvolle Tipps zur Selbstverteidigung, falls Ihnen je ein Angreifer mit Obst in der Hand über den Weg laufen sollte.

Da darf der unvergessliche Holzfäller-Song („Ich fäll‘ den Baum, trag‘ Stöckelschuh‘, Strapse und BH …) natürlich nicht fehlen! Auch sind die berühmt-berüchtigten Monty Python-Animationen zu sehen – eindeutig das amüsanteste Comedy-Material seit Ernest Scribbler den komischsten Witz der Welt schrieb und prompt vor Lachen ins Gras biss.

Live at the Hollywood Bowl (Disc

Unflätig und hemmungslos ungeniert mischen die Pythons die legendäre Hollywood Bowl in einer ausverkauften Live-Show auf, die neben ihren wohlbekanntesten Liedern und Sketchen brandneues Material zum Besten gibt, das nie in der Flying Circus-Serie zu sehen war.

Mit seinem digital re-masterten Bild und Ton sieht dieser zum Schießen komische Auftritt nicht nur ganz und gar umwerfend aus, sondern ist dazu noch ein echter Brüller in Sachen Monty Python-Humor. Also nehmen Sie Platz und machen Sie sich seelisch auf ein schlicht unversäumenswertes Komödienerlebnis gefasst.

Flying Circus Season 1-4 plus Bonusdisc (Disc 9-16)

Werter Box-Set Schmökerer, inzwischen kennen Sie die Geschichte: Am Anfang war das Fernsehen öde. Schmerzlich öde. Desillusionierte Zuschauer litten unter Apathie und Verbitterung. Gott hatte ein Einsehen mit ihnen, erschlug die Frevler und schuf Monty Python´s Flying Circus, die unorthodoxeste und urkomischste Comedy-Show aller Zeiten.

Vier sagenhafte Staffeln lang vollbrachten die Pythons mit ihrem hemmungslos einfallsreichen Humor Wunder und ließen das Fernsehen und die Welt in einem freundlicheren, lustigeren Licht erstrahlen. The Complete Series Of the Flying Circus in der englischen Originalfassung mit deutschen Untertiteln.

A TASTE OF MONTY PYTHON’S PERSONAL BEST (Disc 17)

It wasn’t to long ago that we wrote about Chris Christie being accused of copyright infringement by the New York Times.

Well Deja Vu, literally, Chris Christie is at it once again and this time Chris Christie Rips Off Monty Python, in an ad spot titled… you guessed it Deja Vu.

The Huffington post reports the story and also goes into Christie’s ties to the mafia.

UPDATE, 11:12 p.m.:

Having been exposed for their copyright theft and facing a lawsuit from Monty Python, the Christie campaign moved into damage control mode at high speed on Sunday night to try and limit the political fallout from their illicit action. Within an hour of the story appearing, the Christie commercial using pirated footage of a Monty Python skit was scrubbed from the campaign’s website and their separate campaign site on YouTube. The only evidence left was the tell-tale wording on the clip’s YouTube page “This video has been removed by the user“

Monty Python captured the video before it was removed. The Christie campaign should now be expecting the Spanish Inquisition…

Watch the ad:

//

———-

Chris Christie, the Republican candidate for Governor of New Jersey in Tuesday’s knife-edge gubernatorial election, has been called out as a copyright thief. The 47-year-old lawyer, who was controversially appointed by George W. Bush as a U.S. Attorney in 2001 on Karl Rove’s recommendation after being a top Bush fund-raiser in the 2000 election, has created an election commercial that steals copyright-protected material from British comedy troupe Monty Python — without permission or credit.

The official campaign advert — titled “Deja Vu” — attacks incumbent New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine by using scenes from a famous skit on the “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” TV show that features Michael Palin. The ad is on Christie’s official YouTube campaign site, and has already aired on national TV.

But neither Christie — a lawyer for 22 years — nor anyone in his campaign bothered to seek any permission for using the copyrighted material in his election spot.

Alerted to the theft of their copyright, members of Monty Python are most unhappy. Michael Palin, who appears in the clip pirated for the advert, is especially displeased that his likeness is being used by the Republican candidate without permission.

“I’m surprised that a former U.S. Attorney isn’t aware of his copyright infringement when he uses our material without permission. He’s clearly made a terrible mistake. It was the endorsement of Sarah Palin he was after — not that of Michael Palin.”

Monty Python’s Terry Jones says that the troupe is strongly considering suing the Republican for his copyright infringement:

“It is totally outrageous that a former US Attorney knows so little about the law that he thinks he can rip off people. On the other hand — another of Bush’s legal appointees was Alberto Gonzales and he didn’t seem to know much about the law either…,” Jones said.

There is a long history of Republican politicians stealing content by entertainers for their political advertisements and rallies. Three months ago, Jackson Browne won a financial settlement and apology from Senator John McCain for the politician’s unauthorized use of his song “Running On Empty” in the 2008 election. Other musicians who have successfully protested the theft of their music by Republicans include Jon Bon Jovi, Don Henley, John Mellencamp and rock bands Foo Fighters and Hear

Christie is no stranger to the world of crime. As the New York Times reported on September 23rd this year, Christie has family ties to the notorious Genovese crime family. As a child, he mingled at family parties with Tino “The Greek” Fiumara — the brother of his aunt’s husband — described by the Times as “a fearsome and ranking member of the Genovese crime family: twice convicted of racketeering, sentenced to 25 years in federal prison, and linked by investigators to several grisly murders, including one in which a victim was strangled with piano wire.”

(A United States Senate sub-committee investigating organized crime in the early 1980s attributed three murders to Fiumara, including the 1967 slayings of two brothers of one of his co-defendants in the 1980 trial. In 1983, Lt. Col. Justin Dintino of the New Jersey State Police called Fiumara “a callous killer who has resorted to violence with little provocation,” and said Fiumara had ordered the murder of the godfather of one of his own children.)

Asked what he had learned from his family connection to Tino “The Greek” Fiumara, Christie says: “It just told me that you make bad decisions in life and you wind up paying a price. Really, for most of my life, he spent his life in prison. That teaches you a lot.”

Asked in 2007 about the presence of organized crime in his home state — such as the Genovese mob in which one of his family members is so prominent — Christie said: “the Mafia is much more prominent on HBO than in New Jersey.”

With Monty Python about to sue Christie for his copyright theft, he may have more in common to discuss with Tino “The Greek” Fiumara at his family Thanksgiving this year.

It was a tough day for the new Club Captain as he welcomed the Society to the course. A four ball in front held everyone up during the day allowing us to enjoy the sunshine. Richard Browning scored 39 points on a day when 31 was a popular score. Malcolm’s meal selections were well received and the Club looked after us in the manner we have grown to expect. It was also good to see a large number of guests in attendance.

As Richard could not stay for dinner Steve Chandler was deemed the winner and cut by 2 shots for the second month running! The first 3 places were as follows:

Most people who know me know how much I love older British men. I thought I should just start a “list” here and give everyone some pictures… Granted these guys are old, but they’re so talented and *ahem* attractive The order changes each day, so here they are, in no particular order:

Alan Rickman:

Famous to most people as Professor Snape from the Harry Potter films

Loved him so much in “Sense and Sensibility”.

Anthony Hopkins:

He’s a KNIGHT. He’s AWESOME. Need I say more?

John Lennon:

One of my heroes. Kind of a difficult person, but had the right ideas.

(The Beatles:)

Best rock band EVER.

Colin Firth:

The best Mr. Darcy on screen from “Pride and Prejudice” in my opinion.

Hugh Grant:

Very funny guy, especially in movies like Bridget Jones.

Fantastic job in “Sense and Sensibility”!

Ralph Fiennes:

Amazing performances in “The English Patient” and “Schindler’s List”.

Terry Jones:

Famous from Monty Python. Great guy.

Neil Innes:

Musician who worked with the Monty Python guys.

And Now for my “Favorite” guys.

Hugh Laurie:

Famous for his role as Dr. House, I first knew him as “the dad from Stuart Little”. However, I highly recommend the British Comedy series “A Bit of Fry and Laurie” which he made with his comedy partner Stephen Fry. The dudes are HILARIOUS.

Tim Curry:

Yes, he’s the guy from “Rocky Horror Picture Show”. I love that movie! He was also the original King Arthur in the Broadway musical “Monty Python’s Spamalot” and did a fantastic job. Another movie I really enjoyed him in is “Clue” made in 1985. This guy can sing, there is no doubt about that!

Michael Palin:

First became really famous as a member of “Monty Python”. However he has also done a number of movies like “A Fish Called Wanda” (for which he earned a BAFTA) and “The Missionary” which show that he is a versatile actor. He has also done a number of travel shows for the BBC, and is known as an all-around nice guy. My favorite Python, and definitely one of my favorite people EVER.

Peter Sellers:

So I always enjoyed Peter in the Pink Panther films. Other than that, I didn’t know much about him. He was funny and cute in the first Pink Panther, and that’s probably when I got my fangirl crush. But I didn’t think much of him, because I didn’t know much about him. When I first got really into Monty Python I saw some interviews where they all said they were a fan of the Goon Shows on BBC Radio, and heard them mention Peter Sellers.

Then, a friend loaned me a book called “Being There” which I read in one sitting. (Fantastic book.) I liked it so much, I looked up the movie on YouTube. I was floored by Peter’s amazing performance in that film. I really feel he deserved the Academy Award for that movie. After the movie, and seeing how “cute” Peter Sellers was, I looked him up, and looked up the Goon Show. I’m now a hardcore Goons fan, and I’m sure I’ll post a blog about them one of these days.

Peter Sellers was no angel. He was from all accounts a difficult person to work with. However, his enormous talent  helps me to forgive him. He was married 4 times, if that tells you anything about his personality. It has been suggested he may have had Asperger’s Syndrome (a high functioning form of Autism). This could definitely be the case. If it is, it helps to explain a lot of his personality clashes with so many collegues. Sadly, he died 10 years before I was even born. :’( I still miss him.

Yes, I have a thing for British comedians. Is it obvious? I’ll be posting more separate blogs about Peter Sellers, Sense and Sensibility, Being There, and the Goons. I have posted plenty of blogs about Monty Python. Feel free to leave comments!

para Daniel Guichard, especulador do sentido da vida

Em outubro de 1969 era inaugurado na TV britânica um novo programa de humor, que contava com talentos como John Cleese, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle e Terry Jones, e que contava com a colaboração de Terry Gilliam nas vinhetas e por vezes, em frente às cameras também. Foi um tremendo sucesso durante as suas quatro temporadas, mas os caras se cansaram e resolveram parar de fazer televisão. Provavelmente eles não sabiam, mas naquela altura eles já eram lendas. O grupo, a quem deram o nome de Monty Python, fez as temporadas da TV e acharam que o formato estava desgastado. O que não os impediu de invadir o cinema, e para a nossa sorte, também com muito sucesso. Fizeram apenas três filmes. Poucos, mas todos viraram clássicos do humor surrealista e inteligente, e abriram as portas para o humor non-sense e irônico vindo da terra da Rainha. Começaram em 1975 com “Em Busca do Cálice Sagrado“, seguido de “A Vida de Brian” em 1979 e por fim, o último trabalho de todos juntos, este que comento agora, “O Sentido da Vida“.

Ao contrário dos anteriores, que tinham uma história e personagens definidos, este filme traz o formado de esquetes, que usavam na TV, contando várias histórias para tentar explicar o motivo da Existência. No fim das contas o filme fala de tudo, menos do sentido da vida propriamente, o que não é nada nada ruim. Não acho que possa ser comparado ao segundo filme deles, que tira sarro do messianismo e da adoração fanática dos religiosos, ou mesmo o primeiro onde sacaneiam a lenda do Rei Arthur (vale lembrar que esses assuntos são quase sagrados na Inglaterra). Mas “O Sentido da Vida” é um humor verborrágico, de sacadas inteligentissimas, mesmo que irregular; há quadros brilhantes como a familia católica com problemas de procriação, que acaba caindo em um dos números musicais mais divertidos do cinema, onde aparece a música “Every Sperm is Sacred”, indicada ao BAFTA de melhor canção original, isso sem falar do Sr. Creosote, da Máquina que Faz Ping, a aula de educação sexual, o momento da morte, as animações em estilo pesadelo de Terry Gilliam, entre outros atrativos. Para quem não conhece, falando assim parece bem desinteressante ou mesmo sem graça, mas acredite: poucas coisas no mundo são mais engraçadas do que esses caras.

Não é uma comédia que todos possam gostar. É preciso muita atenção para perceber a crítica à sociedade em geral e às frescuras britânicas, e à maneira com a qual eles enxergam a vida, a morte e coisinhas relacionadas. Aqueles que gostam de besteirol, comédia escrachada e que gera muita vergonha alheia, passem longe do filme que, aliás, venceu o Grande Prêmio do Júri em Cannes. Infelizmente não se faz mais humor à moda Python, mesmo que praticamente todos os humoristas e grupos que vieram depois tenham se inspirado neles. E seus integrantes, bem… Cleese hoje em dia faz qualquer filme que caia em suas mãos, Chapman morreu, Palin tem um programa de viagem pelo mundo, Idle escreve teatro, Jones escreve livros sobre história e Gilliam é cineasta consagrado (sendo que antes do filme em si há um curta dirigido por ele, com a sua visão da vida, e que é muito divertido, por sinal) sendo o diretor do recente “O Imaginário do Doutor Parnassus“, último filme de Heath Ledger. Cada um tomou o seu rumo, como se vê. Mas a obra que fizeram juntos marcou para sempre a maneira de se fazer comédia, o humor nunca mais foi o mesmo depois deles.

*Hoje não mostro o trailer, mas um esquete retirado do segundo ato do filme, o musical “Every Sperm is Sacred”, para exemplificar o estilo do humor do filme; infelizmente não há legendas, mas ainda assim é muito bom. ;D

Thanks to a link by one of my Facebook contacts (U.S. music journalist Alan Light), I just found a great video of a Monty Python reunion which happened at New York City’s Ziegfeld Theatre a week ago (the action starts after about a minute).
[Update on November 22, 2009: Unfortunately, the video has been removed - but here's a reasonably Python visit with Regis and Kelly on the morning before the Ziegfeld show:]


Wenn der Clip nicht gelöscht worden wäre, hättet ihr das gesehen:

Lustig für deutschsprachige Zuschauer: Nach ca. 21 Minuten reden die Pythons kurz über zwei Folgen von “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, die unter Federführung des damaligen Redakteurs Dr. Alfred Biolek für den Bayerischen Rundfunk auf Deutsch produziert wurden. Im Ziegfeld Theatre tauschen sie ein paar radegebrochene deutsche Redewendungen aus.

Mich erinnerte diese Passage an ein Interview, das ich irgendwann in den 80er Jahren im Londoner Monty-Python-Büro mit Terry Jones führte, dem Monty-Python-Mitstreiter, der bei den drei wichtigsten MP-Kinofilmen für die Regie verantwortlich zeichnete.

Er berichtete, dass keiner der Pythons Deutsch sprach. Bei der Aufzeichnung der beiden Münchner Folgen mussten sie die deutschen Dialoge in einer phonetisch aufgezeichneten Form ablesen. Terry Jones konnte sich noch sehr gut daran erinnern, dass eine der schwierigsten Herausforderungen das Wort “Ike-Horn-Ken” war (aka “Eichhörnchen”)

Im Monty-Python-Büro traf ich vor dem Gespräch mit Terry Jones kurz seinen Freund Douglas Adams (“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”), der hinterher mit Terry noch durch die Stadt ziehen wollte.

Eine andere Erinnerung kann ich leider derzeit nicht verifizieren. Ich glaube damals in Londoner Plattenläden ein Monty-Python-Album gesehen zu haben, das wie “Another Monty Python Record” (1971) als Fake-Klassik-LP präsentiert wurde und bei dem als Insider-Gag Dr. Alfred Maria Biolek als Dirigent genannt wurde. Leider ist mir diese Platte seitdem nirgendwo mehr begegnet.

Im amerikanischen Rolling Stone erinnert sich übrigens John Cleese an die Wiedervereinigung von Monty Python:
John Cleese’s Towering Legacy

Thank God it’s Python!

Argument Clinic

The Parrot Sketch

Silly Olympics

Job Interview

Ministry of Silly Walks

The Black Knight

The French Taunter

The Bridge of Death

Upper Class Twit of the Year

Bring Out Your Dead

Bonus track:

Spam, spam, spam, spam,your word here and spam

I love Monty Python. I know, I know, that’s an easy thing to say. I’m guessing most of the general public knows at least one skit or one punchline, even if they don’t know from whence it came. My problem is, I’m a bit of an obsessive fan. I can’t just watch one skit or one disc. Oh no, if I start I have to watch every. single. episode, plus Live at the Hollywood Bowl, their German episode and Graham Chapman’s “Looks Like a Brown Trouser Job” (hysterical!).

Then I have to watch every single movie. And not just the “official” Python movies, but movies like Jabberwocky, or A Fish Called Wanda, Yellowbeard, Time Bandits and did-you-hear-that-Gilliam-is-breathing-new-life-into-Don-Quixote?! I forced myself to watch Valiant, Shrek 2 and Shrek 3 just for Cleese’s voice. My mind goes all “explodey” when he shows up on Doctor Who!

Still. I’m not done. I have to watch all the extras, all the interviews, all the random things that are placed on the discs. After that I change things up and watch “At Last It’s the 1948 Show”, “The Frost Report” and Cleese’s films he made for … the word and phrase are escaping me now… for businesses, like training videos.

Then I mix it up and watch Fawlty Towers, Palin’s travel shows. Jones, among other things, has a really fun documentary about numbers on youtube.

Michael Palin’s book, “The Michael Palin Diaries” is about a month overdue at the library, but it is so good!

I also really enjoyed watching the backstory of Life of Brian…
(Which I can’t seem to embed but here’s the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDCAJTrF1gg)
which leads me to the original reason I got on this topic…

I had no idea there was a new Python documentary out!! I can’t believe I missed that one. Also seems like I missed a fun water fight. With luck I will be able to watch the documentary tonight and I am very excited. From the sound of the title, “Monty Python: Almost the Truth About the BBC Lawyers”, Palin wrote a bit about it in his diaries, but I cannot wait to learn more.

I know I’m frighteningly obsessive, but I also know I’m not alone in my obsessiveness and amazingly enough, thanks to wacko fans like me, some of the early episodes of MPFC would have been lost.

I want to start an argument

You’re either in or you’re out.

You either get it, or you don’t.

You can either recite the entire sketch by heart – hell, some entire movies by heart – or you can’t.

And if you’re in those latter camps, you’ll just never understand the clandestine language that Monty Python fans share. It’s like a secret handshake – overhear someone dropping a classic line about silly walks, or dead parrots, or Mary, Queen of Scots, and it’s an open invitation to join the conversation and be accepted all in one fell swoop. Skull and Bones never had anything this insidious, this lethal, this great. The Pythons might not have pioneered sketch comedy in Britain, but for reasons I (and they) can’t understand, they crossed The Big Pond and twisted our minds in a different way than Benny Hill or Peter Cook or even Peter Sellers could. What began as a cult is now an inseparable part of the American comedy fabric.

For the past 24 hours, you couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing some combination of John Cleese and Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle hamming it up with newscasters, talk show hosts and…well, pretty much anyone who would have them. Michael Palin was traveling, but even the late Graham Chapman made an appearance (even though he had ceased to be…)

Why another British Invasion? It’s the fortieth anniversary of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and the surviving members of the troupe are here in the United States to accept an award and to revel in the six part series Almost The Truth (The Lawyer’s Cut). If you missed that ceremony tonight, click here. The six part documentary starts airing on IFC on October 18th.

Better yet? The series is available on DVD just nine days later(a link to my published review will follow in the coming days). This project is not yet another collection of broadcast clips, but a combination of recent interviews and archival footage that follows the troupe from inception to legend, featuring input from several of today’s leading comedic lights. I’s truly special.

So buckle up. And always look on the bright side of life.

Here’s a link to a poor soul who had his mind twisted. As for me…well, I’m a lumberjack and I’m O.K.

Happy 40th Year anniversary Monty Python and its Flying Circus!

Se a comédia brasileira e norte-americana gosta do gênero pastelão, os ingleses são conhecidos pelas suas piadas cheias de classe e ironia. A história deve ter começado nos anos 70 com a ajuda do grupo Monty Phyton. Eles estão comemorando 40 anos de existência e estão na ativa. Pelos menos, os integrantes que sobreviveram: John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones e Michael Palin.

Os humoristas começaram em um programa de humor Flying Circus. O sucesso os transformou em uma série, que acabou em longas metragens, entre os mais conhecidos A Vida de Brian e O Sentido da Vida, que podem ser encontrados nas locadoras e, claro, na web. Citações na imprensa britânica afirmam que o grupo são os Beatles do humor, pois mudaram o rumo da graça em todo o mundo.

Para comemorar seus 40 anos, eles estão estrelando um espetáculo humorístico  no teatro, um DVD com entrevistas, trechos de show, depoimentos de artistas, colegas e tudo o mais. Vamos torcer para o DVD ser licenciado aqui no Brasil também.

Para divulgar seus vídeos, comentários e piadas, eles criaram um canal no YouTube. Segundo a descrição é para que seus fãs parem de postar aquele monte de vídeos “porcarias”, sem qualidade e poderem curtir material oficial e alto nível.

Porém, ainda vale fuçar no YouTube para encontrar episódios com legendas em português. O primeiro deles, “A piada mais engraçada do mundo”. Assista aqui:

Fabiana Schiavon

On October 5 1969 BBC One first broadcast a quirky little show called “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.”

The title of my post and the above exerpt are taken from an online Life Magazine article.  There are some great photos in the piece, which of course Life is known for.  Here is one of my favorite bits, The Argument Sketch.  It’s from the Python’s 29th episode, which aired on November 2, 1972:

NO PEOPLE LIKE SHOW PEOPLE: New Emmy-owner Justin Timberlake has joined the cast of The Social Network, director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin’s take on the invention of Facebook …

TIMBERLAKE: Facebook friend

Heather Locklear, one of the stars of the original Melrose Place, will reprise her role on the current re-invented series … stage and screen favourite Eric Peterson, already slated to pick up an Earle Grey Award later this month at the Geminis, will receive the 2009 Gordon Pinsent Award Of Excellence this week when The Company Theatre fetes him Thursday night at the Windsor Arms. Seamus O’Regan and Allan Hawco will co-host the gala evening … and speaking of excellence, award namesake Pinsent plays the Archbishop in The Pillars of the Earth, the epic drama based on Ken Follett’s bestseller, currently shooting in Hungary and Austria. Also appearing

PETERSON: getting Gordon & Earle

in key roles are Ian McShane and Donald Sutherland.

FOOTLIGHTS: Mimi, or A Poisoner’s Comedy, the controversial new Allen Cole-Melody A. Johnson-Rick Roberts musical, continues its ribald run at the Tarragon Theatre … Bob Martin’s Tony-winning hit musical The Drowsy Chaperone tap-dances into Ottawa next week for a two-week run at the National Arts Centre … Carrie Fisher opened her one-woman show, Wishful Drinking, at Studio 54 last night. Sez Fisher: “Basically, I talk about myself behind my back.”
 Her Broadway stint will run ‘til January … and Monty Python alumni Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle and John Cleese are set to appear in a rare reunion at the Ziegfeld Theater next week. Did you know that the Pythons have

FISHER: on stage

their own YouTube channel? Seriously! … and tickets are now on sale for the new National Ballet Of Canada season, which kicks off next month with the perennially lavish Sleeping Beauty. To check out the new NBOC season, just click here.

OUR TOWN: The 14th edition of Eat to the Beat, benefitting Willow Breast Cancer Support Canada, takes over Roy Thomson Hall tomorrow night with culinary creations from more than 60 chefs,  including the Food Network chef Anna Olson, Fiona Lim of George and Dufflet Rosenberg of Dufflet Pastries. And you can still buy a ticket! For more info, click here … also tomorrow night: Royson James moderates a Toronto Star panel discussion on what it takes to create a workable city, with Susan Eng, Kevin Stolarick, Sudz Sutherland and Rahul Bhardwaj, at the new Bram & Bluma Appel Salon at the Toronto Reference Library … Jack Rabinovitch and jurors Russell Banks, Victoria Glendinning and Alistair MacLeod will announce this year’s Giller Prize finalists tomorrow morning at the Four Seasons … and yes, those still-sensational Jersey Boys are still winning standing O’s every night at the Toronto Centre For The Arts.

Monday 5th October 2009 will be the 40th birthday of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. In July 1969 humankind believed it was ushering in a new era when it witnessed the moon landings. What it was instead ushering in was a short-lived era of increasingly pointless strolls across a dusty satellite. What’s the point of playing golf up there if you’re not building the foundations of a colony? Bloody short-sightedness on NASA’s part, if you ask me, all style and no substance. If I had my way I’d kick them in the upper lip with a steel toe-cap…

…Which brings me back to Python. Three months after Neil Armstrong pranced like a transvestite lumberjack across the surface of the moon, the television show Monty Python’s Flying Circus really changed the world. The stream-of-consciousness formula gave a swift kick in the unmentionables to the stale sketch shows prevalent at the time, and made international stars of most of the Python team.

At the time I was a little too young to know what it was all about, or even to be allowed to watch. But I was formerly introduced to Monty Python through a record my brother owned: Matching Tie and Handkerchief. The cover showed what you would expect, given the name of the disc, but Gilliam’s front sleeve illustration could be pulled out from the cover itself, revealing that the snazzy tie and the handkerchief were actually attached to a blue-faced man hanging from the gallows. Macabre, oh so wrong, and extremely funny – exactly how I would describe the Python style of humour. People point to the slapstick element – the silly walks, the fish slapping dances – or to the surrealism of the lumberjack song and the parrot sketch. But what cannot be ignored, and what drew me in when I was seven or eight years old and unable to understand the socio-political aspect of their work, was the ridiculous offensiveness of the Pythons. Eric Idle is immensely proud of any sketches which still offend to this day, and he has every right to be as they were not allowed to utilise the bad language that most modern sitcoms and sketch shows routinely throw in rather than make thier material funny.

The genius of the Pythons was that they adapted their material to various media. Thus the records pushed the boundaries of sound recordings at the time, just as the TV show threw things at its audience that no programme had tried before. Similarly, their books were stuffed with excellently crafted nonsenses and parodies of the literary world. The films were delightfully postmodern before stuff-shirted academics had even begun to bandy the term around.

Matching Tie and Handkerchief’s genius lay not just in the sketches, silly voices and sound effects, but was apparent in the grooves of the disc itself. In olden times, of course, vinyl records had single grooves on either side, into which the sound recording had been imprinted. One side of Matching Tie and Handkerchief, however, had been cut with two grooves each containing different sketches, so that when you put it on, you were never entirely sure which material you would hear. So simple yet utterly fascinating.

I am not going to go through favourite sketches or even snippets – think of your own. Or, if you have never listened to or seen any Monty Python, for heaven’s sake go out and find some. I guarantee you that an hour spent in the company of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam will change your perspective on comedy entirely, and will probably make you see that most of today’s tired sketch shows and dreary sitcoms are an insult to the intelligence of the audience.

It was never just about favourite sketches for me, it was about becoming immersed into an entirely different world, one in which the customs and moral codes of an often still too pompous Britain are debunked, debagged, and hopefully destabilised. Once I’d been hooked by Matching Tie and Handkerchief I used to sneak down the stairs at nine o’clock once a week to watch BBC2 reruns of the television series through a crack in the sitting room door. If I was really lucky I was allowed to sit in with the rest of the family, but only if I made it clear that of course I did not understand a word of the innuendo or any of the two or three uses of ‘adult language’ they were permitted per series.

In a way, then, I grew up with Python. My father took my brother and I to see Monty Python and The Holy Grail at the cinema, possibly lying about my age to get me in. I bought records of my own – Live at Drury Lane stands out. I watched The Life of Brian three times at the local Odeon and remember sitting around at a friend’s house with the script and several of us acting out all the parts. I always wanted to read the Michael Palin parts, he was my favourite Python, and still is. I was slightly disappointed by The Meaning of Life when it came out, but some of it was gloriously dark and savage, and the rest has grown on me with time. I cried manly tears when Graham Chapman died, not just because he was possibly the most genuinely insane of the six of them, but because it meant that there would be no more Python: just like McCartney, Harrison and Starr working on Lennon’s demo of ‘Free as a Bird’, and releasing it as a Beatle’s song, anything that came after would be akin to the remaining Pythons shagging the corpse of their departed friend. Had they tried, I like to imagine Chapman would have appeared before them, dressed in his Colonel’s uniform, shouting ‘Stop that, it’s NOT silly.’

This is, of course, something of a love letter to Monty Python. Without them I might have taken the world rather more seriously, might have failed to notice the contradictions and inanities inherent to British culture. I am eternally grateful to these six wonderfully madcap men for ensuring that my life would never steer me towards the pinstripe suit and the bowler hat. Happy birthday, Python. Cue Terry Jones playing a Hammond Organ naked with his buttocks flopping disgustingly over the sides of the stool.

The remaining Pythons gather to receive a special BAFTA in October 2009