| Monty Python
Weekend
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Spiritual heirs to "The Goon Show" and "That Was
The Week That Was," two other ongoing pioneering and irreverent UK comedy reviews
from the 1950’s and 1960’s respectively, "Monty Python’s Flying
Circus" started as a television show in 1969. It grew exponentially in popularity
with each passing year until finally, in 1971, the first Monty Python movie appeared, AND
NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. British comedy would never be the same again.
Drawing on the genius of its members (including Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael
Palin, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, to name only the proverbial few), the movies
came at intervals every several years, even after the original, legendary television
series went off the air in 1973. Here is a smattering of the very cream of the frothy
crop, including the outrageous LIFE OF BRIAN and MONTY PYTHON’S THE
MEANING OF LIFE.
Saturday, September 16 – 7:30 PM
Brand New Print! MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, 1975,
Rainbow Releasing, 91 min. Dirs. Terry Gilliam & Terry Jones. Python's
$250,000 epic features Graham Chapman as King Arthur, John Cleese as Sir
Lancelot the Brave and Eric Idle as Sir Robin The-Not-Quite-So-Brave. From the
limb-impaired Black Knight, the immortal Knights who say Ni, killer rabbits, the Black
Beast of Aarrgghh, and the extremely rude Frenchman, HOLY GRAIL is one of the most beloved
and quoted cult classics.
LIFE OF BRIAN, 1979, Rainbow
Releasing, 94 min. Directed by Monty Python’s naked piano player Terry Jones
on the remains of the sets from Zeffirelli's JESUS OF NAZARETH. Graham Chapman
stars as Brian, Jesus' next-door neighbor, in one of the most hilariously dangerous
comedies ever. A combination of Mel Brooks, the Marx Brothers, and Thomas Paine's The
Age of Reason. Blessed are the Cheesemakers?
Sunday, September 17 – 6:30 PM
MONTY
PYTHON’S THE MEANING OF LIFE, 1983, Universal, 107 min. Dir. Terry Jones.
Grand Prix winner at the Cannes Film Festival. Includes a first look at Terry Gilliam's
(BRAZIL, 12 MONKEYS) innovative directorial style with the gorgeously surreal opening
short "Crimson Permanent Assurance." Pushing comedy boundaries
to their extreme, the cast of Monty Python sing, dance and vomit their way into retirement.
Featuring, without a doubt, the greatest musical number about birth control in
film history.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY
DIFFERENT, 1971, Sony Repertory, 81 min. Dir. Ian McNaughton. A big-screen
version of the greatest skits from the shows first two seasons. Who can ever forget
"The Lumberjack Song," "How Not to be Seen," and "Hell’s
Grannies"? Again featuring the mad genius of Terry Gilliam's collage
animation. |
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