Talking to a friend recently about Comedy TV shows/movies that they had either never seen or heard of before,I was surprised to find out that she had never seen any footage of a Comedy group called Monty Python.Deciding to go for a Python DVD that would hopefully act as a good intro to their work,I was pleased to discover,that a boxset had been brought out,which along with containing the Python's most well know titles, (the classic Holy Grail,and Life of Brian-which I still need to see!) also contained two movies of the Python's that I have hardly heard ever get mentioned.
The outline of the film:
Designed as a film to introduce "Monty Python" to the US,the movie features re-staged and re-filmed sketches from the first two seasons of Monty Python's Flying Circus,with a loose,over lapping theme of a character appearing in the end of one sketch and then in the beginning of the next,and also a breaking of the sketches into pieces,by having an announcer appear on the screen every 15-20 minutes to say "And now for something completely different".
View on the film:
Joining with the Python's for their big screen debut (which despite being aimed for America,ended up making more money at the UK box office than at the US box office!),director Ian MacNaughton smartly uses the film's small $80,000 budget (from Playboy magazine) to burst the sketches out of there original studio confines,with one of the movies best sketches about a "deadly joke" being used against the German's in WW II (?) being given a brilliant "fresh" feel thanks to MacNaughton giving the scene and misty look and also fully displaying the vast location.
Despite the group surprisingly not using the widescreen format to feature a number of background or side gags that could be picked up on repeat viewings,the Python's impressively keep away from making the sketches ever feel old & recycled,by using the overlapping character's as a way to include a wonderfully new,absurd element into each of the sketches,that leads to viewer being excited about what direction the next sketch will go in,the moment they hear the words "And now for something completely different.".
The outline of the film:
Designed as a film to introduce "Monty Python" to the US,the movie features re-staged and re-filmed sketches from the first two seasons of Monty Python's Flying Circus,with a loose,over lapping theme of a character appearing in the end of one sketch and then in the beginning of the next,and also a breaking of the sketches into pieces,by having an announcer appear on the screen every 15-20 minutes to say "And now for something completely different".
View on the film:
Joining with the Python's for their big screen debut (which despite being aimed for America,ended up making more money at the UK box office than at the US box office!),director Ian MacNaughton smartly uses the film's small $80,000 budget (from Playboy magazine) to burst the sketches out of there original studio confines,with one of the movies best sketches about a "deadly joke" being used against the German's in WW II (?) being given a brilliant "fresh" feel thanks to MacNaughton giving the scene and misty look and also fully displaying the vast location.
Despite the group surprisingly not using the widescreen format to feature a number of background or side gags that could be picked up on repeat viewings,the Python's impressively keep away from making the sketches ever feel old & recycled,by using the overlapping character's as a way to include a wonderfully new,absurd element into each of the sketches,that leads to viewer being excited about what direction the next sketch will go in,the moment they hear the words "And now for something completely different.".