Carol Cleveland

Monty Python Live (Mostly)

Admin — Sun, 20 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Celebrate the last night of the Pythons on the big screen! – With John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin.

A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman

Admin — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam pay tribute to their late Monty Python colleague Graham Chapman in this hilarious, 3-D animated adaptation of Chapman’s brazenly fictionalized life story. (TIFF)

The Meaning of Life

Admin — Thu, 31 Mar 1983 00:00:00 +0000

Life’s questions are ‘answered’ in a series of outrageous vignettes, beginning with a staid London insurance company which transforms before our eyes into a pirate ship. Then there’s the National Health doctors who try to claim a healthy liver from a still-living donor. The world’s most voracious glutton brings the art of vomiting to new heights before his spectacular demise.

Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl

Admin — Fri, 25 Jun 1982 00:00:00 +0000

Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a 1982 concert film in which the Monty Python team perform many of their greatest sketches at the Hollywood Bowl, including several pre-Python ones.

Life of Brian

Admin — Fri, 17 Aug 1979 00:00:00 +0000

Brian Cohen is an average young Jewish man, but through a series of ridiculous events, he gains a reputation as the Messiah. When he’s not dodging his followers or being scolded by his shrill mother, the hapless Brian has to contend with the pompous Pontius Pilate and acronym-obsessed members of a separatist movement. Rife with Monty Python’s signature absurdity, the tale finds Brian’s life paralleling Biblical lore, albeit with many more laughs.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Admin — Sun, 25 May 1975 00:00:00 +0000

King Arthur, accompanied by his squire, recruits his Knights of the Round Table, including Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot and Sir Galahad the Pure. On the way, Arthur battles the Black Knight who, despite having had all his limbs chopped off, insists he can still fight. They reach Camelot, but Arthur decides not to enter, as “it is a silly place”.

And Now for Something Completely Different

Admin — Tue, 28 Sep 1971 00:00:00 +0000

A collection of Monty Python’s Flying Circus skits from the first two seasons of their British TV series.

Monty Python’s Flying Circus

Admin — Sun, 05 Oct 1969 00:00:00 +0000

Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a British sketch comedy series created by the comedy group Monty Python and broadcast by the BBC from 1969 to 1974. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines. It also featured animations by Terry Gilliam, often sequenced or merged with live action. The first episode was recorded on 7 September and broadcast on 5 October 1969 on BBC One, with 45 episodes airing over four series from 1969 to 1974, plus two episodes for German TV.

The show often targets the idiosyncrasies of British life, especially that of professionals, and is at times politically charged. The members of Monty Python were highly educated. Terry Jones and Michael Palin are Oxford University graduates; Eric Idle, John Cleese, and Graham Chapman attended Cambridge University; and American-born member Terry Gilliam is an Occidental College graduate. Their comedy is often pointedly intellectual, with numerous erudite references to philosophers and literary figures. The series followed and elaborated upon the style used by Spike Milligan in his ground breaking series Q5, rather than the traditional sketch show format. The team intended their humour to be impossible to categorise, and succeeded so completely that the adjective “Pythonesque” was invented to define it and, later, similar material.