The fun, again : The life of Brian

The Life of Brian, 1979

Directed by Terry Jones

Nationality: British

The Life of Brian is one of the most famous films made by the Monty Pythons.

It tells the story of Brian, a baby who was at year 0, visited by the Magi, on the 24^Th of December. But they finally see they are in the wrong stable, take all the goods back, and leave Brian and his mum, still poor and miserable !

The interesting thing is that the movie is not exactly based on Jesus’ life, but on how Brian suffers from being born on the same day, and how everyone thinks he’s the Messiah.

The humour in this movie is based on the situations, of course, as it is always a different point of view of Jesus’ “steps” before he gets crucified. We see all of that through Brian’s life and most of the things are based on unfortunate misunderstandings. But this is also probably the most scenarized film the Monty Python made, with a less absurd humour. But even though it’s very funny, they still make fun of the blind belief of some people towards someone (here, it’s Brian), and therefore completely ridiculous and makes fun of religion.

Like most funny guys, they all are very intelligent, cultivated and discerning men. Their humour makes sense, and to make the kind of humour you find in The Life of Brian, one of the first parodies about Christ, they needed to know what they were doing.

Making this film was very risky at the time, in 1979, and also as it was the first time it was ever done. In America, some people fought for the movie to be banned, and it provoked a whole movement for freedom of expression, and freedom of artistic expression. I don’t think anyone else could have made that but them. They already were loved and admired for their shifted humour, and thanks to that, they had a sort of immunity (even if of course the Church was not happy at all), and were already loved by most of the population.

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I tried to show that even if English movies are not always so fun, and happy, I also made this blog because the thing I love is that most of the time, humour is always present. And it actually represents how I figure English people are : optimistic, "shit happens all the time", and they move on, and that's what I love the most about what I see in most of those movies I told you about. Hope you enjoyed it ! 

Always look on the Brightside of Life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVXR0AKyxA4

The Fun : The Flying Circus

The Flying Circus

TV series, created by Graham Chapman

1969-1974

Let’s end on a happy note ! Yes, This blog was meant to show that there was some sad, depressing and serious stuff about England, but not only. The Monty Python are probably the main thing that makes people think and say that “British humour” exists. They were completely ahead of their time, and their humour, based on absurd situations, but always with a well-thought idea in the end, not just pure slapstick, is one of their main qualities.

Before I talk about The Life of Brian, I’m going to introduce them with their series, The Flying Circus. They were short sketches they played on stage, but also shot them and broadcast them on television. 

Facts about the series :

Funny fact, in the documentary about them : The Monty Python, la vérité (ou Presque, available there : http://vimeo.com/23527571), they explain that they just wanted to do something, but they didn’t know what yet. So, as they needed money, they went to the BBC in London, met the director of programs and told him they wanted to make a series.

And the guy was like “What is it about ?”. They replied “Well…we don’t know yet, but it’ll be funny…”. He then replied “but how many episodes, how long ? Did you write anything yet?!” …. “No, nothing, we’ll see !”. And the guy just ended up saying yes, just out of trust and out of “Why not anyway !”.

Which is crazy, but great, and completely unthinkable now. 

Another fact : the BBC burned a lot film reels and series in the 80’s, so they could re-use the film for new programs. When Terry Gilliam heard about that, he went there and bought all of their series, and thank God he did, otherwise, everything would be just gone. 

The last fact : they created their own Youtube Channel as they were sick of seeing bad quality videos of their work. Everything is available, for free, and in good quality on Youtube.

One of my favourite :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQaypso2KyI