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Monty Python Reunion

Started by CaledonianGonzo, November 19, 2013, 08:43:02 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Ignatius_S

A friend once worked at a studio and one time she went down to the reception, where the receptionist was looking a bit concerned. When asked if they were okay, they said yes but there was a homeless drunk trying to get inside the building – people had to be buzzed in, but the person didn't realise or care and was pushing and pulling on the handle. When she was asked if they call the police, my friend looked at the CCTV and enquired, 'You do know that's Terry Jones, don't you?'. The receptionist buzzed him in and warmly greeted him – 'Terry, how wonderful to see you!'.

In fairness, Jones had clearly enjoyed a good lunch and his attire rather dishevelled and there were one or two claret stains upon his front, so the mistake was one that others may have made. As for Jones, he was charm and good humour personified.

Quote from: Weeping Prophet on July 25, 2014, 10:00:33 AM
Yeah. I seriously doubt he'd be given the go-ahead to direct a film in the first place if there was something seriously wrong with him....

Yes, because film directors are notoriously sound, healthy individuals.

Quote from: Ignatius_S on July 25, 2014, 10:21:25 AM

Yes, because film directors are notoriously sound, healthy individuals.


To the degree to which they can actually do the job, and have someone throw millions of dollars at you. I know the film industry is notoriously wasteful, but they might as well pay some actors to pretend to be a crew and let Terry think he's directing a movie just so he can die happy.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

#662
Quote from: Weeping Prophet on July 25, 2014, 10:00:33 AM
Yeah. I seriously doubt he'd be given the go-ahead to direct a film in the first place if there was something seriously wrong with him. It's not like he raised the money on Kickstarter.

Yes, I dare say you're right. Anyways, if there *was* something wrong with him, the Pythons would probably have revived that 'Mrs. Zambesi's new brain' sketch for the shows, as a sort of tribute to him, to go along with those amusing "Cleesie's always getting divorced, innit" and 'Mikey Palin's travel shows are a right boring load of old bollocks" quips they made (Alternatively, Eric Idle could have come out with an "is your wife over 40 years younger than you, squire? Eh, know worrimean?" line in the famous 'Breakaway bar' sketch, but maybe Jonesy himself vetoed that). He could have still given my mate a proper interview though, the miserable[nb] actually, she said he was quite cheerful[/nb] git.

I suppose what really bothers me about seeing the slow-motion, sporadically silent  version of Terry Jones nowadays, along with the other aged Pythons is how *old* they've gotten. I remember the Python night from 1999 when I also was a bit unnerved at how crap the new specially written material was inappropriate it seemed for the then-56 year old Palin to be dressing up as Luigi Vercotti ,and for John Cleese to be dressed as a bowler-hatted gent in the city; their oldness looked quite unbecoming in those roles.
And now....well, as someone else on 'ere has observed , John Cleese actually looks and sounds like a different person nowadays (He'll never be able to do the Mr. Praline voice again! Imagine that! It's like Ringo Starr not being able to do his favourite paradiddle!)...and when they were younger....PHWOAAAAR! What a good-looking bunch of blokes they were, eh, ladies? Eric Idle was probably the biggest dreamboat amongst them, but they were all a right bunch of Harry Handsomes, forsaking a career in male modelling, in the name of comedy.

So,after watching the last Python performance seeing the aged Jonesy, the ancient Cleese, the actually-showing-his age-nowadays Palin (especially with the bouffant wig for the 'Blackmail' bit), the craggy Gilliam, Eric Idle with the massively thinning hair which he never *did* decide to wear short, with the slighly off timing, the near-fluffed lines, the scrabbling for witty ad-libs which didn't quite appear, the rushed performances and the truly atrocious "new' gags....well, there was laughter to be had from a lot of the material, but also a profound sadness. These people were the immortal comedy Gods of my youth. How dare they be so...so...*mortal*?

EOLAN

Only watched that Imagine Documentary earlier in the week having recorded it when it was on. Terry Jones seems to be working perfectly well but he nearly seemed to have a bit of time in expressing his thoughts. Probably the first time I plan going to a film just out of pure loyalty to the director - no matter how it turns out.
Anyway, didn't seem as authorative as the aspiring upper class gentleman roles but was absolutely sublime as always as an old lady.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Weeping Prophet on July 25, 2014, 10:32:45 AM
To the degree to which they can actually do the job, and have someone throw millions of dollars at you. I know the film industry is notoriously wasteful, but they might as well pay some actors to pretend to be a crew and let Terry think he's directing a movie just so he can die happy.

Sure – and if there were known medical factors, insurance would be tricky and that affects who gets hired.

However, my comment was purely a tongue in cheek comment about directors often not being the most balanced of individuals, rather than anything to do with Jones himself. A little more seriously, studios can disregard warning signs about directors and actors.

This is a bit of an extreme example, but before Tora! Tora! Tora! went into production, 20th Century Fox should have known that there was going to be problems working with Akira Kurosawa – his vision was very different to theirs and he was a perfectionist, which wasn't going to be happy combination, but his behaviour (such as point blank refusing to attend studio meetings because he hated the script and wanting expensive sets built but continually declining to explain how they would be used) suggested that there were going to be problems and that his actions would likely be erratic on set... plus, the studio have screwed him over in terms of his contract.  And problems during production, there were.  On the first day, he stormed off set because wallpaper had wrinkles, refused to shoot any footage and things got worse from there Amongst other things, he insisted that his crew stand to attention and give him military salutes; fired his assistant directors; took them back and then stormed off-set when the main assistant director refused to beat the other ADs because they had supposedly done something wrong; ordered sets destroyed and then rebuilt.

Quote from: Ignatius_S on July 25, 2014, 12:34:31 PM
Sure – and if there were known medical factors, insurance would be tricky and that affects who gets hired.

However, my comment was purely a tongue in cheek comment about directors often not being the most balanced of individuals, rather than anything to do with Jones himself. A little more seriously, studios can disregard warning signs about directors and actors.

This is a bit of an extreme example, but before Tora! Tora! Tora! went into production, 20th Century Fox should have known that there was going to be problems working with Akira Kurosawa – his vision was very different to theirs and he was a perfectionist, which wasn't going to be happy combination, but his behaviour (such as point blank refusing to attend studio meetings because he hated the script and wanting expensive sets built but continually declining to explain how they would be used) suggested that there were going to be problems and that his actions would likely be erratic on set... plus, the studio have screwed him over in terms of his contract.  And problems during production, there were.  On the first day, he stormed off set because wallpaper had wrinkles, refused to shoot any footage and things got worse from there Amongst other things, he insisted that his crew stand to attention and give him military salutes; fired his assistant directors; took them back and then stormed off-set when the main assistant director refused to beat the other ADs because they had supposedly done something wrong; ordered sets destroyed and then rebuilt.

Ah, I never knew the details of the Tora! Tora! Tora! debacle. But I suppose you'd need to have the status of a Kurosawa to even find yourself in that position, possibly? I mean, yes, I know that unstable people are put in positions of power all the time...

I'm giving the Jones the benefit of doubt that he's perfectly capable of directing a motion picture but possibly not directing a motion picture while giving a meaningful interview. Who knows. I'm eager to see it at any rate.


Lisa Jesusandmarychain

I've got a blummin' negging because of my heartfelt 'the Pythons are old gits now' post!Well, really!

Ah well, a fair enough reason was given, and at least the negger didn't do the 'arsehole transplant' joke.


Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Just call me Mrs....no,no, I'm not going there.[nb]no, I don't mean don't call me Mrs....no,no, I'm not going there. Don't get cute.[/nb]

dr beat

I thought Palin is looking in pretty good shape for his age, certainly helped for the judges sketch.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Weeping Prophet on July 25, 2014, 12:55:16 PM
Ah, I never knew the details of the Tora! Tora! Tora! debacle. But I suppose you'd need to have the status of a Kurosawa to even find yourself in that position, possibly? I mean, yes, I know that unstable people are put in positions of power all the time......

As I mentioned, Fox really screwed him over – Kurosawa thought he was going to have a lot of control over the film but his contract basically gave him the power of a first-time director, so I do have a fair bit of sympathy. Also, this was a project that he really cared about. One of the films, that could have been magnificent but it was never going to happen.

Quote from: Weeping Prophet on July 25, 2014, 12:55:16 PM...I'm giving the Jones the benefit of doubt that he's perfectly capable of directing a motion picture but possibly not directing a motion picture while giving a meaningful interview. Who knows. I'm eager to see it at any rate.

Me too – as I say, I was just trying to make a remark about directors in general and not about Jones. From what I've seen, I can't say I felt there's any cause for concern about Jones' powers and am hoping that the film is going to be a good 'un.

the science eel

Is it OK if I agree with all of what's been said but still just have rather boring, general thoughts along the lines of 'isn't it great to see them all on stage again together the lovely funny old fuckers?' ?

Revelator

Title says it all: "Welsh Python legend defends cue card use" (http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-python-legend-defends-cue-7471390)

Quote from: Tuesday on July 24, 2014, 07:33:18 PMI put it down to his hearing. When Palin got his Bafta you could see Graham Norton talking into Jones' ear, and he would then react.

An intriguing explanation. Hearing impairment would certainly account for timing issues. I wonder if they couldn't have arranged to give him a hearing-aid mock-up to feed him his lines.

Discussion of directors with problems makes me want to look up all those stories about Sam Peckinpah on set.

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on July 25, 2014, 10:33:18 AMI remember the Python night from 1999 when I also was a bit unnerved at how crap the new specially written material was inappropriate it seemed for the then-56 year old Palin to be dressing up as Luigi Vercotti ,and for John Cleese to be dressed as a bowler-hatted gent in the city; their oldness looked quite unbecoming in those roles.

Resurrecting Vercotti was a definite mistake, but a late-middle-age City gent doesn't seem so off; aren't there plenty in real life? But yes, the new Python Night material was a disappointment (that gorilla sketch went on forever). I saw only three good bits--Cleese getting showered with kitten blood, the mindless violence montage, and the mindful violence animation. Bringing up Python Night is to the recent stage show's benefit, since the latter was far more effective. Nor did age and slower timing scupper any of the sketches.  The tweaked lines were often for the worse, but I enjoyed the inter-group ribbing, blown lines, ad-libs, corpsing, and other departures from the script. Together they were the best part of the show, because they emphasized the same thing--that the Pythons were enjoying themselves enormously, regardless of age and its expected impediments. To me that made the occasion far more happy than sad. Ragged as it was, it was a proper send-off.

EOLAN

I really liked Terry Gilliam's role in the (less famous) Mastermind sketch on Python Night.
Wonder if they let me on to Mastermind with "Mathermatical Problems to Which the Answer is Two"

CaledonianGonzo

Still beaming about this.  Terry Gilliam's enthusiasm as Cardinal Fang, man.

That's the real comedy voodoo.

Andy147

Quote from: ColonelVolestrangler on July 24, 2014, 01:14:25 AM
No, it was Putin, though with the original voice, on Gold, in the cinema, and at the O2.

Just re-watched it - you're right, of course. My only excuse is I wasn't watching carefully, and Putin does look a bit like the original.[nb]My two excuses (etc, etc)[/nb]

mobias

I re-watched the whole thing last night. I found the end genuinely moving again but the whole thing is way short of being as good as the Hollywood Bowl performance even though its a massively more ambitious production with a far more varied selection of sketches.
I'm such a huge Python fan but there's long sections of it where I really didn't find myself laughing. I don't mind the musical numbers, I can see why they're in there, but they're simply not that funny at all and in the case of the China song just plain bizarre. Also ending with the Christmas time in Heaven sing along just seems like a really flat end to the whole thing. I thought by far the best live sketch was the version of Blackmail they did but they could have done more with it and I thought there was disappointing amount of audience participation throughout the whole thing. Michael Palin is clearly the star performer in the wake of Graham Chapman and still seems like he's got a lot of comedic vitality left in him. In spite of his complaints before hand Terry Gilliam clearly looked like he was really enjoying himself and was putting a lot of energy into it, which was a joy to watch. Cleese still has enough energy in him for the most part. The parrot sketch/cheese shop sketch was great to see. Not sure what to make of Terry Jones. As others have said he seemed slightly bewildered by the whole thing, or perhaps just fairly exhausted.

All in it all it seemed curiously similar to a live performance equivalent of The Meaning of Life - bits of it were funny, bits of it were interesting and bits of it were just quite flat.

DrGreggles

Watched the Gold coverage the other day and I think Gilliam's enthusiasm shone through more than anything else.
It's weird to think that he's not even really a 'performer'.

mobias

Quote from: DrGreggles on July 27, 2014, 01:20:04 PM
Watched the Gold coverage the other day and I think Gilliam's enthusiasm shone through more than anything else.


Yeah I really got a sense he was letting his hair down more than the others and enjoying being more of a performer. I do think the end of it seemed like a genuinely final farewell to Python but you do wonder if there's part of them thinking that they enjoyed it perhaps more than they thought they would and you wonder if they would secretly like to have done more and refine the show a bit. I guess touring with it and taking the whole thing to somewhere like Australia would become exhausting and hugely time consuming very quickly though. Something I guess they wanted to avoid.

EOLAN

Having finally watched Alan Yentob documentary of him stalking the Pythons, it does come across in relation to Zero Theorem and his recent opera, that Terry Gilliam does like to talk down his projects a lot, while putting a lot of effort into it. Probably similar in relation to the Live (Mostly) tour.
Also, probably a bit of a showman in him. Knowing these people have paid good money so he has some obligation to ensure they enjoy the experience.

SavageHedgehog

Quote from: Revelator on July 25, 2014, 06:31:03 PM
Title says it all: "Welsh Python legend defends cue card use" (http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-python-legend-defends-cue-7471390)

Uh, has he just imagined an Abba reunion tour there?

EOLAN

Just re-watching episode 2 of Monty Python (Almost the Truth). Probably 100 better threads to put this but my word Russel Brand is such a twat. Big words to make nonsensical phrases does not make one smart.

Revelator

Quote from: SavageHedgehog on July 27, 2014, 04:01:52 PM
Uh, has he just imagined an Abba reunion tour there?

Though to be honest I'd rather see Abba than Neil Diamond--Cleese has bizarre taste in music.

kaprisky

A review of GOLD's live broadcast from last Sunday.


Was there ever any age restriction on the shows? I imagine that the cinema screenings would have been a 15 but at the live shows I don't remember. I can't recall seeing any children in the arena at the O2 but I always thought that the main restricting factor (for all ages) would have been the ticket prices.

Revelator

Quote from: kaprisky on July 27, 2014, 07:46:45 PM
Was there ever any age restriction on the shows?

IIRC, no under-15s without a parent.

imitationleather

Why would under 15s want to go unless they were on the pull?

Rev

Idle's interviews about this in the run-up went on about how Chapman would be featured in it via video, and that he 'even sings' in it - what was that then?

Revelator

Quote from: Rev on July 28, 2014, 01:34:22 AM
Idle's interviews about this in the run-up went on about how Chapman would be featured in it via video, and that he 'even sings' in it - what was that then?

Chapman sings "Christmas in Heaven"--the video is shown before seguing into a live action continuation of the song and dance routine, albeit with a Chapman impersonator.

Quote from: kaprisky on July 27, 2014, 07:46:45 PM
A review of GOLD's live broadcast from last Sunday.
Don't know what this review's going on about in a couple of places... GOLD didn't censor the Paul Dacre comments on the initial broadcast, as it implies, and it didn't cut off broadcast after the Parrot Sketch, though a lot of peoples' recordings cut out here due to the over-run.

Brundle-Fly

#689
To put peoples' minds at rest, I live near Terry Jones and frequently see him about. Last month, Jones looked absolutely fine.