#Monty Python Biopics

[yonderghostshistories]

Recently got some DVDs of movies that I'm excited to watch later (when I have the time that is) which are also from of my favourite hyperfixations rn/fandoms that I'm in! These include:

The 2 Ben Wheatley/Reece Shearsmith horror movies; which are "A Field in England" (2013) & "In the Earth" (2021) respectively

The 2 Monty Python biopic movies (or Pythonpics, I should say); which are "Holy Flying Circus" (2011) & "A Liar's Autobiography" (2012) respectively

Can't wait to watch them :)

[theniftycat]

The blessing and the curse of being into British TV.

Your fave will be in some projects that are heaven sent, tailor made to suit your tastes.

It will be one season of six episodes 20 minutes each.

[intheblackofmyroom]

i rewatched holy flying circus and i can't stop thinking about the homoerotic tension between john and michael. like. john literally said to mike he loved him. man, that's strong.

[franklyimissparis]

can george’s beatle biopic please be in the style of monty python pleaseeeeeeee

[the-boney-rolls]

The Great Covid Beatles Binge, Day 3: The Rutles

This is gonna be short and sweet because it's just a good, funny movie! There's not much to say about it.

The going from car to car to car is very good and already I'm giggling. I know this was made before Broad Street but that's what this license place makes me think of. I'm gonna go off on a limb and say Paul was not making a Rutles reference and this was a funny coincidence.

All of the names are fantastic but I gotta give the award to Leggy Mountbaton.

I like how some things just aren't jokes, like Ringo saying he wanted to be a hairdresser.

“Goose Step Mama” !

Why is Eric Idle actually the best Paul I've seen? Petition for Monty Python to cast the biopics.

“Shoot me down in flames if I should tell a lie” I love how insane the joke lyrics are.

Another thing that isn't a joke, Dick Jaws  “an unemployed music publisher of no fixed ability." Brutal. chef's kiss

The references in this are so specific. Almost complete shot for shot remakes of The First US Visit. This was made by people with deep Beatles knowledge. If I had watched this when I was a teenage fan I wouldn't have gotten 90% of the jokes.

And damn this is cram jammed full of jokes. I almost lost it at "A Cellar Full of Goys"!

Bill Murray the K! Incredible. The casting in this is a work of art.

Oh look, a Beatles podcaster

"Four Oxford history professors on a hitchhiking tour of tea shops in the Rutland area." I don't know, sounds like a great idea for a Beatles movie to me.

Eyyyyyy, there he is! The George character meanwhile is conspicuously under the radar. They gave him Paul is Dead instead of anything of his own! Hmmm

Can't not acknowledge "Things had gotten so bad that both Dirk and Nasty got married. Not to each other! To women." No comment needed.

Is this scene the entire reason Paul didn't like this movie? It is an odd take on Paul. It's almost like someone knew that portraying him as awkward around women would particularly irk him.

“The art had all been dropped out of tall buildings and then put on display” sounds like a plausible modern art exhibit.

The Yoko stand in is a literally Nazi damn!

The feet film! Oh my god, George, what did you tell them??

John Belushi as Alan Klein, another genius casting choice.

I'm just gonna end on this shot of punk Dirk, stand in for glam mullet Paul, my beloved.

What a great time! Even if they did have George spilling the tea to them behind the scenes, I feel like this was made with a lot of love, by and for the hardcore girlies.

[commonguttersnipe]

List 5 things that you'd personally love to see in a hypothetical 2nd Monty Python Biopic and give reasons why please?

Uhh thanks!!

Great question!!

1. I’d love to see more of John and Graham’s friendship, as it was integral to the team.

2. Carol Cleveland.

3. A lot of the silly incidents in Michael’s diary (the boys being drunk and homosexual, the masturbation rant, the typewriter scenario)

4. More of Michael’s jumpers (they did really well with this in Holy Flying Circus, I’d like to see it continued)

5. Graham’s alcoholism affecting the rest of the group. John’s temper flaring up. Terry’s argumentative side. Eric’s aloofness. Jonesy’s worrisome nature. Michael’s doormat tendencies. Show a bit of the dark side of the pythons.

6. Carol Cleveland.

7. The structure of a writing session.

8. More of Michael’s home life because I want more Helen being a girl boss.

9. Eric’s friendships with several rock stars. What exactly happened in New York?

10. Carol Cleveland.

[lmtyl]

Watching the Weird Al biopic and boy, if you want to point at your tv while screeching out emotions you don't have names for, this is the movie for you!

It's very Monty Python-flavored.

[twosheds]

Hello! Have you seen that Monty Python biopic of sorts called "Holy Flying Circus" that came out 12 years ago in 2011? It's basically about the controversies surrounding the Pythons' movie "Life of Brian" at the time, except told in a more comedic Pythonesque way.

If you have seen it, any thoughts on the movie?

Hello! Well... I'm only about four months late answering this and for that I can only apologise!

I have seen Holy Flying Circus and I absolutely love it. I've actually watched it at least three times :D The first time I watched it I wasn't a superfan like I am now, and was only vaguely aware of the LoB controversy, so it was a bit weird going into without really knowing the Pythons that well. The main reason I actually wanted to watch it was because I'd heard it was very Michael/John centric and that it was kind of shippy... I was like.... ok I have to see this, haha. (I wasn't disappointed!)

(editing to include this gif:)

But since becoming a huge fan and Pyhtonite, I've watched it a couple more times and have loved it on every watch. I think all the actors played their respective Pythons really well, especially Charles Edwards as Mike. I think it was clever that they didn't take the film too seriously and almost made the whole thing a sort of parody of the debate, rather than trying to do something historically accurate. It was very Pythonesque in that way, and whilst I would love to see another Python biopic at some point (especially something that focuses on Graham), I think Holy Flying Circus is a delightful addition to the Python library of goods :)

[montypythonswine]

Have you watched/seen the 2 Monty Python Biopics, "Holy Flying Circus" (2011) & "A Liar's Autobiography" (2012), yet? If so, what did you think of them? (that is if you have seen either one of the biopics)

Hi,

I haven’t watched Holy Flying Circus but I have watched A liar’s autobiography several years ago and I need to watch it again. I liked it in places it was quite hard to watch especially when Graham was struggling with quitting alcohol.

[right-stopthat-its-silly]

Hi! Have you seen the Monty Python (sorta) biopic/docudrama called "Holy Flying Circus" (2011)? If so, any thoughts?

I have not seen it, but I will add it to the watch list! I was quickly skimming the user reviews on IMDb and they’re 9/10s and 10/10s mostly, so I will definitely check it out. 🙂

[thesuetyouforgot]

Thoughts on the Monty Python (sorta) biopic/docudrama "Holy Flying Circus" (2011)?

I haven't watched it yet bc I couldn't find it anywhere online 😭 But from the scenes I've seen so far it looks interesting and really well made (although I'm so confused why the Terry Jones actor also plays Michael's wife)

Have you seen it? If so, what are your thoughts on it?

[yonderghostshistories]

@unrealcorvus I wanna know your personal thoughts on the 2 Monty Python biopics, which are "Holy Flying Circus" (2011) & "A Liar's Autobiography" (2012) respectively! (that is if you have seen either of the 2 Monty Python biopics. If you did only watch one of the MP biopics, i would still love want to hear your thoughts on the ones you have seen!!)

[oneinathousand]

I think it'd be funny to do a Monty Python biopic, then advertise it to look like Oscar Bait, only for it to turn out to be the total opposite.

[intheblackofmyroom]

can we all just agree that bbc 4 did a sort of monty python biopic that is actually a fanfiction and the director is probably a john/michael shipper?

[popentertainment-moviereviews]

THE ELECTRICAL LIFE OF LOUIS WAIN (2021)

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Andrea Riseborough, Toby Jones, Jamie Demetriou, Aimee Lou Wood, Cassia McCarthy, Hayley Squires, Stacy Martin, Indica Watson, Julian Barratt, Sharon Rooney, Adeel Akhtar, Asim Chaudhry, Sophia Di Martino, Olivier Richters, Nick Cave, Taika Waititi, Richard Ayoade and the voice of Olivia Colman.

Screenplay by Simon Stephenson and Will Sharpe.

Directed by Will Sharpe.

Distributed by Amazon Studios. 111 minutes. Rated PG-13.

Screened for the 2021 Philadelphia Film Festival.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain has an opening chyron which reads “This is a true story.” That is a fairly bold statement for a movie. Most biopics tend to couch that kind of claim, saying that they are “based on a true story.” No such timidity here. Louis Wain goes all in.

There are just a couple of problems with this. First of all, Louis Wain does not feel that true. I don’t know much about the subject of the film, but the storytelling here feels a bit stylized, a bit enhanced, a bit “based on.” Secondly, there is the much more basic question: Is this a story which needed telling?

Sadly, for the most part I tend to feel the answer to that question is no.

Louis Wain was once a rather famous illustrator, mostly known for his caricatures of cats which became quite popular during the Victorian era. In fact, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain claims that Wain was single-handedly responsible for making cats popular in Victorian England – which feels like a bit of a stretch, considering that cats were beloved in many ancient civilizations long before this story takes place.

Still, he was a beloved pop artist. He was also a terrible businessman and never made much money for his work, refusing to copyright his own art. However, at this point in history he is a rather obscure figure in the art world, much like the guy who first did a painting of dogs playing poker.

Wain also appears to have been quite insane – or at the very least massively eccentric – for much of his life.

The “Electrical Life” part of the title refers to a deeply held (and honestly somewhat confusing) philosophy which Wain held that all beings – humans, and cats, and everything else – were just a channeling of electrical energy. He was even essentially right and rather prescient in many of his beliefs, but the bizarre ways that he – or at least the movie – explains them often makes him come off looking like a bit of a lunatic.

Benedict Cumberbatch does a very good job in portraying Wain – or at least as good as the source material will allow him. As a young man, he feels like he has escaped from a Monty Python sketch, all repressed British mannerisms, eccentric behavior and silly walks. As he gets older, he becomes nearly catatonic, beaten down by loss, mental illness and the cruel Victorian medical system.

According to this film, one of the two great losses in Louis Wain’s life was the death of his first cat, which feels a little off dramatically. I am saying that as a life-long cat lover who knows full well how vital cats are to life and how hard it is to say goodbye to them. I have loved cats completely and selflessly, which is a strong, elemental emotion, but not necessarily a cinematic one.

And, frankly, for a film about a man who is defined by his love of cats, while there are many cats around in The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, they are mostly relegated to the background. Cats are endlessly fascinating and entertaining – just check out all the videos on the internet today. So, if they are going to make a movie about the love of cats, perhaps more of the time could have been spent on watching cats just be cats, rather than dwelling in the dark corners of Louis Wain’s family problems, his romantic problems, his financial problems and his mental problems.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain takes a slightly odd and ultimately rather tragic story and tells it fairly well. However, most audiences will probably walk out wondering why this was a story they needed to hear.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2021 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: October 22, 2021.

[commonguttersnipe]

What would your personal fancast for each of the Pythons & Co be in a hypothetical Monty Python parody "biopic" and why?

Henry Shields as John Cleese (this means everything to me)

Christian Borle as Terry Gilliam (this just makes me laugh)

Daniel Radcliffe as Michael Palin (this just feels right)

Taron Egerton as Graham Chapman (he would smash it)

Dan Stevens as Eric Idle (I'm right. I just am)

Tom Sturridge as Terry Jones (I don't know about this one but…)



Tamsin Olivia Egerton as Carol Cleveland

Ellie Morris as Connie Booth

Nicholas Hoult as Neil Innes

Sir Michael Palin as the Narrator