Other Titles • Monty Python's And Now for Something Completely Different • Monty Pythons wunderbare Welt der Schwerkraft (1983) • Die Wunderbare Welt der Schwerkraft (1983)
Synopses for And Now for Something Completely Different (1971)
1.
Monty Python's first feature is essentially a reworking of their best skits from the first two seasons of their cult TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus, shot on film outside the usual studio sets (Nudge Nudge, for example, is set in a tavern filled with passersby). As the TV series was as yet unseen in the U.S. at the time of this feature, And Now for Something Completely Different became for many Americans their first taste of the Pythons' brand of surreal, silly humor and remains a fond favorite. The writing and performances are fine and the film is packed with some of their best bits: How to Avoid Being Seen, Hell's Grannies, Blackmail, The Lumberjack Song, and The Upper Class Twit of the Year, among others. Many of the sketches have been shortened, however, and the loss of the overbright video sheen (the film has a muddy, dull look to it) and the invigorating presence of a live audience leaves the film sluggish at times. They're still feeling out the possibilities of the feature-length, which they finally conquer with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, still their finest hour and a half. --Sean Axmaker
2.
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT consists of some of Monty Python's funniest sketches from their earliest years together. Director Ian MacNaughton leads John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Terry Gilliam on a hysterical romp through pet shops, marriage counselor offices, and odd London streets and fields filled with singing lumberjacks, dead parrots, hungry babies, upper-class twits, people trying not to be seen, and old ladies on motorcycles, fighting off milkmen, bank robbers, crazy flashers, dirty forks, and killer jokes. The sketches have been re-created for the big screen, without the ever-present laugh track but still loaded with Gilliam's outrageously funny animation. As in the television show, the skits are linked together through clever animation as well as by characters in uniform (Graham Chapman, in this case) proclaiming, "I'm warning this film not to get silly again." Among Monty Python's favorite targets are the military, the police, the British government, the courts, Mao, Uncle Sam, and television reporters. As always, there are lots of men in drag. Even the closing credits are a riot. But watch out for that 16-ton weight....
3.
The Best of Monty Python's Flying Circus
England was such a proper place - until the day the Python arrived. Monty Python, that is, a Flying Circus that slithered up the funnybone of an entire nation and gave it fits of laughter.
Here's Monty Python's first feature film - a hilarious collection of their very best twits, skits and bits from their popular TV series. There's "Hell's Grannies" and "The Cannibal Baby Strollers," "The Dead Parrot" routine (he's just resting!) and valuable tips on how to defend yourself against an attacker armed with a piece of fruit. And who will ever forget "The Lumberjack Song" ("I cut down trees, I wear high heels, suspenders and a bra")?
And, of course, plenty of zany Monty Python animation. Absolutely the silliest stuff since the day Ernest Scribbler wrote the world's funniest joke and died (croak!) laughing.
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