This week I went to the Brattle Theater in Harvard Square and saw a double feature—The Life of Brian, and A Liar’s Autobiography, both by the same men responsible for the infamous Monty Python skits, movies, shows, etc.
The Brattle Theater is amazing, because it’s an actual “theatre.” As in, main floor and balcony seating, an actual stage, and only one screen to talk about. And then the Creative Director of the theater came on stage and introduced the film on microphone, doing the usual “no talking, phones on silent please, popcorn in the lobby downstairs” spiel that’s almost always left to pre-movie slideshows. And they’re airing things like....Monty Python, for crying out loud. For Valentine’s Day, they’re doing Casablanca. I actually think it’d be a good date option, for my two cents.
(Speaking of money, it’s actually a cheap theater, and with a student ID discount, which is rare to find in Boston since “everyone” here’s a student.)
I hadn’t seen either film. I was a fan of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and that was my the limit to my knowledge of the genre. But Nora and Bill, who invited me, were aficionados and explained to me that diehard Python fans were fairly split in “Holy Grail” or “Life of Brian” camps. And just before the film began, they had a quick conversation about how controversial The Life of Brian was. They quickly agreed that if the film was a script today, it wouldn’t get made; it was that simple.
And now I understand why.
The Life of Brian is so tongue and cheek with the Christian religion that it would undoubtedly become an uproar of a film if placed in theaters nationwide. I imagine it was the very same back when it had been produced. And it occurred to me in the middle of it that Nora, seated to my left, was Jewish. And Bill, seated to my right, was also Jewish. My only two Jewish friends in the Boston area were hanging out with me, watching the three Wise Men screw up their expensive deliveries. And I wondered what role that played in their interest in the film; in contemporary Judaism doctrine—I am told—pupils are actively encouraged to be skeptical of all religions, including their own. And with this experience of religious scrutiny under their belts, I wondered if they were better equipped to see the playfulness in the jests and jabs of the movie than your average devout Christian.
And then I remembered that they’re both incredibly knowledgeable in musicals and broadway shows, and perhaps just really appreciated the pivotal musical number when Brian was being crucified.
But what really caught my attention was A Liar’s Autobiography, which is a film made last year in dedication to Graham Chapman, using the audiotapes he created before his death in 1989. The film was a compilation of several different animation companies, creating a hodgepodge of different animation styles, which is a very unique thing to watch. In true Python style (for me), there were moments that were absolutely entertaining, and moments that really stood out there on the limb. But if The Life of Brian would have been controversial, I feel as though A Liar’s Autobiography would have be burned and buried in a mound in someone’s backyard. The sex scenes! The musical, musical sex scenes! When I sat down in the theater, this card was attached to the seat:
It reads, “‘I had no idea until recently that Graham Chapman is in fact dead—I thought he was just being lazy,’ MONTY PYTHON’S TERRY JONES”
And the flip side contains the lyrics of the singalong. (Yes, we were encouraged to sing along. No, I don’t think anyone actually did. But yes, I had a hard time not singing aloud to the catchy tune while going home on the subway. Awkward.) The sing along lyrics go a little something like this:
Sit on my face
I’ll sit on your face
And tell you I love you, too.
I love to hear you o-ra-lize,
When I’m between your thighs,
You blow me awaaay.
Sit on my face
And let my lips embrace you,
I’ll sit on your face
And then I’ll love you tru-ly.
Life can be fine, if we both 69,
If we sit on our faces
In all sorts of places
And play...’till we’re blown awaaaay.
Oh, here’s a video of them singing it, so you can have the tune stuck in your head too. (It’s not the piece from the film, but it’s still vaguely NSFW, depending on your stringency of butt protocol.)
There’s just so much about Monty Python and their late 80s British comedy style that’s worth analyzation. I’m sure someone somewhere has written a thesis about it. But when we get past the sex (easy) and even the religion (done), and the artwork of the animation (not so easy, but bear with me temporarily), what we have with A Liar’s Autobiography is a narration that is mostly true, but brazenly untrue. That sort of toying with the lines of fact and fiction is daring. I left the film with a strong sense of what was true, but unsure about which moments were untrue. And I left the film with the understanding that not knowing which was which didn’t mess with my conception of the takeaway value. For a guy like me—who loves to do a little research—that’s a pretty powerful achievement.
....So sit on my face, and let my lips embrace you~......
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