Non-Welles-Related Film Topics

[Terry]

Anyone see Gilliam's Brothers Grimm? It's been a long time since Fear and Loathing was released, and Lost in La Mancha was more a tease than a completed film project (I know it was an "unmaking of.") So I was bound to be delighted with Brothers Grimm no matter how it turned out. Once the film was rolling, I was afraid it was going to be an eighteenth-century Ghostbusters, but luckily the plot evolved a bit differently. I had trouble understanding some of the dialogue (think Andre the Giant in Princess Bride.) By the end I felt I had been on quite a journey, and was very favourably impressed. Not Gilliam's best, maybe, but certainly one to satisfy the high demands of a critical fan such as myself. And to make up for Gilliam's long absence, he somehow got two films going simultaneously, and I read somewhere online that his film Tideland has already premiered in Canada. Anyone seen that one?

In other Python-related news, the two series predating Flying Circus, Do Not Adjust Your Set (with Palin, Jones, Idle and Gilliam) and At Last the 1948 Show (with Cleese and Chapman) have hit the DVD shelves. There's also some Graham Chapman college speaking tour from the year before he died, called Brown Shirt and Trousers (or something like that). I haven't seen any of these, but if any of you have, please let me know what you think.

[marcoshark]

I seem to remember that the tour Mr. Chapman did was something called, "The Dangerous Sports Club". Extreme sports before the term was even coined. I saw this at the old "Ritz" in NYC (Now known as Webster Hall) and Mr. Chapman, showed movie and video clips of amazingly dangerous and absurd sports, with running commentary. A good time was had by all.

[Terry]

It's called Looks Like a Brown Trouser Job. Don't know if it's the same tour you saw (gee, wish I had!)

Here's the amazon page (though if you order on amazon, use the Wellesnet link through this site so Jeff gets credit.)

Graham Chapman DVD