Writer guy Bob Westal was literally born in Hollywood and has commented on the worlds of movies, popular culture, politics, and food ever since. His interest in cocktails is more recent, but he made up for lost time with hundreds of “Drink of the Week” blog posts for Bullz-Eye. In addition to writing and editing, Bob also talks a lot.
In honor of the 40th anniversary of Monty Python we have another pair of movie moments. This time, the renown comedy collectives nails down the world of progressive political movements in a pair of clips from the Pythons’ most controversial film, the not-quite biblical epic, “Life of Brian.”
Python lovers will also certainly want to take a gander at Will Harris’s piece on Python solo projects at Bullz-Eye.com
In honor of the 40th anniversary of Monty Python this week, we devoting this weekend’s movie moments to those titans of English comedy who’ve colonized the brains of young geeks, nerds, and slightly stoned layabouts the world over. Here, we have a pair of movie moments reminding us of the importance of knowing your avian zoology from the group’s epochal first feature.
Pythonistas should be sure to also check out English comedy maven Will Harris’s piece on Python solo projects over at Bullz-Eye.com
Some on the right have tried to make arguing for the freedom of Roman Polanski into a left wing cause rather than something espoused by a few filmmakers and entertainment figures a bit blinded by Polanski’s brilliance as a filmmaker. If Polanski really is the next Sacco & Vanzetti, Leonard Peltier or Mumia, why is this piece of verse of blunt-spoken verse by Calvin Trillin running in the country’s best known left-of-center publication? (H/t The Auteur’s Daily.)
Believe me, lefties are as angry at Polanski’s crime as righties and the poem’s attitudes are common across the political board. I actually like these verses quite a bit, and largely agree with them, though I’d vehemently quibble over one of Trillin’s word choices. However, I’ve already quibbled myself silly in various comments sections.
Instead, for no particular reason, I present an indescribable moment of Polanski, the actor, with a magnificent friend lip-synching a standard by Noël Coward — as suggested by Will Harris’s fine new piece on Monty Python solo projects.
Insert joke inspired by “The King and I” here —
It’s that time of the week when we offload the week’s last few stories.
* In the wake of his “Land of the Lost” debacle, Will Ferrell is going back to “Stranger than Fiction” territory with a more low-key form of comedy, writes Mike Fleming. “Everything Must Go” will be from first-time feature director Dan Rush and is based on a story by Raymond Carver — not an author frequently connected with hilarity though the script is apparently primarily a comedy and the premise (a newly unemployed guy’s wife locks him out and deposits his stuff on the lawn…and the guy responds by trying to sell all of it) sounds potentially pretty funny.
It’s important to remember that, once upon a time, not all comedies were expected to be laugh-riot farces and, ironically enough, they were often funnier anyhow. (The classical definition of comedy, by the way, is less about being funny and more about having a happy ending. By that definition, many black comedies are not comedies at all.)
* More from Fleming: Robert Redford’s new Lincoln conspiracy film started shooting on Monday and he has quite a cast assembled. This one could be good.
* American liberals like me complain a lot, and for very good reason, about the actions of media mega mogul Rupert Murdoch, particularly in regards to how his TV news network is essentially an arm of the Republican Party. But, it could be a lot worse. Italy’s scandal-ridden, far-right movie and TV mogul Murdoch-equivalent actually runs the freaking country and I bet Italian rightwingers cry about the “liberal media” and the evils of the Rome film-making establishment too. But, hey, at least they have health care,.
* Speaking of media moguls, Nikki Finke believes that GE may ultimately divest itself of NBC Universal, which may please ecologically minded and antiwar folks while depriving “30 Rock” of one of its best running gags. Still, Finke says it may be seven years before it’s complete, so Tina Fey & company should be able to milk it sufficiently. Also, Finke wonders about Ted Turner’s mental health in regard to Time-Warner.
* It may be last summer’s news here in the U.S., but “Up” continues to land on top of the global box office.
Today we associate multi-talented playwright Noël Coward with witty repartee, a forgiving view of sexual peccadilloes, twenties pop standards by Cole Porter and Coward himself, and the heavy use of cocktails. The play, “Easy Virtue,” about a country household thrown into chaos when the family’s only son impetuously marries an American woman with a shadowy past, however, was a melodrama and the 1928 silent film version was directed by the none other than a young Alfred Hitchcock. 81 years later, Australian director Stephen Elliott (“The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”) and co-writer Sheridan Jobbins have taken a very different tack, modified the plot, and turned the drama into a mostly comedic confection filled with witty repartee, a forgiving view of sexual peccadilloes, the music of Coward, Porter and, er, Tom Jones and Billy Ocean, and the heavy use of champagne and wine — but hardly any martinis.
Elliott does a good enough job finding the material’s comedic possibilities, but his style doesn’t quite fit and he gets into trouble when he indulges in some annoying Baz Luhrmann-esque musical/stylistic flourishes. Still, the main problem here is that, while Colin Firth as the family’s alienated patriarch and Kristin Scott Thomas as the repressed mother do first rate work, and Ben Barnes (a.k.a. “Prince Caspian”) is able as the young husband, Jessica Biel, in the crucial role of the extremely non-ugly American, barely registers. Her colorless performance tips the film over the edge of being an enjoyable diversion and into mediocrity.
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