[maxlevel]

When I was a young chap, my mum took us to meet her new mates for a New Years party. Being small I fell asleep and woke up in a spare bedroom, and flicked through the channels to find monty python and The Holy Grail on bbc2. I think that moment changed my entire life. I became obsessed for a time with the surreal comedy of python and Terry Gilliam, strange French films like la Jetee and during that time, Juenet’s City of Lost Children and Delicatessen which all drew from the same wells. Later, a chance screening of Amelie in Manchester in 2004 would be key in moving me toward where I am today. I still don’t understand why so called mainstream cinemas don’t show art house films when there should be no distinction. There are only good and bad films and most films are awful; you have to dig.

My oddball supervisor at my first real job was obsessed with Life of Brian and only ever conversed in quotes of that film, and tales of his life as a taxi driver in 70s London, and how he’d slept with half of London in his taxi. Tim’s entire life was obsessed with that film and those Pythons, and as I became bored with only Python I became bored with him and the job.

But I remained obsessed with the film world and the places it could take people. And so when Terry Jones died today, I was able to remember a decade or so through the path of comedy and of learning about the world, friends and people I no longer speak to who will probably be sad as well. And this sketch:

https://youtu.be/saY10AWXLIY

Good luck everyone

[ScoJo]

Ludo sad.

Thanks for that Max, nice reading.

Ps as an aside... I happened to be in Paris on the day Amelie was released. Loving Delicatessen, myself and lady friend hit a Parisian cinema, for a screening without Eng subs (of course), with neither of us having more than the most basic tourist French.

Later that year I saw it again on dvd, with subtitles. And you know what? Turns out there was very little we didn't come away understanding of the movie the first time, when we didn't understand the dialogue.

Now that's a fuckin filmmaker. No merde.

[deafmetal]

Thank you for posting this, Max. I still recall the day I stumbled across Monty Python and the Holy Grail on broadcast TV, also as a young lad. Back in those days I was quick with the VHS, and I taped anything I came across that I thought might be worth watching again. I think I drove my family mad with how many times I watched that tape, and I even tried to write out my own text of the various bits and songs throughout the film. My family did not have cable TV back then, so I knew nothing of Flying Circus or the other films. It was an epic day many years later when my friends and I found Life of Brian at the video rental store, which was soon followed up with The Meaning of Life. I did not come across episodes of FC until I was at college/university, but that entire brand of humor has had a life-long impact on me. I initially bonded with my gf, J, over a shared love of all this "British humor", and she is an even bigger fan than I am, so it has been a great match. Anyway, hats off for Terry Jones today.

Also, fully agreed on the comments regarding Jean-Pierre Jeunet's filmography.