essaljay

This is going to be difficult to explain so please bear with me. Whilst watching Monty Python's Life of Brian I always notice something that constantly bugs me and I'm beginning to wander if it's just me. Whenever anyone hits anyone else e.g. as in the scene where John Cleese as the Roman soldier strikes Graham Chapman if you look carefully it looks like he actually hits him twice as if it has been edited and duplicated but in very quick succession. This happens in other parts of the movie and I don’t think it is just my copy as I see it on the T.V. as well. Can anyone suggest why this is happening?

m35541

This happens all the time in Python - I think its some kind of jump cut, a cheap way of editing together two different shots (the cut is just before the slap/hit). i think they started doing it for cheapness but then used it as some kind of stylistic touch.

bhowells

I have not noticed this before but I have now got it on a Python box set which has all the films, whilst on the subject of Life Of Brian I heard on the radio this week that Sue Jones Davies who played Brians Mother is currnetly Mayor of Aberystwyth, the film was banned when it was first released bu the actress has now lifted the ban.

I

essaljay

I think you must mean his girlfriend as his mother was played by Terry Jones. With regard to the editing I don't think two shots have been edited together as nobody else in the shot seems to move. Therefore I can only think that it was done deliberately. I just wander why?

Steve Crook

Yes, it was the actress who played his girl-friend. Sue Jones-Davies played Judith Iscariot. She stopped acting some time ago and went into politics (Plaid Cymru). So Aberystwyth has a lady mayor who has been seen naked on screen



Now oddly enough, Aberystwyth was one of the few towns in the UK to ban Life of Brian so one of Sue's first acts as mayor was to get that ban lifted

Steve

essaljay

She was also in the second series of "Rock Follies" on T.V. As a replacement singer when Charlotte Cornwell left the band (1977).

Straff

Please God the Mayor of London never follows suit. Eww

Semper ubi sub ubi

Geoffers

I can't answer the original question, but couldn't resist writing that by sheer coincidence I was at an "Evening with John Cleese" last night, when he showed a clip of himself in that film, in the scene where he points out that Chapman has made numerous errors in his Latin grammar. Maybe it was that scene you had in mind?

He was in great form, attacking anything that came to mind, including The French, The Welsh, Michael Palin (he was booed for that!), his estranged wife's lawyer and the (absent) management of the Avon Gorge Hotel.

He said he is writing two films, currently, one with his daughter.

Steve Crook

Give him time

Steve

bhowells

Yes, sorry of course Terry Jones was Brians Mother.

penfold

Glad the evenings are going well; I'd have loved to have been there, but can't afford it right now with so many silent film events to attend. How was Chris Serle coping??

Bit of a Bay Window, what??