Composer:
André JacqueminCast:
Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Carol Cleveland, André JacqueminPlots(1)
A Liar's Autobiography is a hilarious account of the highs and lows of the extraordinary life story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman. Starring as himself and reunited with Monty Python's John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones for the first time in 23 years, we discover Chapman, from his childhood days as a pipe-smoking baby and student at Cambridge University, to becoming a Python, discovering his homosexuality and battling alcoholism, via moving to LA where he parties to excess, and right up until the moment when he rather selfishly drops dead in 1989. Using ground-breaking animation and complete with a healthy dose of profanity, blasphemy and gratuitous name-dropping, A Liar's Autobiography is a biopic on Chapman's bizarre life and search for self-knowledge. Incredible, yes. Surreal, certainly. True, who knows? (Gryphon Entertainment)
(more)Reviews (1)
I think Graham Chapman would be pleased. His autobiography feels almost as charmingly goofy in the film as it does on paper, it's just as falsely unbelievable and at times "serious" (alcoholism), the ambiguities are even more ambiguous (the scene with Biggles leads the way), and even the warm musical number like the song "Sit on my face" is a must-see. A big bonus is, of course, the dubbing, which was done by the remaining Pythons plus a few guests in addition to the author who has been dead for 24 years (the presence of Cameron Diaz as Sigmund Freud only underlines what a crazy show it is), and the authors of all the animated parts also deserve praise - each one is unique. It's a pity that about a quarter of an hour before the end, Autobiography isn't very interesting or funny. That's when we find ourselves at a party from which Chapman flees, hidden behind a cut-out Inspector Clouseau, but fortunately the subsequent cosmic encounter with Oscar Wilde sets things right. Four and a half.
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