Monty Python and the Holy Grail: A documentary filming the filming process

Author: Yurugy
Introduction: Leave no words, if I heard

some movies, they may start after the main creator list, after the title, or even the last 10 minutes of the whole film... And this film can be described as "rough and shoddy" (not enough The most dedicated person in human and financial resources). It's a pity that the appearance of the "intermission" of 1 hour, 21 minutes and 36 seconds did not extend the life of the film by half, and the screen was cut off after 8 minutes at most. Even if the screen is black, the theme song is still empty. For 3 minutes, try to extend the joy of the audience. It is not so much an unfinished comedy, but it is better to regard it as a documentary-telling the hardship and joy of the film production process.


The director (although it is Terry Gilliam (Terry Gilliam) and Terry Jones (Terry Jones), but for the convenience of the following singular names) interpretation of the title has started with the subtitles. The translation of Esperanto version under the title seems to be high-end globalization. Then it is a language made up based on English, not and holiday are replaced by ø into nøt and høliday (one is similar in shape, and the other is to read according to the International Phonetic Alphabet, which emphasizes the British pronunciation, and the pinyin is similar to wò, that is nuò te, huò le dei), why change hy to i to become wi, try to change y to ei to trei (one is the same sound, and the other emphasizes the English pronunciation. The ending sound is completely pronounced, and the pinyin is similar to ǎi, ie wǎi , chuǎi), year of change ea e ё into yёr (head plus the two diaeresis, similar phonetic yì, is the stress on the middle of the year English pronunciation, i.e. yì er) and the like ......

then act The staff table continued, but the subtitler talked about wanting to go to Sweden for a holiday this year, how beautiful the scenery and how good the communication is (the Swedish telephone system has always been at the forefront of the world since the invention of the telephone until the filming of the film in the 1960s), but again The huge nasty moose, the cousin was bitten by the moose, and so on. Because of frequent mistakes, the personnel responsible for subtitles were removed, and the personnel responsible for removing subtitles were also removed...

The self-swallowing ring of Mobius, the giant python, was opened, and the vain attempt to reach the Holy Grail of Esperanto and the language (still constrained) In its various source languages), Swedish vacations and the holy grail of life's vain attempt (beautiful or bad, always in a dichotomy) also made some jokes.


King Arthur took a servant to ride a "coconut horse" for untold hardships, and it was hard to find a single person. The extreme drop between the two levels is one of the themes thrown out at the beginning of the film, and the contrast between the sacred and the secular can be seen everywhere.

In the first scene of the search, when King Arthur asked to see the owner of a certain castle for the first time, the soldiers in the fort ignored the issue, arguing wholeheartedly whether the "coconut" on which Arthur was riding could be carried by a swallow (this When he didn't intend to hear the knowledge, he later cleverly made the key to pass the bridge of death).

In the second scene of the search, the people passing by the corpse cart and the people who sent the corpse, this time changed to Arthur completely ignored, and said nothing, how they were doing, Arthur did not care (even if they talked quietly , Recognize him as king).

In the third scene of the search for a man, Arthur again asked who the lord of the castle in the distance was. The two "good women" (in the film deliberately confuse men and women, and are intended to erase the boundaries between sexuality and human thinking). The political issue of dictatorship and self-government caused Arthur's head and desires to be violent. What's fun is that the big problem was so simply expressed by the director that it only needed two onlookers to solve it-information transparency.

In the fourth scene of the search for soldiers, it was hard to see the brave warrior blocking the road. Arthur invited him to join the army and was blocked, regardless of whether he was a king or an ant.

After having to behead his limbs (showing martial arts), Arthur came to the fifth scene of seeking a soldier, "distorted" the question of the witch (showing wisdom), and finally obtained a wise man, Sir Bedwell. The "distortion" here actually touches on the knowledge type referred to by Foucault. In short, the historical accumulation of a kind of discourse leads people to consider the general framework or basic logic rules in a certain era and a certain region.

Looking back at the entire passage of the search, the two sides did not have the willingness to recognize each other's identities in the first four times. Only this time, Arthur's "wisdom", makeup and behavior convinced Bedwell. Comparable to making a phone call, the two finally connected before establishing a communication.


There is another interesting part of the search for soldiers. The problems mentioned by the soldiers in the first scene of the castle are put into practice by Bedwell in scene five.

One thing, it can be seen that this question is not just the interest of the two soldiers, they will spread it, and certain people will receive it (Bedwell is studying it, but the villagers send witches to request a judgment); second, how to spread it, coconut If it is used as a kind of information, how can it be conveyed from the temperate zone to the frigid zone, and its load and speed? This is also the next step that humans have to face after domesticating animals and plants and hoarding in groups to deal with the environment: the transportation of things and the transmission of words-the development of the boundaries of human (material and spiritual) activities.

Corresponding to the film, there are two types of people who do not move. The oppressed and powerless people (in 930, the King of England ordered "(free) people must have their own masters". For the sake of safety, farmers handed over the land to the landlord and then returned to farming; The landlord got special grace from the king to rule the peasants, which accelerated serfdom) and the powerful people who stood by and waited for it (the road warrior, the nun of the anthrax castle, the "nirvana" knight, the lord of the swamp, the beast of darkness, the bridgekeeper of the bridge of death, etc. ). They are all in a stagnant state because of their solidity and the things they rely on, and they are easily destroyed by the ever-changing information flow (more powerful martial arts, the maintenance of chastity, the contest of the magic of words, the confrontation between love and the power of money, creators and The symbiosis of media, the resolution of problems to problems, etc.). This can be classified as a problem of information. Its redundancy and incompleteness are one of the reasons for humor, and it is also one of the themes of this film.


Now I have found a man of wisdom, should I continue to look for it? After an exquisite shooting manuscript was placed on the table, the director bluntly stated the shooting plan.

Camelot is really hard to shoot a scene. Arthur's servant revealed in the film that budget constraints can only build a model castle. A group of actors also sang and danced to protest the uninterestingness of the act. The film creation reaches one-tenth of the original plan (if the subtitles of the "intermission" are played, and then the normal duration is half of the time), there is a bottleneck, and the Almighty God has to be manifested (in life or in the movie) . This god should not bow down, apologize, or be scolded, but the knights of the round table should look directly at him, because the original meaning of gathering the round table is equality and the world. But how can this be achieved? That is to find the Holy Grail.

According to legend, the Holy Grail appeared at a round table gathering, bringing unprecedented joy to everyone. They felt the call of life, which was not physical indulgence, but spiritual joy.


In fact, it is a very simple thing to think about. For example, if you put a ten thousand yuan bill next to an ant, it will only carry its own food and move on, and it has no thoughts about it. The same is true for human beings. If all material (as a source of information) is satisfied (through the channel of human experience), if it is not for its spiritual needs (a destination for spiritual needs), even if he can call the wind and rain, it is just a body and other objects. It's just embarrassing to move around together-the spiritual home doesn't acquire any meaning.

Arthur called himself king from beginning to end. It seemed that he didn't exercise any king's rights along the way. In fact, he was still like a passerby. He was rushing to the end of his soul. This role is just a portrayal of the director himself. He has no intention of insisting on what the film will become. He just says that what can be used, just shoot what, how can the existing resources be used well, just how to shoot—this is also his Road to the Holy Grail.


But how to shoot next, he had doubts again. In terms of plot, there has been a lot of deviation/adaptation history so far, either stop it or continue editing. Of course, he did not give up easily. In the film, he asked "famous historians" to testify in order to make the story more convincing. But who knows, the historian was obliterated by the historical figures he proved. What does it mean?

History, as written/narrated history, is just information floating in a pile of cultural relics. Who is speaking, what is being said, and why is it said that it constitutes a channel of information and makes a story take shape. The universe does not have a fixed direction, but as a vector, the channel has a direction and purpose. The director sensed that something was wrong, and the story could no longer continue in a single line (unique), so next, the knights act separately, reality (the detective's process of finding the murderer who killed the historian) and history (the knights of the round table are still there. The journey of searching for the Holy Grail) is also intertwined (after they cross the bridge of death, reality and historical figures rejoin).


Not as brave and brave as Sir Lancelot as the brave Sir Lancelot, the first is the language puzzle. The bard sings him well, and he is happy; the bard literally antonyms but still sings him well, but he frowns and pulls his face. This is a very typical case.

Information, as a material within human reach, needs to be filtered through a large number of screens. This is just the first step. After filtering the organization, what is the meaning of new information? The new information is reorganized into updated information, where will its meaning point? In short, words are used as raw materials, and the combination and aggregation of words and segments are bidirectionally constructed into semi-finished products. Additional processing of other systems outside the language system (voice symbol system, gesture symbol system, etc.) is the final product, which already contains multiple levels and multiple directions. The meaning of degrees. The same is true for the signs of things. It is only necessary to see good or bad. In fact, it needs to be constructed in both directions, and then the cognition (ie the whole life state) obtained from other symbol systems is added in order to feel the thing as much as possible. One thing, one scene.

Of course, this process is not a clear pipeline like this, but should be integrated in real time. Similar to several knights looking for the Holy Grail separately, they are also approaching at the same time from multiple aspects and levels. Looking at them, we see them as a whole. These should be treated as metaphors. They are all in a certain position of the flow distribution in their respective systems, and they give meaning to each other-I sit here, you stand there, we build a meaning field together, and this meaning field in turn is at the same time Our respective locations and our relationships assign meaning. For example, the "nirvana" knight is the guardian of the divine metaphor. The power of "nirvana" (Ni) comes from language, and the power to destroy it is also in the language. In the film, it is "It" (It). Because the meaning of words lies in mutual interpretation, their essence is empty. Here may be a pair of spells made up by the director at will, but the middle is with the same vowel, one starts with a consonant, and the other ends with a consonant, which also seems to be swallowed by a giant python.


Arthur and his party finally met. I guess, the director finally got some funding at this time. Because he asked the wizard to cast a spell at least once in almost every sentence during the 180 seconds of communicating with Arthur, probably using the explosion teleportation once, the big fireball art 11 times (including the fireworks about 4 times), the small Fireball once, Spitfire once, and Jet once. It is estimated that the mana is empty. (However, it is estimated that these gunpowder is not very expensive) After going to the entrance of Kanabanog, he did not do anything, and mocked the reckless Knights of the Round Table before leaving.

Maybe I was worrying too much, but it seemed that he laughed at movies that purely love explosions and special effects, so the director did not hesitate to keep this embarrassment. When they wanted to use the sacred grenades and asked for the operating instructions, the faithful Maynard read the "Equipment Manual", a pile of redundant words; when they went to the cave and found the stone carvings in Aramaic language on the wall, At the end of the translation by Catholic Maynard, the most important message was missing.

Redundancy, such as before Arthur encountered the "Nirvana" knight and asked for a bush, followed by more strange requests, completely unaware of what the other party wanted to do; incomplete, such as Lancelot received a letter from the son of the Swamp City Lord before, The unclear language caused him to think that the other party was a princess, and wanted the hero to save the beauty, and then rushed into the city to kill by man. This is caused by unclear communication. But now, Catholic Maynard has been eaten by the beast of darkness, and the plot is very clear to kill the knights of the round table who can only recklessly ("Charge!") and retreat ("Run Away!"), there is no discussion. If the movie ends here, it's really nothing.


I have to first admire the interesting and exquisite animation of this film. Perhaps because of this, the animator, when the film was about to end, (being arranged) was over-excited and died of a heart attack, which relieved the Knights of the Round Table.

In fact, many black boxes are hidden in place in the film, and the rescuers (God, animator, police, etc.) when it is really difficult are also reasonable in the whole film. Finally, you can believe that the police really came to arrest the murderers in the crew, or believe that the director arranged the entire plot as the story he wanted to tell, and you can also believe that the story is only about the Knights of the Round Table and the others are interrupted as spoofs. part.

This is all right, because the film is not only the infinite openness of the overall experience, but also the double-loop connection "∞" of the information organization.


The documentary "Moncler and the Holy Grail" started from a narrative perspective and dimension, giving us a demonstration of opening up the meaning. However, it is a pity that it is more like a disposable battery that uses intelligence to store a certain amount of energy (fortunately, it can store some to see), similar to energy-storing things with special effects, emotions, beauty, and beauty. , Food and so on.

This kind of movie is watched once and consumes one tube of energy; watched twice, consumes more... Its energy decays progressively, and what it lacks is the generation power that an artistic medium should have.

Perhaps it can also build a spiritual world, but that world is not a holy grail. It only asks people to deplete its enjoyment into ruins, but it is difficult for people to participate in constructing new meanings.

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