Monty Python and the Holy Grail 40th Anniversary ''Filming it was MISERY' says John Cleese

The singalong screenings celebrate the film's 40th Anniversary

MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL is back in cinemas with a special 40th Anniversary singalong screenings on Wednesday October 14 and new interviews with John Cleese, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam.

 

The national cinemas event will be accompanied by a specially filmed, exclusive introduction from The Pythons, themselves. 

With typical candour and utter silliness, the legendary stars talk about chain mail and cold showers.

“I have many memories of the film, largely governed by the lack of money," Michael Palin says.

 

"The army was almost entirely students from Stirling University.

"We just sort of back lit it, gave them some rags (those that didn’t have rags already) and we used to stop people in cars going up through the village of Doon and say ‘Excuse me would you like to be in the army for a day?

"We’ll give you your own rags and a spear and you can be in a Monty Python film’."

 

Reunited: The entire Monty Python team earlier this year

John Cleese, unsurprisingly, is less upbeat.

“I can remember nothing about the film itself. My main recollection of making the film was total physical misery," he says.

"We were on the Scottish hillside and every morning we would get up and put on this knitted string chain mail and then 20 minutes later it would only rain, lightly, but it would rain for the rest of the day. 

"And then at the end, there was the great race to get back to the hotel because it was a very small hotel and they didn’t have much hot water!”

 

Monty Python characters in London to celebrate the new screenings

No-one is safe from Monty Python madness

Cleese also has a splendid rant about why actor are so often wrongly perceived as difficult and precious.

"Filming is an appallingly technical process, doing the same business over and over and over again from different angles, and on the whole ... most directors simply do not understand the process that actors need.

Most directors don't understand that the technical aspects just don't matter - what matters in comedy is if it's funny.

John Cleese

"When I'm working, I will sometimes say, 'All right, we've got the technical stuff settled, now it's the actors turn. Let's do four or five takes back-to-back.'

"Because what happens is you get warmed up. What normally happens is you do the first take and then it all stops while somebody adjusts the position of a lamp, somebody else comes and takes some fluff off your jacket, somebody else is worried about the fact that there's a bit of glow on your nose."

 

"By the time you're ready to shoot again, you're cold," Cleese goes on.

"In movies everybody concentrates on the technical aspects. And they don't matter when you're making comedy; what matters is whether it's funny.

"A take can vary tremendously from being dreadfully, embarrassingly unfunny to being hilarious.

"It all depends on whether you go into that particular take with the right energy and the right degree of focus."

To celebrate the 40th Anniversary, Monty Python and the Holy Grail will be shown in UK cinemas nationwide for one night only on Wednesday 14th October 2015.

Screenings will be accompanied by a specially filmed, exclusive introduction from The Pythons. 

For bookings go to: www.parkcircus.com