Word: staging
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Keefe's "The Road," begins in Browne's hotel room, played by a skeleton crew of two or three pieces. During a pause between the second and third choruses, crickets can be heard in the background; when the song resumes, it's the full band playing it on stage a week later. The effect of splicing the two performances together may seem overly cute, but the result is surprisingly moving. In all, about half the tracks were recorded on stage. The other half consists of performances in hotel rooms, backstage rehearsal rooms, even aboard the band's tour...
...This sequence reveals the fundamental problem with the movie at the very outset. The group's first full-length motion picture, And Now For Something Completely Different, included this skit, complete with props and the suitable atmosphere of a pet shop. Seeing this skit performed again on the bare stage of a London auditorium leaves you flat; watching a grown man repeatedly slam a stuffed parrot against a desk to prove its deceased state ceases to be funny after a while. The same can be said for the movie's closing sequence, featuring the transvestite lumberjack number...
...troupe does not seem to be above replacing the humorous with the merely offensive. At one point, one of the male Monty Python members comes out on stage tackily dressed in a gold lame evening gown with cat's-eye spectacles. Adopting a feminine-sounding falsetto, he strikes up a paean to the virtues of Britishers: "The English have a quality/I'd like to sing about/It's not the sort of quality/That's bestowed on wog or kraut...
...what's coming, and the pleasure lies exclusively in the anticipation, not in the misbegotten result. However, in all fairness to the individuals responsible for this film, they certainly knew what they were doing. Towards the end of Monty Python Meets Beyond the Fringe, an emcee walks onto the stage to deliver a few announcements and reflect on the performance. After thanking the London audience for "working so hard at enjoying tonight's entertainment," the emcee goes on to note, "I know how tempting it is to say, 'Let somebody else go out and get entertained."' Be forewarned, moviegoers; there...
...expected, Yves Saint Laurent and Christian Dior's Marc Bohan shared center stage in presenting haute couture to the class of '78. Their message was wel come to those grown weary of gypsy dresses and the theatrical costuming that has flavored European fashion for the past three seasons. The feminine form is back, in clothes that are clean-lined, uncluttered, soft and supple. Today's couture, said Bohan, "is a return to simplicity...