A Liar's Autobiography

Graham Chapman wrote and gave voice to his own autobiography in film, through a text taken from a book with the same name which he recorded shortly before his death, making one last meeting of Monthy Python possible, only with the presence of Eric Idle missing. John Cleese, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam recorded their voices in dialogue with the text read by Chapman and interpret themselves and other characters in a hilarious staging of the hectic life of the only "dead parrot" among the six. A mixture of real image and over a dozen different types of animation, the film tells with more or less truth (we will never know how much) the life and work of Chapman. A funeral eulogy, read by Cleese, is the moment that does more justice to his legacy. (M. M.)