Python Night: 30 Years of Monty Python (1999)

Director:

Terry Jones and Elaine Shepherd

IMDB

Review:

A BBC 30th anniversary commemoration of the debut of Monty Python's “Flying Circus” with a treasure trove of new sketches performed by the Pythons (minus spoilsport Eric Idle, and, of course, ex-Python Graham Chapman); new interviews with all the surviving members; classic clips; and recently discovered and rarely seen Python material unearthed from the BBC archives. “It's... the Monty Python Story”, is a sketchy history, recalling the highs (the first two seasons of the groundbreaking TV series and The Life of Brian) and the lows (the death of Chapman, who in a poignant clip from his memorial service is eulogized by John Cleese as a "freeloading bastard"). The disk includes a long-lost 10-minute film Monty Python created for the 1971 Pan-European May Day Festival. Michael Palin spoofs his travel shows by giving viewers a tour of "Pythonland." He revisits the actual locations where such classic Python sketches as the Ministry of Silly Walks and the Fish Slapping Dance were filmed. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone offer an animated tribute (the Dead Kenny sketch), while Meatloaf goes behind the music to reveal the inspiration behind the Python's most memorable songs.

A Film Unfinished (2010)

Director:

Yael Hersonski

IMDB

Review:

Yael Hersonski's powerful documentary achieves a remarkable feat through its penetrating look at another film-the now-infamous Nazi-produced film about the Warsaw Ghetto. Discovered after the war, the unfinished work, with no soundtrack, quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record, despite its elaborate propagandistic construction. The later discovery of a long-missing reel complicated earlier readings, showing the manipulations of camera crews in these "everyday" scenes. Well-heeled Jews attending elegant dinners and theatricals (while callously stepping over the dead bodies of compatriots) now appeared as unwilling, but complicit, actors, alternately fearful and in denial of their looming fate.

Chevolution (2008)

Director:

Luis Lopez and Trisha Ziff

IMDB

Review:

ocumakers Trisha Ziff and Luis Lopez begin with an intriguing premise: Trace the history of the most frequently reproduced image of the 20th century, Korda's famous photograph of Che Guevara. "Chevolution" covers every conceivable aspect of the photo: its subject, its creator (a fashion photog turned revolutionary shutterbug), its initial obscurity, its explosion on the '60s politico-cultural scene and its final commodification, as capitalism co-opted the image to peddle everything from T-shirts to vodka. Offering multiple viewpoints on the mass phenomenon, docu seems tailor-made for Netflix distrib Red Envelope Entertainment. Steven Soderbergh's Cannes-premiered "Che" could add fuel to the fire.  Filmmakers manage to recap Guevara's short life succinctly and nonjudgmentally. Photographer Alberto "Korda" Diaz emerges as less fully fleshed out, though filmmakers interview several associates who recall the man and his work. But, as the title suggests, it is the evolution of one specific image the film addresses. But why this image, so replete with Mona Lisa-like ambiguity? What does it imply?  Diaz's iconic photo of Che in a beret staring (sadly? adamantly? pensively?) slightly off to the left of the frame, titled "Guerillero Heroico," was snapped during a mass funeral for those killed in a suspicious explosion at Havana harbor. Passed over for publication in the periodical Revolucion, the informally captured photo remained pinned up in Diaz's studio until a left-wing Italian entrepreneur turned it into an instantly recognizable worldwide symbol of '60s political ferment.  Cuba did not recognize copyright law until relatively recently, but Diaz initially had no objection to the unpaid proliferation of his work -- whether repurposed by artists (in the age of Warhol, such raw material proved irresistible) or used to adorn placards -- until corporations appropriated it to sell their products.  Filmmakers then examine what the photo became: Do those who wear images of Guevara on their shirts and bikini bottoms know who he was? The man-on-the-street answers are as generally amusing as they are potentially disturbing (most of "Chevolution" was shot in the U.S., though co-helmers Ziff and Lopez are Mexico-based).