Abstract
Honess Roe analyzes the 2013 film adaptation of Graham Chapman’s autobiography and questions its surface interpretation as an unreliable biopic that undermines the conventional goals of the genre. At first glance, the film’s freewheeling narrative and fragmented visual style that uses 14 different styles of animation could be argued as representing the unknowability of its subject. However, “A Liar’s Autobiography: Animation and the Unreliable Biopic” argues that through rejecting the typical aims and approaches of the biopic, this film in fact works to reveal much about Chapman’s personal life and his creative work with Monty Python.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Belén Vidal, “Introduction: The Biopic and its Critical Contexts,” in The Biopic in Contemporary Film Culture, edited by Tom Brown and Belén Vidal (London: Routledge, 2014), 16.
- 2.
Ibid., 3.
- 3.
Ellen Cheshire, Bio-Pics: A Life in Pictures (London: Wallflower Press, 2015), 12.
- 4.
David Yallop is a British author of predominately crime fiction, who also wrote on television programs including Doctor at Large (1971) and Frost on Sunday (1970). Alex Martin is described in “About the Co-authors” in the book version of A Liar’s Autobiography as “Educated at Winchester College and Cambridge University, this one-time co-authorship longevity record-holder still has my considerable esteem.”
- 5.
In the Press Kit the filmmakers say they allowed six months for the animation to be produced with a budget described as “not-Pixar style.” Epix and Brainstorm Media, A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman, Press Kit (2012), n.d.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
Of the 14 animation production companies commissioned, all but one of them was UK based.
- 8.
This occurs later in Chapman’s book than it does in the film.
- 9.
“Not To Scales Chris Ketchell goes Stereoscopic for Graham Chapman’s ‘A Liars Autobiography,’” SohoSoHo.tv, last modified September 18, 2012, https://www.sohosoho.tv/news/Not-To-Scales-Chris-Ketchell-goes-Stereoscopic-for-Graham-Chapmans-A-Liars-Autobiography–94dd227e3f376d3af17cae05cd7567bc, Accessed June 25, 2016.
- 10.
We are left to guess as to whether his parents were actually called Walter and Betty.
- 11.
While traditional drawn animation does use a camera, to capture each static frame, 3D digital animation has to create conventional camera movement such as pans, tilts and dollies within the computer program used to make the animation.
- 12.
In fact, Chapman attended Melton Mowbray Grammar School, a far less elite and non-fee-paying establishment that admitted pupils based on merit, rather than wealth.
- 13.
There may be some social comedy at play here as Leamington Spa, a ‘Royal’ spa town, is generally more upmarket and bourgeois than Leicester, which is historically an industrial town. However, any social commentary is subtle and subsidiary to the general illogic of this, and much, of the humor in the book/ film.
- 14.
Matthias Hoegg, “A Liar’s Autobiography,” http://www.matthiashoegg.co.uk/A-Liar-s-Autobiography, accessed June 25, 2016.
- 15.
Rae Ann Fera, “Monty Python’s Graham Chapman Comes Back to Life in ‘Liar’s Autobiography,’” last modified January 11, 2012, http://www.fastcocreate.com/1681869/monty-pythons-graham-chapman-comes-back-to-life-in-liars-autobiography, accessed June 25, 2016.
- 16.
The Press kit states on page two, under “Five things the directors would like you to know about this film” that “This is not a Monty Python film; it’s a Graham Chapman film. So please don’t say it’s a Monty Python film.” The Press kit then restates “this is not a Monty Python film” approximately seven times over subsequent pages.
- 17.
Interestingly, Eric Idle is mostly absent from the film and turned down the offer of participating in a vocal capacity. Also, his part in a significant incident in Chapman’s past is rewritten in the film. In the book, Chapman recalls Idle’s bemusement at his coming out and that he had to clarify the exact nature of homosexuality for him. In the film, Keith Moon occupies the role of the naïve, and Idle is written out of the scene.
- 18.
Roger Wilmut, From Fringe to Flying Circus: Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960–1980 (London: Eyre Methuen, 1980), 203.
- 19.
Marcia Landy, Monty Python’s Flying Circus (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005), 39.
- 20.
Ibid., 83.
- 21.
In one interview with co-director Jeff Simpson, he acknowledges Gilliam’s animation as an influencing factor in deciding to animate A Liar’s Autobiography, but there is no further discussion of any direct creative influence in terms of the animation production. See Alex Widdowson, “Interview with Jeff Simpson, co-director of ‘A Liar’s Autobiography: The untrue story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman,’” last modified March 13, 2013, https://animateddocs.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/interview-with-jeff-simpson/, accessed June 25, 2016.
- 22.
Landy, 39.
- 23.
Ibid., 62.
- 24.
Ibid., 4.
- 25.
Ibid., 41.
- 26.
Ibid., 99.
- 27.
Parkinson, broadcast October 15, 1980.
- 28.
Friday Night, Saturday Morning, broadcast February 19, 1982.
- 29.
Graham Chapman, A Liar’s Autobiography Volume VI (London: Methuen, 2010), 137–42.
- 30.
See Annabelle Honess Roe, Animated Documentary (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013).
- 31.
For example, Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008). On this film see Honess Roe, Animated Documentary, 161–68.
- 32.
Widdowson.
- 33.
Epix and Brainstorm Media.
- 34.
Paul Wells, “‘Thou Art Translated’ Analysing Animated Adaptation,” in Adaptations: From Text to Screen, Screen to Text, edited by Deborah Cartmell and Imelda Wheelman (London: Routledge, 1999), 213.
- 35.
Vidal, 16.
- 36.
Ibid., 11.
- 37.
Steve Neale and Frank Krutnik, Popular Film and Television Comedy (London: Routledge, 1990), 201.
Bibliography
Chapman, Graham. A Liar’s Autobiography Volume VI. London: Methuen, 2010.
Cheshire, Ellen. Bio-Pics: A Life in Pictures. London: Wallflower Press, 2015.
Epix and Brainstorm Media, A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman. Press Kit. 2012.
Fera, Rae Ann. “Monty Python’s Graham Chapman Comes Back to Life in ‘Liar’s Autobiography.’” 2012. http://www.fastcocreate.com/1681869/monty-pythons-graham-chapman-comes-back-to-life-in-liars-autobiography. Accessed June 25, 2016.
Friday Night, Saturday Morning. BBC. February 19, 1982.
Hoegg, Matthias. “A Liar’s Autobiography.” http://www.matthiashoegg.co.uk/A-Liar-s-Autobiography. Accessed June 25, 2016.
Honess Roe, Annabelle. Animated Documentary. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Landy, Marcia. Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2005.
Neale, Steve and Frank Krutnik. Popular Film and Television Comedy. London: Routledge, 1990.
“Not To Scales Chris Ketchell goes Stereoscopic for Graham Chapman’s ‘A Liars Autobiography.’” SohoSoHo.tv. Last modified September 18, 2012, https://www.sohosoho.tv/news/Not-To-Scales-Chris-Ketchell-goes-Stereoscopic-for-Graham-Chapmans-A-Liars-Autobiography–94dd227e3f376d3af17cae05cd7567bc. Accessed June 25, 2016.
Parkinson. BBC. October 15, 1980.
Vidal, Belén. “Introduction: The Biopic and its Critical Contexts.” In The Biopic in Contemporary Film Culture, edited by Tom Brown and Belén Vidal, 1–32. London: Routledge, 2014.
Wells, Paul. “‘Thou Art Translated’ Analysing Animated Adaptation.” In Adaptations: From Text to Screen, Screen to Text, edited by Deborah Cartmell and Imelda Wheelman, 199–213. London: Routledge, 1999.
Widdowson, Alex. “Interview with Jeff Simpson, Co-director of ‘A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman.’” 2013. https://animateddocs.wordpress.com/2013/03/13/interview-with-jeff-simpson/. Accessed June 25, 2016.
Wilmut, Roger. From Fringe to Flying Circus: Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960–1980. London: Eyre Methuen, 1980.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Roe, A.H. (2017). A Liar’s Autobiography: Animation and the Unreliable Biopic. In: Reinsch, P., Whitfield, B., Weiner, R. (eds) Python beyond Python. Palgrave Studies in Comedy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51385-0_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51385-0_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51384-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51385-0
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)