Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life (Special Edition)

Perhaps only the collective brilliant minds of the Monty Python film and television troupe are up to the task of tackling a subject as weighty as The Meaning of Life. Sure, Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein, and their ilk have tried their hands at this puzzler, but only Python has attempted to do so within the commercial motion picture medium. Happily for us all, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life truly explains everything one conceivably needs to know about the perplexities of human existence: from the mysteries of Catholic doctrine, to the miracle of reproduction, to why one should avoid the salmon mousse, to the critical importance of the machine that goes "Ping!" Using fish as a linking device (and what marvelous links those aquatic creatures make), The Meaning of Life is presented as a series of sketches: a musical production number about why seed is sacred; a look at dining in the afterlife; the quest for a missing fish (there they are again); a visit from Mr. Death; the cautionary tale of Mr. Creosote and his rather gluttonous appetite; an unflinching examination of the harsh realities of organ donation, and so on. Sadly, this was the last original Python film, but it's a beaut. You'll laugh. You'll cry (probably because you're laughing so hard). You may even learn something about The Meaning of Life. Or at least about how fish fit into the grand scheme of things. --Jim Emerson

Attention, film culte ! On s'est tous un jour demandé : d'où vient-on, que fait-on sur cette planète bleue, pourquoi la vie commence-t-elle avec des abeilles butinant des fleurs ? La folie des Monty Python s'attaque à toutes nos préoccupations, du miracle de la naissance à l'injustice de la mort, en passant forcément par les joies du sexe. Même avec une image parfois rayée et peu définie, on rit de bon coeur… Autant dire que l'humour des six compères fait mouche à tous les coups. Côté son, seule la VO est proposée en stéréo, les autres langues restant en mono. Il est recommandé de visionner cette comédie poids lourd en VO-ST afin de savourer pleinement, grâce à une traduction fidèle, les chansons du film, la VF faisant totalement abstraction du sens des paroles. C'est la vie… --Sébastien Séfrin