HandMade Films.
For a start I’m not even that sure about how to spell ‘HandMade Films’ it could be ‘handmade’ or ‘hand made’ or ‘HandMade’ so there we are.
So, I don’t know what the company was and therefore you should be braced for this overview of all the films they funded. The overview is mine – it is what I know. The titles have been got from the internet but I shall soon know all of them off by heart, along with their dates, directors and key actors.
The films:
Monty Python's Life of Brian: this films is the reason for the company being set up. Whilst filming the money dried up (a characteristic of films involving Terry Gilliam), so George Harrison said “here’s some”.
The Long Good Friday: some filming for this was done on Green Lanes, that’s near where I am at the moment.
Time Bandits: a brilliant children’s film. I remember seeing one afternoon and Channel 4. a story goes that in the script Palin had written something like: ‘the knight takes off his helmet and looks like a cheap version of Sean Connery’, the casting people, reading this, gave Connery part.
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl: a live recording of Python sketches. Palin corpse through the ‘Dead Parrot’ sketch.
The Missionary: I don’t know that much about this film, nor does Wiki.
Privates on Parade: Yet again – zip.
Bullshot: Billy Connely is in this film
A Private Function: Excellent film written by Alan Bennett, to whom the farmer’s boy bares quite a resemblence. Dame Maggie Smith plays the part of an aspiring housewife beautifully. I could write much more on this film, but this is only an overview and therefore I must move on.
Water: Nothing again
Mona Lisa: naught
Shanghai Surprise: no
Withnail and I: Yet again a brilliant film which shall be discussed with relish later.
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen: an other lovely film from Gilliam and one which had to be distinguished as a different film from the original, even though some of the set pieces and shots are identical.
How to Get Ahead in Advertising: a film loved by Libby in the second year. It stars Richard E. Grant and is very good.
Nuns on the Run: the last HandMade film under the ownership of Harrison. It’s light but dark and features Eric Idle. The love interest had the part of Rose Tyler’s mother in Doctor Who.
So there we are. Not everything I know but a brief look into everything. The films I have intimate knowledge of and can work on right know are: Life of Brian, A Private Function and Withnail and I. And that is what I intend to do.
I feel I must find some overarching ‘sense’ from which I am able to link the films not just under the banner of HandMade Films, but something else.
R B Grange.
18/03/2007
05/03/2007
The past ten years of British comedy have been ruled by two men.
Their names are easily forgotten and they are often over looked but you will have seen their faces.
Kevin Eldon and Paul Putner play the other characters. They are used when a comedic writer needs someone who can act and who can also deliver lines in the correct style. These two are the best and British comedy knows it.
They have appeared in JAM, Spaced, Rock Profile, Black Books, Look Around You, This Morning With Richard Not Judy, Big Train, I'm Alan Partridge, and more recently Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
According to imdb Eldon has starred in 53 programmes since 1992 and written for 5. Putner has starred in 38 and written for 2.
It is my belief that there are no comedy actors greater than these, all the wealth and humour of present day British comedy hang on these two men.
Their names are easily forgotten and they are often over looked but you will have seen their faces.
Kevin Eldon and Paul Putner play the other characters. They are used when a comedic writer needs someone who can act and who can also deliver lines in the correct style. These two are the best and British comedy knows it.
They have appeared in JAM, Spaced, Rock Profile, Black Books, Look Around You, This Morning With Richard Not Judy, Big Train, I'm Alan Partridge, and more recently Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.
According to imdb Eldon has starred in 53 programmes since 1992 and written for 5. Putner has starred in 38 and written for 2.
It is my belief that there are no comedy actors greater than these, all the wealth and humour of present day British comedy hang on these two men.
04/03/2007
Authorhsip and Ownership.
A hobby horse of mine; the ownership of objects.
My understanding expressed in the simplest manner is that an art object has nothing to do with the artist attributed to it. The artist may have been involved in the making of the object, but now that that process if finished he is no longer relevant.
In my perfect art world there would still be artists, but no egos. An artist is a craftsman, his work may differ to craft, (or applied arts as some would have it, as through craft were a dirty work, which it isn't) but he is still producing an object. Example; Richard Long is a craftsman, he makes object, his tools are his legs, his medium is walk.
A craftsman does not seek to express himself in his practice, he may have a style or a signature piece, but he knows that the object he creates must work, it must function. An artist should think in the same way. One finds art students who say they are 'painters' (whatever that means) but who, to my mind cannot paint. Art students think that they can get away with little discrepancies, a screen print not lining up, a grubby plinth, a concept that has not been thought through. And of course the self.
Expression does not concern me as an artist. I admit that I do have a style and self directed parameters in which I may work, but I do not seek to express anything other than a process. I do not think that I know more about my work than others. I have a more intimate memory of method by which the object came into being (probably). So why do so many think they themselves belong in art works, or that they can say anything more about the work than others. Figurative work is where the concept of authorship seems most prevalent in visual culture and therefore this is where I shall start.
My understanding expressed in the simplest manner is that an art object has nothing to do with the artist attributed to it. The artist may have been involved in the making of the object, but now that that process if finished he is no longer relevant.
In my perfect art world there would still be artists, but no egos. An artist is a craftsman, his work may differ to craft, (or applied arts as some would have it, as through craft were a dirty work, which it isn't) but he is still producing an object. Example; Richard Long is a craftsman, he makes object, his tools are his legs, his medium is walk.
A craftsman does not seek to express himself in his practice, he may have a style or a signature piece, but he knows that the object he creates must work, it must function. An artist should think in the same way. One finds art students who say they are 'painters' (whatever that means) but who, to my mind cannot paint. Art students think that they can get away with little discrepancies, a screen print not lining up, a grubby plinth, a concept that has not been thought through. And of course the self.
Expression does not concern me as an artist. I admit that I do have a style and self directed parameters in which I may work, but I do not seek to express anything other than a process. I do not think that I know more about my work than others. I have a more intimate memory of method by which the object came into being (probably). So why do so many think they themselves belong in art works, or that they can say anything more about the work than others. Figurative work is where the concept of authorship seems most prevalent in visual culture and therefore this is where I shall start.
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