Diaries 1969-1979_ The Python Years - Michael Palin [324]
Saturday, February 10th
Drive to Soho to get Variety and croissants. The piles of uncollected rubbish are now being blown apart by the wind and central Soho looks like a tip from which buildings emerge.
Gilliam tells of the latest Brian saga. Paramount Pictures are now the most likely distributor, and to further the deal Julian was to be sent over to Hollywood with the cutting copy of the film to show them the latest progress. All was well until it was discovered that Julian, in filling out his visa application form, had felt bound to note that he was a communist. America will not let in communists, so there was great commotion. However, after application to some special US department at Frankfurt, Julian was given permission to go. So the self-confessed communist travelled First Class in a Jumbo and will be staying at the Beverly Wilshire.
TG and I consoled ourselves with a Variety clipping which shows that Jabberwocky has out-earned Rocky and Looking for Mr Goodbar, in Spain!
Wednesday, February 14th
Terry tells me the latest on the American viewing of Brian, which Graham rang him so gloomily about at the weekend. It transpires that Graham had attended, not the viewing in LA, but a later, less well-attended overflow viewing. He had arrived late and the sound had been very bad. But GC still feels that ‘an alien force’ (his words) has been at work on the editing and he is flying back to England at the weekend with his thoughts and criticisms.
I don’t think anyone is going to listen very sympathetically. John C thinks that Graham is being an old woman and anyway he’s too busy putting Fawlty Towers together to attend any meetings. T Gilliam will not, on principle, attend any meetings unless we’re all there. So the prospects for Chapman’s Flying Visit don’t look too hopeful.
A meeting at the Lamb with John Gorman and Chris Tarrant to discuss what TJ and I are expected to do on the ATV Saturday morning program Tiswas, which we are guesting on in a couple of days. Everything’s left delightfully vague, but they’re expecting two or three sketches from us, so it won’t be a complete doddle.
Take Helen to the ICA to see Victoria Wood’s play Talent, which was originally directed by David Leland for the Crucible – and two or three of the actors in it have been highly recommended by David for parts in the Yarns. I’m impressed by the cast, but also by the earthy, untheatrical directness of the play. It’s not profound, but a very funny, well-observed slice of life …
And obviously a cult success – Michael Codron and Humphrey Barclay are in a packed audience of 200 or so. Talk to Humphrey afterwards. He tells me he lives at the bottom of Derek Jacobi’s garden, and gives a naughty smile.
Saturday, February 17th
Coffee at the Monmouth Coffee House, then across to the Bijou Theatre for another viewing of Brian. Sit next to Graham, who looks trim and healthy. Altogether a new, meek Graham. Then I remember he has got us here for a viewing no-one particularly wants (and John Cleese and Terry Gilliam have refused to attend anyway).
Afterwards, at a meeting at John Goldstone’s office, Eric, Terry J, myself and Graham have a rather efficient, direct and radical appraisal of the movie. I now feel that the Ex-Leper sketch, funny though it ought to be, isn’t getting the right reaction, and is structurally holding up progress of the story at that early stage in the movie. Eric has always felt that and he feels Otto should go for the same reason. There is still a split on the title of the movie, however, between Life of Brian (John, Terry J and myself) and ‘Brian of Nazareth’ (the others).
Graham’s fears about the pace of the film, of the ‘alien force’ in the editing, are all rather predictably