Saturday, May 11, 2013

Graham Chapman: Anatomy Of A Liar

Anatomy Of A Liar is sort of the movie I wished A Liar's Autobiography had been.
I'll be honest, A Liar's Autobiography made me feel a little ill. I don't know if it was because the animation was creeping me out or what but it just made my stomach hurt and it didn't really work for me.
And I felt that way again watching Anatomy Of A Liar when they showed clips from Liar's Autobiography. But Anatomy Of A Liar was also mostly just a straight up (albeit very short) documentary about Graham Chapman and that was all I wanted to see all along.
There are a few segments that talk specifically about the movie and the processes that went into animating various segments. One of those tangents was actually very interesting because they were talking to a guy who animated a serious part of the movie, a part that in particular gave me the heebie jeebies, but he explained the process of what he did and that was fascinating. It didn't make the art any less creepy but it did give me an appreciation for it.
Most of the detours into talking about the movie rather than about Graham, however, bored me. Maybe it was because I knew I didn't like the movie anyway. I actually watched Anatomy Of A Liar in the hopes that it would bring me an appreciation for Liar's Autobiography but it didn't do that. Instead it made me more certain that I'd have been far more interested in a plain old documentary about Graham Chapman. And at least half of Anatomy Of A Liar was that, and I did like it a great deal more than the animated film it was promoting.
But because it was made to promote A Liar's Autobiography, I wasn't all that into Anatomy Of A Liar, either.

End of line.
-Sally

No comments: