A Liar's Autobiography

"THIS IS NOT A MONTY PYTHON FILM. It's not Monty Python, it's not Monty Python, it's NOT Monty Python. Although most of the Pythons are in it, this is a Graham Chapman film. It's by him, and about him. Python happens as part of the story, but so do other things in Graham's life, like his love life and his drinking. In many ways, Graham embodies the lunatic spirit of Python, and this infuses the humour throughout this film. But it's not Python, it's Chapman."

Graham Chapman, probably best remembered as 'the dead one from Monty Python', writes and stars in the animated movie of his own life story, A Liar's Autobiography. He was born, he went to Cambridge and met John Cleese, he smoked a pipe, he became a doctor, he became a Python, he decided he was gay (well, 70/30, according to a survey he did on himself), he got drunk a lot, he stopped being drunk, he made some films, he had some sex (actually, a lot), and moved to Los Angeles. Finally, he was whisked up into space by aliens (although that might have been in a film).

Although Chapman selfishly dropped dead in 1989, he had taken the trouble to record himself reading his book, A Liar's Autobiography - and those recordings have now ingeniously been used to provide Chapman's voice for the 3D animated feature of the same name. Fellow Pythons John Cleese, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam also turn up, playing themselves and other characters, along with a few surprise guests.

Not a documentary, not a Monty Python film, A Liar's Autobiography is Chapman's own take on his bizarre life and his search for self-knowledge. Incredible, yes. Surreal, certainly. True? Who knows? At his memorial service, John Cleese called Chapman "a freeloading bastard". Now, as the film re-unites Chapman with Cleese, Jones, Palin, and Gilliam for the first time in 23 years, he is set to earn a new title - the most prolific corpse since Elvis.