Cinematic Techniques In Monty Python

In a movie, directors have several different visual cues at their disposal to try and convey certain emotions or ideas across to the user. Throughout Monty Python, the director establishes the time period, setting, characters, and mood through the use of lighting and costumes.
The director use the costumes worn by each character to not only give personality to each individual character, but to also differentiate groups of characters from one other. Throughout the movie when we are introduced to characters the costume and makeup of each character gives us an insight into the character even before we get any real information on them. An example of this is when we meet Prince Herbert. Even before we get the idea that he is very un-prince like through conversations …show more content…
Even though we are told this explicitly, we can clearly see we are in some sort of medieval time period through the costumes worn by the characters, such as King Arthur and his knights wearing chainmail and surcoats, but as the story continues we begin to see parts of the movie that would tell otherwise. At one point we see a man dressed in a full suit, and though we might think that it might just be a jump forward into the future to try and explain parts of the story, we then see a Knight run through the frame and kill the man, intertwining the two time periods into one. This happens several times, and finally at the end of the movie, as the Knights are charging forward with King Arthur to take the Holy Grail, we see them stopped by police in modern day clothing and arrested. We can tell that they are clearly from two different time periods, as one is wearing chainmail and tabards, while the others are wearing police uniforms from sometime in the last 20 years. This is meant to break the fourth wall, and intentionally creates humorous confusion as to what time period the movie truly takes place in, though we are never given a direct