The Crimson Permanent Assurance
| The Crimson Permanent Assurance | |
|---|---|
.png) Opening titles | |
| Directed by | Terry Gilliam |
| Written by | Terry Gilliam |
| Produced by | Terry Gilliam John Goldstone |
| Starring | Sydney Arnold Guy Bertrand Andrew Bicknell John Scott Martin Leslie Sarony |
| Cinematography | Roger Pratt |
| Edited by | Julian Doyle |
| Music by | John Du Prez |
Production companies | Celandine Films The Monty Python Partnership |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 16 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
The Crimson Permanent Assurance is a 1983 British swashbuckling comedy short film directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Sydney Arnold and Guy Bertrand.[2] It plays as the prelude to the film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983).
The film includes actor Matt Frewer's debut performance.
Plot
The elderly British employees of the Permanent
After their hard-earned victory, the clerks sing a heroic sea shanty as they "sail the wide accountan-sea" in search of further conquests. However, they unceremoniously end up falling off the edge of the world, due to their belief about the shape of the world being "disastrously wrong".
Typical of how the Pythons would weave previously "terminated" plot lines into later scenes in their projects (such as "The Spanish Inquisition" in Flying Circus, or the repeated references to swallows in Holy Grail), The Crimson Permanent Assurance suddenly re-emerges in the middle of The Meaning of Life. After the donor scene, the film shifts to a modern boardroom in the VBCA headquarters, where the executives debate about the meaning of life (and whether or not people are wearing enough hats). The debate is halted when one executive asks "Has anyone noticed that building there before?", which turns out to be the office building/pirate ship of the Crimson Permanent Assurance. As the beginning of the battle between the clerks and the VBCA is repeated, the raid is suddenly halted by a falling skyscraper crushing the Permanent Assurance Company building, accompanied by a voice-over apologizing for the "unwarranted attack by the supporting feature".
Cast
Pirates
- Sydney Arnold
- Myrtle Devenish
- Eric Francis
- Len Marten
- John Scott Martin
- Gareth Milne
- Paddy Ryan
- Leslie Sarony
- Wally Thomas
Very Big Corporation of America
Production
Having originally conceived the story as a six-minute animated sequence in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life,[3] intended for placement at the end of Part V,[4] Terry Gilliam convinced the other members of Monty Python to allow him to produce and direct it as a live action piece instead. According to Gilliam[citation needed], the film's rhythm, length, and style of cinematography made it a poor fit as a scene in the larger movie, so it was presented as a supplementary short ahead of the film.
It was a common practice in British cinemas to show an unrelated short feature before the main movie, a holdover from the older practice of showing a full-length
In popular culture
The Crimson Permanent Assurance plays a prominent role in
The "Accountancy Shanty" is sung by Neil and Hershel, two Bob replicant clones in the book All These Worlds, the third book in the
References
- ISBN 9780786478118.
- ^ "The Crimson Permanent Assurance". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 11 January 2024.
- ISBN 978-0-415-66667-1.
- ISBN 0-7893-0265-9.
- ^ "The Crimson Permanent Assurance in Space", blog post by Charles Stross, 30 September 2010
- ISBN 0-425-25677-4
External links
- The Crimson Permanent Assurance at IMDb
- Companies owned by The Very Big Corporation of America
- The Crimson Permanent Assurance then-and-now location photographs at ReelStreets
