Re: Brazil / Gilliam

[gatech!chinet.chi.il.us!katefans@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago)]

In article <C3CEE1C43C008117@sc.intel.com> AGOUGH@AZ.intel.COM ("Andy Gough, x4-2906, pager 420-2284, CH2-59") writes:
>
>Ah... here is a good place to tell an amusing anecdote.  Before the film was
>released, I saw a segment on Entertainment Tonight about Gilliam's fight with
>the studio to release the film without making changes.  The segment told about
>Gilliam taking out a big ad in Variety that said something like, "Hey Paramount!
>When are you going to release my movie!"

I still have the actual page I tore out of Variety at the time (I worked at
a video store and they subscribed to it) and it's funny!! It actually says
"Dear Sid Sheinberg, When are you going to release my film, 'Brazil'?"
signed Terry Gilliam. It's dated Wed. Oct. 2, 1985. Very, very cool thing
for him to do!

>     One thing I can't reconcile is that in the clips of the film that were
>shown on Entertainment Tonight as part of the segment, I remember it showing
>a lasergun battles between Tuttle and government stormtroopers.  But the 
>released film has nothing like this.

I have a documentary that was filmed during the making of the movie and
there are lots of things that were shot that never made it into the final
print. One great secquence that everybody hated to give up was during one
of the dream sequences. Jonathan Pryce's character flies over a sea of
"eyes" and they were literally eyeballs, hundreds of them, and they all
followed him, the pupils moving as he flew over. Terry said he hated to
cut it but it just didn't look real enough. The special effects team who
worked weeks on the sequence were extremely disappointed.

>     Ah, but at least you keep the search for Kate's cover of "Brazil"
>alive!  Kindof like the search for the Holy Grail that's been going on
>for all these centuries.

It definitely exists. I want it on CD!!

>     Another thing I'd like to talk about is the title--"Brazil."  After I
>saw the film, I couldn't figure out why it was called "Brazil"--after all,
>it's not about the country of Brazil, nor does it take place in Brazil.  But
>then one day I was reading an article on the editorial page of the Wall Street
>Journal, which had a sentence something like, "You know what they're always
>saying about Brazil--it's the place where things are happening and growing,
>where prospects are always positive--it's the Future!  It never pans out, but
>people keep on saying it."  And I thought, "Aha!"  So I think titling the
>film "Brazil" is a statement saying that was is portrayed in the film is 
>"the future"--that, in the future, a mindless bureacracy will control everything
>(and yet nothing).  Now, if I'm dead wrong about this, I'd very much appreciate
>being corrected!

No correction, it's probably true. In the documentary everyone was trying to
figure out why it was called Brazil and Terry kept his mouth shut.

I love some of the tag lines used. "It's about late-night shopping and
terrorist bombing" and "Franz Kafka meets Walter Mitty" are my favorites.

It's definitely my favorite film too. 

Vickie