Brazil

NEW 4K RESTORATION SUPERVISED BY TERRY GILLIAM (REVISED DIRECTOR’S CUT)

Featuring a new limited edition screen printed poster by Matthew Woodson as part of our ongoing Spoke Art Gallery poster series. Prints available for pre-order at the screening.

“MONTY PYTHON MEETS GEORGE ORWELL, and it’s as clever, witty and subversive as that sounds.”  
– The Guardian

“It’s like a stoned, slapstick 1984: a nightmare comedy in which the comedy is just an aspect of the nightmarishness.”
– Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

“[A] darkly funny and truly visionary retro-futurist fantasy.”
–  Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

“Terry Gilliam’s ferociously creative black comedy is filled with wild tonal contrasts, swarming details, and unfettered visual invention — every shot carries a charge of surprise and delight.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

As those endlessly coiling serpentine ducts proliferate — seemingly beyond the power of even Central Services to control — and the omnipresent Information Service-policed towering city of the future, studiously ambitious file clerk Sam Lowery (Jonathan Pryce of Miss Saigon and THE TWO POPES fame) finds a literal flyspeck leading to apocalyptic bureaucratic foul-ups and a desperate search for the girl of his literal dreams.

Gilliam’s take on a decidedly low-tech 1984-ish society, distinguished by creepily Noir ambiance, amid gargantuan fascist modern architecture, sparked by samurai battles within airborne fantasy, all underscored by Python-esque black humor and the endless variations on that hypnotic title tune. With Gilliam’s fellow Python alum Michael Palin at his most seriously slimy, Bob Hoskins as a ferocious repairman, Ian Holm and Ian Richardson as nervous and high-powered (respectively) bureaucrats, and Robert De Niro as a heroic electrical engineer.  

BRAZIL’s release marked the occasion of a memorable studio-auteur battle, recounted in Jack Matthews’ The Battle of Brazil, topped by its designation as Best Picture of the Year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Circle before its premiere.

Says Gilliam, “Our baby, BRAZIL, is now 40 years old. It left home long ago. I’m glad to see it has grown with age. So many governments are now trying to imitate it.”