Brazil
Short description
Terry Gilliam's Brazil takes place in a future society so tangled in paperwork and machines that a single administrative error can destroy a life. Sam Lowry, a minor clerk in a vast information ministry, spends his days processing forms and his nights dreaming of himself as an armored, winged hero rescuing a woman he has never met. After a fly jams a computer and a harmless man is arrested in place of a wanted subversive, Sam's attempt to correct the mistake puts him in front of the woman from his dreams, Jill Layton. His efforts to help her, and his encounters with the fugitive Harry Tuttle, draw him deeper into the system's contradictions until the distance between his fantasies and his daily existence collapses.
Jonathan Pryce leads the cast as Sam, with Katherine Helmond as his status-conscious mother, Ian Holm and Bob Hoskins as functionaries of the state, Michael Palin as a colleague, and Robert De Niro as Tuttle. Gilliam wrote the screenplay with Tom Stoppard and Charles McKeown; Arnon Milchan and Patrick Cassavetti produced.
Released in 1985, Brazil was the fifth of the fourteen films Gilliam has directed, between The Crimson Permanent Assurance and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Made for about 15 million dollars, it took roughly 10 million at the worldwide box office. Its reputation has grown far beyond that return: on IMDb it holds 7.8 from some 222,000 votes and on TMDB 7.7 from around 3,834, while the film critics' rating stands at 9.1 from 63 reviews.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film parodies a famous scene from Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin".
- With this film, Terry Gilliam traveled to 80 countries, and in each one, he was told the same phrase: “You know, there’s a piece of our country in your film too.”
- The leitmotif of the film is the 1939 song "Aquarela do Brazil" by Ary Barroso, performed in various variations – from sublime and inspiring to menacingly ominous.
- Terry Gilliam regretted after filming that he had rejected Ellen Barkin's candidacy for the lead female role.
- Arnon Milchan recommended Robert De Niro for one of the roles in the film.
- The scene of the battle with the samurai covered in electronic components parodies Luke Skywalker’s dreamlike battle with his father in the fifth episode and simultaneously symbolizes Terry Gilliam’s love for the films of Akira Kurosawa.
- Kelly McGillis, Ellen Barkin, Kathleen Turner, and Jamie Lee Curtis were among the actresses who auditioned for the role that Kim Greist eventually landed.
- The year the film was made – 1984 – coincides with the title of George Orwell’s famous dystopian novel. The film was originally to be called “1984 ½” and the musical theme was to be the song Malia Elena, but midway through filming, the director changed the theme and title to something more suitable to the content. Furthermore, the office of the Minister of Information in the film is located on the 84th floor of the building.
- In 2004, the film “Brazil” was included by Total Film magazine in its list of the twenty greatest English films of all time. In 2005, Time magazine film critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel named “Brazil” among the 100 best films of all time. In 2006, Channel 4, shortly before showing it on BBC Four, recognized “Brazil” as one of “50 Films to See Before You Die.”
- The dream sequences in Sam Lowry feature sky vistas created for Wolfgang Petersen's 'The NeverEnding Story,' but were not included in the final cut.
- The distribution of 'Brazil' in the United States was controlled by Universal Pictures. Universal executives found the film's ending overtly pessimistic, and company chairman Sid Sheinberg subjected Terry Gilliam's work to significant editorial revisions, giving it a so-called 'happy ending'; this approach met with strong objections from the director. As with 'Blade Runner,' released three years earlier, this version of 'Brazil' was created by the studio with an ending more palatable from a consumer perspective. After a prolonged delay, Gilliam placed a full-page advertisement in the trade journal Variety, prompting Sheinberg to release 'Brazil' in its cut version. Ultimately, after Gilliam held a series of private screenings (without the company's approval), the film won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Picture, which prompted Universal to release a 131-minute altered version under Gilliam's control in 1985.
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Auditions in India
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Кастинги в Україні
