Rating: NNNNN
BRAZIL (Terry Gilliam, 1985) stands out as the best and most disturbing of Gilliam’s many nightmare visions. This is the full flowering of his trademark paranoia – a comic-book version of Orwell’s 1984. Jonathan Pryce gives one of his best screen performances as a white-collar dreamer nearly driven mad by a bureaucratic error. All of Gilliam’s manic visual invention is on display here – samurai, anachronistic machines, erotic ductwork. He took the wild style of his Monty Python animated bits and made it live. But underneath it all lies a deep suspicion of British order – all the bureaucrats are Brits – and a simple faith in American freedom. Pryce is the film’s centre, but rebel fixer Robert De Niro is its real hero. NNNN (September 18 and 19, Revue)