Terry Gilliam
Lili’s Pick: Brazil
Lanie’s Pick: 12 Monkeys
I’ll admit, as strange as I consider myself, I have given up on many a strange film. Anyone who knows me personally knows that I have a particular hatred for the films of David Lynch, and given the fact that so many off-beat films are labeled “Lynchian”, I must always be cautious of films that critics deem as “weird”. As it would turn out, the term “weird” can be applied to just about any cinema, and “Lynchian”, “Orwellian”, and “Kafka-esque” are thrown around so often that you really cannot trust these characterizations. Fortunately, many “weird” films are not just vague post-modernist weird-for-the-sake-of-weird nonsense, many “weird” films are entirely coherent and incredibly compelling. Terry Gilliam is an excellent example of a director who operates solely within the sphere of weird, while still telling stories that are grounded in truth. Brazil, a dystopian narrative fit for viewing during a violently rampant pandemic, was dizzying and brilliant in its imagining of a bleak future. The critique of capitalism, of bureaucracy, of the struggle of the working class against the uber-rich who would prefer them dead, these are all themes that are still being explored and expanded upon presently. There were particular choices made here that make this film so startlingly prescient and apparently timeless: one scene that comes to mind involves the main character and his wealthy mother, who are eating a meal at a nice restaurant as terrorists begin to attack—when the mother complains about the noise and the sight of people being beaten a waiter places a screen between their table and violence, as if to protect them from reality. Though it was released in 1985, the relevance of this film is emblematic of its director’s sense of awareness and sense of foresight. This is proven once again, in his 1995 film 12 Monkeys, a similarly grim tale of a society on the brink of collapse—this time the cause of the downfall of society is not the tyranny of corporations but a highly infectious, incredibly deadly disease. Lovely. When I say that Terry Gilliam is from the future, I mean Terry Gilliam is from the future. And while the future is uncertain one thing that remains clear is this: history is cyclical and civil society is always vulnerable.
