jay@npois.UUCP (Anton Winteroak) (03/04/86)
The Secret Cabnet of Dr. Caligari. I saw Brazil last night, after all the hoopla on the net. I liked it. My friends thought it was bizarre. We were glad we didn't bring our wives (who saw Pretty in Pink). My theory about this film, is that the story is being recounted by Sam, after being driven from mad to completely mad by the questioning. I think that the ducts, and the odd computer terminals, and odd fashions are all a reflection of his madness, not the world before the distortion of his perceptions. Clearly he already has a problem early in the film, since he is so quickly obsessed with the girl, just on one view. I think it was after this viewing that he matched her up with the girl of his dreams. In The Secret Cabnet of Dr. Caligari, the whole film, except the last two minutes, is filmed in surrealistic surroundings, with no square corners on any buildings, trucks, or anything. In the end it is revealed that the story is being recounted by a madman, and that Dr. Caligari is not the evil master of a mesmerized sleepwalker, but meerly a doctor at an asylum. I think this parallel is much more important than the 1984 comparisons, since I think the 1984 stuff is not real, but rather the creation of Sam's paranoia. Also compare this film to Videodrome.