WTF MATE!?!

this movie is the craziest i have experienced. this whole movie is based on post modernism and this makes it a rather difficult movie to follow. it jumps around from scene to scene  and it is tuff to participate it in. this movie is fun to watch and entertaining to be a part of be is hard to fully understand. the plot of this movie is something that i dont really recognize and the post modern style is rather confusing.

BRAZIL

This movie was a movie that i was hesitant to like. at first it just seemed like a bunch of random events and a very misconstrewed perception of the furture. at first i wanted to think this was a scene right out of a brave new world but as time went on i could see that these ideas were far apart. 

Strange but Intelligent

The movie Brazil was very odd. In the beginning I could not understand a thing that was going on. It was kind of like Flaubert's Parrot in the fact it jumped around, and I really had no clue what was going on. For instance, it would jump around from Sam's dreams to his actual life without really giving any reason as to why Sam was having those dreams until the end of the movie. However, atleast Brazil had a noticable plot closer to the beginning. I started to get into the movie when he saw that girl, and began to almost hunt for her due to the fact he was convinced she was the girl in his dreams. This is when I realized that his dreams and his life connected for him. Not only did he go against what he said about not ever accepting a promotion, but he also went around the rules and guidelines to find this girl. Apparently the society he lived in and the work that he did did not please him enough, and he started to realize that it was a corrupt society. Therefore, I believe that is why Sam "left" them at the end of the movie. He realized that living in his fantasies was much more appealing and rewarding then living in such a place as he had been. To him his fantasies made sense, and the outside world no longer did.

JZ's thoughts

Well, I have no idea what we are supposed to say, so I suppose I will impart to you all my initial reactions to the movie.  To begin, I truly found this movie entertaining, compelling, and engaging.  I feel that I have a sufficient comprehension of the plot despite the fact that our class had to endure freezings and jumps in the chronology.  I couldn't help but noticing that this society, almost if by design, was conveyed in an ominous and sinister light.  This gives me reason to believe that the author of this movie was endeavoring to portray this society as a dystopia.  Truly, I now want to read 1984.  I think the author was showcasing the idea that we shouldn't allocate so much power and such to the fascist government and ministry of information in the movie.  Truly, they controlled all aspects of society, andf created a terrible world.  The whole ministry of information was also really pointless, and didn't do anything productive.  JZ out.   

Brazil

Well, my first reaction to Brazil was pretty much WTF? It's definitely similar to Flaubert's Parrot in the sense that it's totally disjointed and confusing, and nothing comes together. All this random crap is just thrown in together, like the director was drunk or something. But like FP, it sort of grew on me, and I kind of liked it. That's not to say I had a clue what they were talking about.
The movie is supposed to be futuristic, but it was made 30 years ago, so there's a weird mix of antiques and imagined futurama. Sometimes the gadgets are fairly simlar to modern ones, and sometimes they are way off. What I find more interesting is how synically accurate the filmmakers are with respect to things like terrorism and beaucracy. Though we haven't reached the low point shown in the movie with these things, we are far closer than anyone would have imagined. The looming govermental buildings, gas-masked soldiers barging into homes, heavy mistrust, torture, and dehumanizing of everybody seems like WWII, which was probably intended. Covering the faces of victims (hanging grey bags) and torturers (baby mask) alike makes everything so impersonal it becomes much easier to do terrible things. Having the terrible things happen on a seemingly distant island helps too (Guantanamo Bay). Despite its creepy predictions, Brazil is still incredibly strange. What kind of messed up movie has a happy ending where the main characters, the lovers, are killed and tortured to insanity, respectively? The writer must have been an...interesting guy.

Brazil

Brazil. I don't even understand why it was named such a thing if it has nothing to do with the country. I mean, honestly? What the hell????? I don't think I followed the plot line the whole time. I got that it was this society that was completely controlled by Information gatherers. But the combination of futeristic dominance and old-school gadgets just totally screwed with my mind. And I somehow got that terrorists were trying to take over. But this whole thing with Sam's dream and that girl being real...man my brain hurts just thinking about it.
I really wish I could have understood this movie. I mean, I'm sure if I'd gotten it, it would have been amazing and really interesting. But because I didn't, it was like tripping on some really crazy drug the entire time. And what a strange way to present postmodernism. Flaubert's Parrot was nothing like that! It wasn't nearly as confusing, nor as (no offense, Mr. Lavender) pointless. It had the pontential to be really cool. Maybe I wasn't in the right mind set. I don't know.

It's over?

Well after finishing the novel there isn't much to be said.  It was certainly an interesting and some times disturbing read (the  necrophiliac part).  Barnes leaves the readers with many unanswered questions, kind of like a maze that we can't get out of.  We know of all of the passages like questions but they don't really come together to let us out.  In the chapter about Louise Colet, I begin to wonder if Barnes really appreciates Flaubert or if he is using all of the irony to mock him.  Although, all of the irony presented brings very much humor, I get the sense that Barnes just makes fun of Flaubert and gets this sense of ascendancy over Flaubert.  This novel does present some funny times. Rarely do I laugh out loud when I read but Barnes did force a couple little tiny laughs.  The biggest question this book leaves me with is why? I still don't know of Barnes' intentions for the novel, was he paying respect to Flaubert or showing that he knows more than him and is better. The two tones and authorial presences differ and I am left wonder why Barnes decided to take this path with writing this novel.  It was a book that presented much curiosity and even more confusion but it was kind of entertaining to read.  

        

Necrophiliac!!!

Sorry but i have to take a moment for this necrophiliac stuff... In my opinion Flaubert is just as guilty of being a nasty person. For anyone who finds joy in watching a mental person having sex with a corpse is obviously a twisted psycho! And the fact that he has the audacity to call him a coward because he couldn't stomach a decapitated corpse! Who is the coward? Flaubert? For in my eyes it is Flaubert! He constantly needs to make himself feel normal and will use any method the sick freak can get away with.

About the Parrots

The end of the book leaves the reader without a concrete resolution. In a sense isn't this what happens in our own lives and isn't this why we search for answers in literature? Barnes dedicates this entire book to Flaubert's insights, Flaubert who was the master of realism, and here at the end of the novel we are left with an answer we no so well, which is not having an answer. Flaubert's Parrot analyzes a realist and leaves the reader with a realization that sometimes the answer is unknown. We never find out which was the true parrot, and Geoffrey will never no the reason why his wife cheated on him. Sometime the realities of life, just are, and Flaubert's Parrot diverged away from the norms of literature and didn't have a "because". This book left us hanging and realistically portrays life because this happens all the time in the real world.