The Grand Illusion

40th anniversary! New 4K restoration of Terry Gilliam's director's cut!

In Gilliam's dystopian masterpiece, Jonathan Pryce plays a daydreaming everyman who finds himself caught in the soul-crushing gears of a nightmarish bureaucracy. This cautionary tale, one of the great films of the 1980s, has come to be esteemed alongside antitotalitarian works by the likes of George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, and Kurt Vonnegut. And in terms of set design, cinematography, music, and effects, BRAZIL is a nonstop dazzler.

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry (Price) escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro), he meets the woman from his daydream (Kim Greist), and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy, and lies.

“A superb example of the power of comedy to underscore serious ideas, even solemn ones.” Janet Maslin, The New York Times

“[A] darkly funny and truly visionary retro-futurist fantasy.” Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

“Monty Python meets George Orwell, and it’s as clever, witty and subversive as that sounds.” The Guardian