Early in their friendship, Peter Bogdanovich confided to Orson Welles that he wasn't too fond of the legendary auteur's adaptation of Franz Kafka's The Trial. Years later, Orson informed Peter that he had intended the film to be a comedy. Viewed in this light, Bogdanovich was much better able to appreciate the pitch black comedy at the heart of Welles' bureaucratic nightmare. No added context is needed in order to appreciate Brazil. The comedy is right there at the surface. How can you not find humor in all the paperwork and Rube Goldberg technology? It's all so wild and whimsical that the horror is able to really creep up on you. True evil doesn't come at you with a bunch of gloom and doom. True evil comes at you with a smile that looks as jolly and well-meaning as Michael Palin's.
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