> What does "Brechtian" mean?
 
    Hey, Scott,
 
    Brechtian, as you may have gathered by now, is TV/film/theater that is
    inspired by the theories of Bertolt Brecht.
 
    Brecht was a German playwright (wrote the THREE PENNY OPERA with Kurt
    Weil: "Oh, the shark...") who developed a theory of the theater that
    ran counter to conventional, Aristotelian theater.  Brecht's "epic
    theater" (which didn't have much to do with the traditional "epic")
    sought to break down some long held assumptions about the theatrical
    experience.  For one, he argued that spectators should NOT be
    encouraged to identify with a play's characters.  Instead, they should
    be distanced from the characters so that they might better critique the
    characters' social positions.
 
    This distance, according to Brecht, could be achieved by a variety of
    techniques--including disrupting the linear narrative flow,
    interrupting the story with songs, projecting slides and films in the
    midst of plays, making evident the usually hidden devices for
    presenting stories theatrically (foregrounding theatrical technique),
    having actors acknowledge their roles _as actors_ and so on.  In short,
    keeping the spectator at a distance.
 
    Hence, Brecht argued that spectators should be "alienated" from the
    characters and the story.  Brecht's alienation effect (in German,
    _verfremdungseffekt_), his theory of distanciation, found its way into
    film in the sixties--principally in the work of Jean-Luc Godard (see
    especially, VIVRE SA VIE, made one year after a special CAHIERS DU
    CINEMA issue on Brecht).
 
    Hope that sheds some light...