> 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...