Footnote #82 - Brechtian Theory

The Fantasy/Animation podcast takes listeners on a journey through the intersection between fantasy cinema and the medium of animation. Available via Apple Podcasts, Spotify and many of your favourite podcast hosting platforms!

Prompted by the recent Fantasy/Animation podcast episode on Digger (Alejandro González Iñárritu, 2026), Chris and Alex take listeners in Footnote #82 on a journey through the work of German theatre practitioner and playwright Bertolt Brecht, looking closely at Brechtian theory and Brechtian film theory to understand how non- or anti-cathartic distancing effects in Epic Theatre work to invite a different kind of spectatorial response and engagement. Topics include the modernist strategies of deconstruction and the challenges such techniques make to immersion; Aristotle, notions of catharsis, and the point of political art; the illusionism of Hollywood and the emergent agitation and assaultive nature of cinema’s many countercultures; the viewing positions engendered by films with socio-political urgency and different kinds of film movements; and how from constructed set designs to performance and representational styles a Brechtian framework helps us understand intention and the spell of the fiction.

**Fantasy/Animation theme tune composed by Francisca Araujo**

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Suggested Readings

• Constable, Catherine. 2015. Postmodernism and Film: Rethinking Hollywood’s Aesthetics. London: Wallflower Press.

• Heath, Stephen. 1974. “Lessons from Brecht.” Screen 15, no. 2: 103–128.

• Koutsourakis, Angelos. 2018. Rethinking Brechtian Film Theory and Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

• MacCabe, Colin. 1974. “Realism and the Cinema: Notes on Some Brechtian Theses.” Screen 15, no. 2: 7–27.

• Polan, Dana. 1974. “Brecht and the Politics of Self-Reflexive Cinema.” Jump Cut, no. 1, available at: https://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC17folder/BrechtPolan.html.

• Stam, Robert. 2000. Film Theory: An Introduction. Malden: Blackwell Publishers, 2000.