The film Brazil is a rather surreal, masterful work. Seemingly inspired by George Orwell’s 1984, the film takes place in a fantastical, dystopian world. The “Ministry of Information,” a very cruel and brutal organization rules over the society. They have no one goal or ideology, other than garnering unquestioning obedience from citizens and possessing all information, as the name would suggest. Many themes and symbolic meanings are layered in the film: as we follow Sam Lowry’s (Jonathan Pryce) journey from a clerk submissive to the system, transformed into a frustrated rebel, in both an internal dream world and later the external fight in his world. The overbearing system is all too formidable for all of Sam Lowry’s fights, ending happily as he becomes insane.
The film Brazil with its surreal and masterful work is an ode to the insanely imaginative and unrealistic, achieving complete freedom by having a true retreat into one’s own mind. Ultimately, the use of space in the film pairs well with this idea. The entire world can be very out of touch with a grounded reality, and the use of space matches that. The space is very ambiguous, and ungrounded with spatial cues. Angles in the film seem to convey the space to be unknown and constantly full of reorientation for the viewer. The space in Brazil plays into the film’s themes and ambiguity, adding to the film’s distinct surreal, technological, and dystopian world.
One of the most distinctive visual feature of the world created in Brazil is the convoluted system of grey ducts used, operated, and implemented by the Ministry of Information. The ducts limit the space, and add to ambiguity. Hanging so low to the point of almost touching people's heads, they completely desecrate a perception of space. Throughout the film, they limit the background accessibility and remove the cues of space one would use to delineate depth from shallow. The ducts are able to signify the presence of the Ministry in the physical sense (imposing themselves on every location) and in the mental sense (knowing the ducts are there). The ducts are a disfiguring agent on even the most lush and lavish of spaces, blocking out the grandeur, and thus depth. The apartment of Mrs. Ida Lowry and the fancy French restaurant both look unattractive, even though without the ducts, one can assume they would look lovely. The ducts and lack of space represents the oppressive control maintained by the Ministry of Information. The ducts connect every diverse space back, to ultimately, the Ministry. If the ducts were absent, the entirety of the space and the film would be changed. The lack of spatial awareness and ambiguity is a very key aspect to this film.
Another example of how dimensional and spatial ambiguity strengthens the film and the world is in the case of Jill, involving the question of her existence. The fact that Jill questions her existence strengthens the dimensional and spatial ambiguity in the fil because it gives Jill the human rationale which humans have pursued for over thousands of years, Humans discovered fire, landed on the moon and even split the atom, but despite all these developments, we have no more of an understanding of our existence today than the first thinkers of civilized society. Alternately, the use of mirrors also plays into the ambiguous space, in which we are unable to tell the depth or shallowness of a scene. Mirrors have been and will always be a defining characteristic of ambiguity because not they reflect the moment, but also, since they reflect perceptions and our inner feelings masquerading into vagueness and uncertainty. One question brought up is whether Jill exists or is a very manifestation of Sam Lowry’s consciousness. Parts of the film establish her in the plot, however other parts leave more room for interpretation in the more symbolic layer of the plot. The notion of reality, in which slips in and out of extremely cloudy, dream sequences is very evasive. The one moment in particular that connects this concept to the concept of ambiguous space in the film is during the mirror scene. She is introduced in his dream, therefore evinced to be a creature of his imagination. When Sam Lowry meets her in Mrs. Buttle’s apartment, he views her reflection in a mirror shard, positioned from an angle that Sam should in theory be able to see himself since he is looking directly at it. Instead, he sees her face, or perhaps the face of a manifestation of his deeply repressed conscious and idealized self. The use of space allows the film to convey a hint to the symbols beyond.
Lastly, another example of ambiguous space adding to the film’s surreal world building strength is in the scene in which Sam Lowry meets with his boss to discuss the very fatal administrative error. The error causes a Mr. Archibald Buttle (Brian Miller) to mistakenly be incarcerated and accidental death after a tortuous interrogation, having confused the cobbler for a potential terrorist Mr. Archibald “Harry” Tuttle (Robert De Niro). The matter concerns a human life, but is treated as if it is the most tedious section of a tax form. The terrifyingly effective dystopia is not based within a complete control-holding sovereign, but rather a ruler based on the painfully details of the mundane. This plays into the idea of humans not fearing power and control, but rather boredom. In the truest sense, we allow ourselves to be led, but will be forever horrified at the potential of intense periods of tedium. The conversation in the scene is painfully dull and rather tedious, however, a sort of terror and anxiousness is borne from the complete boredom. In the scene, the space is ambiguous due to camera angles, allowing the space to feel both simultaneously deep and shallow at the same time. Additionally, the space is a visual component of the film in that it adds to the sense of anxiousness, because the room and space feel so unfamiliar to us. This scene clearly helps to articulate the scene to the viewer by creating a visual component which communicates moods, emotions and most importantly, it provides a visual structure.
The offices in the Record Department of the Ministry.
Sam and the use of mirrors in the film.
The ugly ducts in the beautiful French restaurant.
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