“The
future is now” in Brazil,
a movie that parallels with today's American society. The movie takes
place in a dystopian, totalitarian bureaucracy where companies and
paper work controls the populace. Consumerism has taken over in the
form of upgrades for the ventilation pipes in every one's homes and
machines that are relied upon to make day to day life easier for
people but do not as they are flawed and prone to malfunction
constantly. The over exaggeration on the formality of paperwork
creates a comical overtone during a chaotic exposition scene. The
film's government can be compared to the one in 1984
by George Orwell. The biggest difference being that in Brazil, there
is no Big Brother.
Sam
can be depicted as a triangle because of his independent search for
the girl from his dreams and his rebellious attitudes against his
mother and the society at large, but mostly his momma. The lifestyle
of the peoples within the society is secure, morose and oppressive,
is represented through the square shape of his office and the city's
infrastructure. His nightmares included many square oppressive elements after
learning of his promotion. To Sam, Jill represents a circular
personality where she influences him positively in such a manner
where he feels freedom from the society as though he were a teenager
feeling invincible.
Terrorism
ensues within the society and through the society's desensitization
of violence creates an attitude of ignorance is bliss. The excessive
paperwork creates a niche for people to work around the boundaries
and legalities within the society, such as Robert Di Niro's character
Tuttle. The scene where Sam returns home to find his apartment the new north pole comes to mind when thinking about the creation of rhythm in a scene. A rhythm is started after Tuttle arrives with a periscope. The pattern begins with a medium shot of the repairmen in the apartment, transitions to a medium shot of Sam and pans to Tuttle accessing the wall panel. The camera focuses on the contents of the panel next, followed by a return to the scene with the repairmen.
In the film the director seems to convey the idea of how society nowadays is more materialistic than ever as well. This is shown through the conceited mothers. They are obsessed with their appearance and always buy beauty products, wear heavy makeup, and are constantly having some sort of facial procedure done to make themselves look more youthful and attractive to the eye. As the film progresses their makeup begins to deteriorate, making them appear unflattering and grotesque. The camera angles really bring out the hideous features of the women. The tilting of the camera and use of zoom ins at odd facial spots make the women appear bug-eyed and monstrous at times and this adds to the eerie and dark atmosphere of the film.
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