Editing Brazil (1985 film) (section)

===Production design===
[[File:Brazil-MOI-logo.svg|thumb|Logo of the Ministry of Information]]
[[Michael Atkinson (writer)|Michael Atkinson]] of ''[[The Village Voice]]'' wrote, "Gilliam understood that all futuristic films end up quaintly evoking the naïve past in which they were made, and turned the principle into a coherent comic aesthetic."<ref name="vvoice">{{cite web |first=Michael |last=Atkinson |url=http://www.villagevoice.com/1998-09-01/film/bravo-new-worlds/1 |title=Bravo New Worlds |work=[[The Village Voice]] |publisher=Voice Media Group |location=New York City |date=1 September 1998 |access-date=4 January 2009 |archive-date=13 June 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130613142819/http://www.villagevoice.com/1998-09-01/film/bravo-new-worlds/1/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In the second version of the script, Gilliam and Alverson described the film's setting: "It is neither future nor past, and yet a bit of each. It is neither East nor West, but could be [[Belgrade]] or [[Scunthorpe]] on a drizzly day in February. Or [[Cicero, Illinois]], seen through the bottom of a beer bottle."<ref>{{cite web |first=David |last=Morgan |url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2600-the-evolution-of-brazil |title=The Evolution of Brazil |publisher=[[The Criterion Collection]] |website=Criterion.com |year=2012 |access-date=11 February 2016 |archive-date=4 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160404071906/https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2600-the-evolution-of-brazil |url-status=live }}</ref> In the 1988 documentary ''The Birth of Brazil'', Gilliam said that he always explained the film as taking place "everywhere in the 20th century, whatever that means, on the Los Angeles/Belfast border, whatever that means".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5gZW_GgAms| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220114859/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5gZW_GgAms&gl=US&hl=en| archive-date=20 February 2019 | url-status=dead|title=Terry Gilliam and THE BIRTH OF BRAZIL (BBC, 1988)|website=[[YouTube]]|access-date=2 May 2018}}</ref> [[Pneumatic tube]]s are a frequent sight throughout the film.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://intowner.com/2020/01/05/pneumatic-tubes-technological-innovation-and-politics-in-boss-shepherd-era-washington-dc/|title=Pneumatic tubes: technological innovation and politics in Shepherd-era Washington DC|author=Matthew B. Gilmore|date=5 January 2020|publisher=The InTowner|access-date=16 February 2020|archive-date=27 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927160210/https://intowner.com/2020/01/05/pneumatic-tubes-technological-innovation-and-politics-in-boss-shepherd-era-washington-dc/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The result is an [[Anachronism|anachronistic]] technology, "a view of what the 1980s might have looked like as viewed from the perspective of a 1940s filmmaker"<ref name="reel">{{cite web |first=James |last=Berardinelli |author-link=James Berardinelli |url=http://preview.reelviews.net/movies/b/brazil.html |title=Brazil |website=reelviews.net |access-date=28 September 2017 |archive-date=7 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190207071838/http://preview.reelviews.net/movies/b/brazil.html |url-status=live }}</ref> that has been dubbed "[[retro-futurism]]" by fellow filmmakers [[Jean-Pierre Jeunet]] and [[Marc Caro]].<ref name="vvoice" /> It is a mixture of styles and production designs derived from [[Fritz Lang]]'s films (particularly ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'' and ''[[M (1931 film)|M]]'') or [[film noir]] pictures starring [[Humphrey Bogart]]: "On the other hand, Sam's reality has a '40s noir feel. Some sequences are shot to recall images of Humphrey Bogart on the hunt and one character (Harvey Lime) may be named as an homage to ''[[The Third Man]]''{{'s}} [[Harry Lime (character)|Harry Lime]]."<ref name="reel" />

A number of reviewers also saw a distinct influence of [[German expressionist cinema|German Expressionism]], as the 1920s seminal, more nightmarish, predecessor to 1940s film noir, in general in how Gilliam made use of lighting and set designs.<ref>{{cite journal |first=C. Jerry |last=Kuttner |url=https://brightlightsfilm.com/beyond-golden-age-film-noir-since-50s/ |title=Beyond the Golden Age: Film Noir Since the '50s |journal=Bright Lights Film Journal |publisher=Studio Hyperset, Inc. |location=Oakland, California |issue=12 |date=Spring 1994 }}</ref> A brief sequence towards the end, in which resistance fighters flee from government soldiers on the steps of the Ministry, pays homage to the [[Battleship Potemkin#The Odessa Steps sequence|Odessa Steps sequence]] in [[Sergei Eisenstein]]'s ''[[Battleship Potemkin]]'' (1925).<ref name="CriterionCommentary" /> Strong references exist to the overcomplicated humoristic machinery of British illustrator [[W. Heath Robinson]], published between 1915 and 1942.<ref>{{cite web|first=Andrew|last=Blair|title=Looking back at Terry Gilliam's Brazil|url=http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/18483/looking-back-at-terry-gilliams-brazil|website=[[Den of Geek]]|publisher=[[Dennis Publishing]]|location=New York City|date=13 December 2011|access-date=2 July 2018|archive-date=2 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180702151803/http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/18483/looking-back-at-terry-gilliams-brazil|url-status=live}}</ref> The grotesque sets were based on [[George Grosz]]'s paintings of 1920s [[Berlin]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.criterionchannel.com/videos/brazil-commentary |title=BRAZIL Commentary - the Criterion Channel |access-date=31 October 2020 |archive-date=24 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024154002/https://www.criterionchannel.com/videos/brazil-commentary |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The lighting and set design was coupled with Gilliam's trademark obsession for very wide lenses and tilted camera angles; going unusually wide for an audience familiar with mainstream Hollywood productions, Gilliam made the film's wide-angle shots with 14mm (Zeiss), 11mm and 9.8mm (Kinoptik) lenses, the latter being a recent technological innovation as one of the first lenses of that short a focal length that did not [[Fisheye lens|fisheye]].<ref name="sheehan">{{cite journal |last=Sheehan |first=Henry |date=Fall 2006 |title=Welcome to Brazil |journal=DGA Quarterly: Craft Journal of the Directors Guild of America |volume=II |issue=3 |url=https://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/0603-Fall-2006/Shot-to-Remember-Brazil.aspx |access-date=31 October 2009 |archive-date=17 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110917065815/http://www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/0603-Fall-2006/Shot-to-Remember-Brazil.aspx |url-status=live}}</ref> In fact, over the years, the 14mm lens has become informally known as "The Gilliam" among filmmakers due to the director's frequent use of it since ''Brazil''.<ref>{{cite web |last=Stubbs |first=Phil |url=http://www.smart.co.uk/dreams/tidegill.htm |title=Terry Gilliam talks ''Tideland'' |date=30 November 2004 |publisher=dreams |access-date=6 October 2009 |archive-date=11 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511132608/http://www.smart.co.uk/dreams/tidegill.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

Many of the film's exterior scenes were filmed in ''[[Les Espaces d'Abraxas]]'' in [[Noisy-le-Grand]] near [[Paris]], a monumental apartment complex designed by [[Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura]].<ref>{{cite web |website=ArchDaily |author=James Taylor-Foster |title=A Utopian Dream Stood Still: Ricardo Bofill's Postmodern Parisian Housing Estate of Noisy-le-Grand |url=https://www.archdaily.com/774578/a-utopian-dream-stood-still-ricardo-bofills-postmodern-parisian-housing-estate-of-noisy-le-grand |date=1 October 2015 |access-date=27 February 2021 |archive-date=1 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301095907/https://www.archdaily.com/774578/a-utopian-dream-stood-still-ricardo-bofills-postmodern-parisian-housing-estate-of-noisy-le-grand |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |website=Sansible |title=Abraxas Spaces, Time's Doors |url=https://sansible.fr/en/abraxas-spaces-times-doors/ |author=Maïm Garnier |date=November 2017 |access-date=27 February 2021 |archive-date=27 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210127165922/https://sansible.fr/en/abraxas-spaces-times-doors/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The numbering of form {{vanchor|27B/6}}, without which no work can be performed by repairmen with the Department of Central Services, is an allusion to [[George Orwell]]'s flat at 27B [[Canonbury Square]], London (up six half-flights of stairs), where he lived while writing parts of ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''.<ref>{{cite book | first1=George | last1=Orwell |author-link= George Orwell|first2=Sonia|last2=Orwell|first3=Ian|last3=Angus | title=The Collected Essays, Journalism, & Letters, George Orwell: As I please, 1943–1945 | volume=3 | publisher=David R. Godine | page=400 | quote=27b Canonbury Square, Islington, London N1, 18 August 1945 [as return address in correspondence] | year=2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last=Jura | first=Jackie | title=Canonbury Photos | publisher=Orwell Today | url=http://www.orwelltoday.com/canonburyphotos.shtml | date=14 July 2003 | access-date=24 October 2011 | archive-date=30 October 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111030055003/http://www.orwelltoday.com/canonburyphotos.shtml | url-status=live }}</ref>