“Return I will / To old Brazil”: The use of recurring space in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil

For a while now, I’ve wanted to point out something about the ending of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, and the way the film uses recurring space to visually convey its narrative. (Spoilers from this point on—and spoilers, too, for George Orwell’s 1984 and Federico Fellini’s 8½. Spoilers for everything!)

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Fellini’s television commercials

When I was in college, Federico Fellini was the first foreign filmmaker I really got into. I watched 8½ repeatedly, and made it my mission to watch every one of his films. I had some trouble finding La voce della luna, but eventually tracked down two VHS bootleg copies: one letterboxed but lacking English subs, the other subtitled, but pan-and-scanned. My pal Elf and I watched them simultaneously, on two TV-VCR setups. We had to keep briefly pausing one of the videos every few minutes, to keep them both in sync. (I don’t know if the movie ever got official US distribution. I see there’s a copy up at YouTube, but it lacks English subs.)

So I’m what you might call a Fellini fanatic. But until the other day, I didn’t know he’d directed TV commercials. I’ll embed them below the jump.

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