Mise-en-scène describes the director’s control of what appears within the frame. It is conventionally used to establish within the audience a familiar setting within which the narrative can progress. This is most notable within a specific genre where the setting, costume & make-up will immediately establish, for example, whether the film is a western or a gangster movie. Refinements are possible within a genre by a more subtle use of mise-en-scène. For example the Spaghetti Westerns use of a more dishevelled looking group of characters as well as a more desolate landscape and harsher lighting makes them quite distinct from earlier more classical Westerns of the 1950’s. Yet both are easily classified as of the Western genre by use of basic setting and familiar props.
To be used in an unconventional manner mise-en-scène must imbue within the audience a sense of non-place, where the audience feels uncomfortable with the arena in which the diegesis of the story takes place. This does not mean just using unfamiliar surroundings, as most Science Fiction or Fantasy films have scenarios in which members of the audience would be unfamiliar. Instead the director must use the elements of mise-en-scène in an unfamiliar juxtaposition to create a world beyond the frame in which the narrative can lead in many directions. The elements of mise-en-scène must be non-transparent, and come to the foreground of the film rather than appearing only as a background for the narrative to take place against.
‘Brazil’ was Terry Gilliam’s second major motion picture after leaving the Monty Python comedy team, where he was co-director and designer on a number of the Monty Python films. Gilliam’s strong sense of visual image was more prevalent in ‘Brazil’ than any of his previous films creating an unconventional and often darkly disturbing narrative. This caused a legal battle between Gilliam and the film’s producers in which aspects of the film would be cut for release. Gilliam’s determination, however saw a largely uncut version hit the cinema screens in 1985, to much critical acclaim.
In ‘Brazil’ the narrative takes place within two general diegeses, the dark dystopia inhabited by the central character Sam Lowry and his mythical fantasy world, which lies in direct opposition to his ‘real’ life. Both of these settings are unfamiliar from the audience point of view and, in both, the use of all aspects of mise-en-scène is vitally important in establishing these settings and that they are distinct and essentially bipolar.
The use of two distinct settings (one essentially real and one essentially fantasy) is a common theme in many Gilliam films such as ‘Time Bandits’, ‘The Adventures of Baron Munchausen’, ‘The Fisher King’ and ‘Twelve Monkeys’. In the majority of these films the settings are viewed as distinct at the start of the film, but the distinction becomes blurred as the film progresses.
The opening sequence of ‘Brazil’ uses mise-en-scène to establish the two essentially bipolar fantasy realms in the following manner.
The very opening frames use a computer-generated type with the text “8:49 p.m.”, followed by the text “somewhere in the 20th century”. This imbues a contradictory sense of temporal precision combined with a vague sense of spatial sense of place and culture. The style of the text font is contemporary with the film’s release date.
The next scene focuses on a TV set, showing an advertisement for “Central Services”. The monochrome TV set is small and has a wooden surround resembling a wireless from the 1940’s. This gives the object itself an unusual air, by combining the familiar in an odd temporal juxtaposition.
The TV advertisement involves a man promoting the new improved ‘ducts’ of  “Central Services”. The style of the advert, studio setting, presenter’s suit and smooth manner and graphics are all reminiscent of the 1950’s era of American television. This puts the audience in the place of an average consumer, and the ‘ducts’ as an average consumer product. This gives a sense of familiarity in the trappings of consumerism but presented in an unfamiliar manner about an unfamiliar product. This continues the essentially post-modernist and audience disconcerting theme of eclectic juxtaposition.
The ‘ducts’ themselves are prevalent throughout the film, a constant reminder that the narrative is taking place in a world different from that of our own experience.
As the advert concludes the TV set is seen to be one of many similarly unorthodox objects in a shop window. The advert is replaced by a political interview, now seen in all of the TVs, giving a sense of omnipresence for the interviewee Mr Helpman. Both the interview and interviewee are nondescript in visual style, wearing non-descript  suits and ties (made even more so by being viewed via a monochrome TV), and viewed against a plain background.
The interview is interrupted by the TV shop exploding and the imposition of the film’s title ‘Brazil’ in multicoloured bright neon script, opposing the film’s general sense of grey monotonicity up to this point.
The interview continues on one or two of the television remnants in the rubble of the decimated shop and is used to link directly to a television in the next scene in a computing office/laboratory.
The next scene takes place in a room that is somewhere between an office and a laboratory. The room contains familiar office equipment (desk, filing cabinet) which could come from any period in recent history. This is contrasted by the room’s only occupant a bespectacled man in a pristine white lab coat, a stereotypical looking scientist as seen in myriad films. The other equipment in the room consists of a machine comprising a 1940’s style manual typewriter and a very small monochrome TV, reminiscent of a modern PC in set-up, but obviously different in style, and a large printing device of a similar style. The old style technology here is being put to an obviously modern use of information processing, a device rarely used in film although is more familiar in literature in a number of steampunk novels (e.g. William Gibson and Bruce Stirling’s “The Difference Engine”). This leads the audience to question the way in which the technology is being used in the film.
The technology is a lot more visible in Gilliam’s created world than in our own environment. The inner workings of TVs, typewriters and other computing devices are clearly visible and not disguised behind moulded plastic casings.
From the office/laboratory the same object of the TV interview, which had been continuing in the background, is used to link in to the next scene in the Buttle home.
It is quickly established that it is Christmas within the Buttle household by means of very familiar trappings, such as the Christmas tree, hanging decorations and wrapped gifts. The home environment here seems warm and generally familiar. The furniture and clothing is from the 1940’s and uses general warm earthy colours , the notable exceptions being the TV set, the ever present ‘ducts’, and a toy gun carried by the young Master Buttle, which is of a distinctly modern design. The general 1940’s feel is continued into Jill Layton’s upstairs apartment bathroom, which is viewed for a few moments.
The Buttle home is then invaded by a Police/Army team dressed in a modern SWAT style dress and carrying modern weapons. Their entry into the Buttle abode is fast and hard, hitting immediately, giving the audience a contradictory juxtaposition of styles. It’s almost as if the 1980’s has come crashing through into the 1940’s, throwing the audience off balance. The police squad’s entry through the floor of Jill Layton’s apartment into the Buttle’s show’s a considerably complex array of pipes and tubes hidden in the boundary between the apartments.
Mr Buttle is then strapped into an elaborate body-enclosing straitjacket and interrogated by a squad officer. The interrogater is dressed in an almost comic parody of a World War II gestapo officer, with black leather trenchcoat, hat and menacing monocle. This together with a single spotlight which encompasses the officer and Mr Buttle, gives the direct impression of a torture scene.
A prop is again used to link into the next scene as the camera focuses on a receipt that is the initial focus of the next scene, which takes place in a large office.
The office is full of machinery similar to that seen in the laboratory previously (mini-TV mechanical typewriter units) except more complex and with much more interaction between the machines and the greyly garbed office staff. The office staff themselves act much as a complex machine (at least while the office manager is watching), hyperactively transferring pieces of paper and files around the office.
The office manager Mr. Kurtzmann is given meek timid nervous actions and hesitant monotonic speech by Ian Holm, exuding political greyness, which far outweighs that of his office.
The next scene is in stark contrast to all that has gone previously in the film. It is brightly lit with a brilliant blue sky and pure white clouds, high above the dark depressing scene’s below. The scene shows a classically styled heroic figure, armoured in shiny gold, flying through the sky with the aid of a pair of mechanical wings. The technology of the wings is extremely minimalist consisting of a small number of wires joining glistening metallic feathers into smoothly functioning beautiful wings. This again contrasts with the world below where the technology was bulky, cumbersome, dark and ugly.
A more direct contrast is created by the Jill Layton character who is seen here, with long flowing blond hair, surrounded by flowing white robes in a soft focus. Her previous incarnation in the Buttle ‘s apartment building was a tough talking, hard-edged character with short spiked hair.
In considering this opening sequence as a whole, Gilliam firmly establishes the Kafkaesque dystopia of the films main diegesis, and introduces, what we later learn, is the fantasy dreamscape of Sam Lowry’s imagination.
Gilliam’s subtle use of bizarre and often surreal juxtaposition of elements from different eras manages to create a dark world at the forefront of the narrative, as opposed to the conventional transparent background of most films. This is emphasised by the use of elements of mise-en-scène to link scenes together, as in the TV interview which links the initial three scenes and the receipt, which links the next two. This isn’t an unconventional technique but the elements chosen are unusual in comparison with the classical style where general settings and the characters themselves are more often used to move from one scene to the next. Gilliam uses nuances of the world he has created to drive the narrative through the initial scenes. Note that the two central characters Sam Lowry and Jill Layton appear only briefly during the opening ten minutes of the film, the central character Lowry only appearing as his dream-world fantasy persona.
Thus Gilliam provides his audience with a setting which is as much of a character in the film as any of the people. The elements of mise-en-scène are used to intrigue the audience into questioning aspects of the reality presented and perhaps taking those questions into the reality outside the cinema.

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