I recently watched 12 monkeys, which had scenes with some pretty cool futuristic steampunk props, which I really liked. This made me look up into the other work of the director, that’s where I saw Brazil.
I had already seen it in some letterboxd lists which I scoured for things to watch, so I definitely knew of it. It’s just there were minor things that kept me from taking it seriously. Like, one of the main photos from the film being of a man holding on to a women’s stretched out face skin. Which, trust me, makes more sense after you know the context.
Well, this weekend I watched it, and wow what a ride it was.
Starting from the world building — it’s one of my top 3 films with great world building, having a lot of steampunk industrial gritty aesthetic. Everything, from the retro-futuristic props, to the costumes and clothing, ending with how the buildings and the streets were designed. I can watch movies with that dreamy steampunk architecture design all day.
And the story — weird, dreamlike. In many scenes, you don’t know what is real and what is imaginative. The characters are either silly or scary. Basically, this movie checks all of my requirements for being a new favourite.