Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 begins a tunnel with us looking at the back of a driver's head inside a car. Traffic seems to have stopped and there is no sound, immediately creating a feeling of claustrophobia and confinement. As our view is pulled back and the camera pans across the tunnel, we can see the full extent of the jam.
Cars are bumper-to-bumper and door-to-door as far as the eye can see. Next, we are shown the occupants of other vehicles, regarding our driver indifferently, further isolating us.
As the driver wipes his windshield and we look from side-to-side, the cabin begins to fill with smoke, turning the suffocating feeling literal. The first and only sounds in this opening sequence are those made as our driver gasps for breath and scrambles to escape the car as those around him look on as always.
Finally, our driver escapes out the sunroof, climbs on top of his car and... floats away. He floats out of the tunnel and out into the open sky, relishing the freedom. No longer stuck in that car in that traffic jam in that tunnel, he soars through the clouds all the way to the ocean.
His freedom, and ours, is short-lived, though. At the beach two men on shore start pulling on a rope attached to our driver's ankle, trying to bring him back to earth.
They succeed, and just as our driver is about to hit the water, he wakes up from his dream.Our driver is actually Guido, a film director currently the victim of director's block, and this opening sequence is a summary of his current state of mind. Without telling us who or what he is, we have been shown how trapped he is feeling and how he feels the need to escape. We've also been shown that for him at least, escape does not come easily. With this opening, Fellini has created a wonderfully expressive and baroque introduction to the film and main character through the use of this metaphorical dream sequence, all very Felliniesque characteristics. The use of a dream sequence such as this to symbolize a character's need to escape will also be used in Terry Gilliam's Brazil.
The very first shot of Brazil is a visual quotation of the opening sequence in 8 1/2. It begins with us flying through the clouds to the tune of Brazil (the song), immediately bringing to mind thoughts of a paradise getaway- somewhere open, free, and tropical.
We are soon reminded that this is not exactly the dream escape it appears to be, though. As we're flying through the clouds, text appears, telling us that it is "8:49 PM" and that we are "Somewhere In The 20th Century", bringing us one step closer to reality. Or at least Brazil's version of it.
The scene then cuts to a shot of a television screen on which a commercial for ducts is playing. The man selling the ducts displays that veneer of hospitality like only the English can, but it is in juxtaposition to the absurdity of the setting and product, creating a uneasy feeling that this world is not quite right. This is indicative of the tone of the film, largely owing to Gilliam's Monty Python roots (or was Monty Python's tone owing to Gilliam's disposition?).
The camera zooms out, showing us that the television is actually part of a window display filled with televisions. Not quite the paradise we were lead to believe in the first shot.
As the man with the shopping cart passes the window, the disconnect between the opening shot and our current location is widened even more as an explosion destroys the display. In the rubble, a working set shows an interview where it is explained that the country is currently suffering from a series of terrorist acts that have been going on for the passed 13 years. The politician puts it down to bad sportsmanship, again showing Monty Python's influence.
This opening sequence, like that of 8 1/2, shows both an escapist fantasy and something that needs to be escaped. In the case of Brazil, though, that which needs to be escaped is much more literal; the reality of the film is shown as being absurd, unsafe, and entirely unpleasant. Also, Gilliam chooses to show the escapism only fleetingly, and he does not associate it with any one person immediately, perhaps to give us, the audience, something to yearn for as we descend further into the madness of his vision of England.I chose both these openings because they convey the same general themes and motivations, but do so in entirely different ways. It is interesting to see how Gilliam, obviously influenced by Fellini, going so far as to pay homage to him, takes what Fellini did in 8 1/2 and give his own personal twist. The first shots of both films convey the same vague themes, but only several shots in and 8 1/2 is already distinctly the work of Fellini and Brazil is already distinctly the work Gilliam.
