Continuity mistake: During the first scene set in Sam Lowry's workplace, his boss, Mr. Kurtzman is shown looking at a video screen which is not, apparently, bringing up the results he wants. He takes his glasses of and carefully sets them on his desk. Sans glasses, he presses a button on the machine attached to the video screen and the display switches to an old Western movie. In the next shot, he angrily whips his glasses off (they should have already been on the desk) and storms away from his desk. (00:08:20)
Audio problem: When Sam notices the "lift out of order" sign and exclaims "sh*t!", his mouth moves slightly out of sync with the audio. (01:23:10)
Revealing mistake: When Lowry first arrives at Buttle's flat to return the cheque, he hears a cough and turns to see a man smoking a cigarette, half hidden by a column. When he blows a cloud of smoke it is easy to see that it comes from a tube next to his mouth. He isn't even exhaling at the time.
Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where Lowry is in his new office in Information Retrieval and discovers that he shares a desk with Harvey Lime next door, watch as the camera dollies after Sam into Lime's office: first the camera wobbles as it grazes the door, then later in the scene as the camera moves in further, it bumps audibly to a halt against the edge of the desk, complete with a muffled exclamation by the camera operator.
Continuity mistake: When Sam first enters Jack Lint's office, Jack is at the sink massaging his scalp. There is blood in the water in the sink. After Sam says "Excuse me!" a couple of times, Jack turns around, revealing that the front of his white jacket is clean. The camera cuts to Sam, who exclaims: "Jack!", whereupon there is a cut back to Jack. The front of his jacket is now torn and bloody.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film, in the scene where Jill Layton is taking a bath, there is a shot from the corridor. There's a mirror with a long stand attached to an accessory on the bathtub, reflecting the TV screen. However, in the next shot, Jill Layton listens, asks who is there and throws the cigarette in the water. At this moment, the mirror stand is very much shorter, and the mirror is at another angle, but still continues reflecting the TV screen.
Continuity mistake: In the opening scene of "Brazil", there is a store window with many TV screens all showing the same commercial. A man passes in front pushing a shopping cart. A bomb explodes and the window glass and TVs come crashing forward. Just before the bomb explodes, the man with the shopping cart is in the center of the screen. He suddenly disappears right before the explosion.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film in Mr. Kurtzmann's office, he opens the door looking for Mr Lowry. Next to the door there is a file cabinet, but in the shot from the outside of the office, the cabinet is not visible through the glass. However when Mr. Kurtzmann opens the door for third time, then the shade of the cabinet is visible through the glass.
Continuity mistake: Sam writes 'I love you' on the windscreen of Jill's truck, but it disappears and reappears in different shots.
Revealing mistake: When Sam and his mother are going through the restaurant's security checkpoint, the image seen on the X-ray machine shows the same collection of objects that are supposed to be in Mrs. Lowry's shopping bag before she places the bag into the machine and then again when the bag sets off the alarms.
Answer: I don't think the time is particularly relevant, except that its exactness is in stark contrast to the temporal and locational vagueness of the next statement which is "...Somewhere in the 20th century".
Sierra1 ★