City of God

[Gold Trumpet]

gotta be honest.

~rougerum

[Subotai]

Just saw it today. Truly wonderfull.    
Everybody should see this movie.
It will come down as on of the best movies of the first decade of the 21st Century.

[Duck Sauce]

Just saw it today. Truly wonderfull.    
Everybody should see this movie.
It will come down as on of the best movies of the first decade of the 21st Century.

Any more insight why you think this?

[Gold Trumpet]

Actually, I'll shove BillBrown to the side and speak some more on this film and why I think it is one of the absolute best films. I saw it again recently and another idea came to me on the film, and I realized my original review was a shit stain without clarification and get to the fucking point exercise. Well the point? The point is, this film establishes a pure feeling coinciding with the feeling of world that the movie takes place in. Leaving Las Vegas was the only other great example through its editing and shooting and everything, did it use its world to bring out a certain feeling that was on one hand, truthful for the city and the characters to. Most movies act as postcards when dealing with foreign lands, they photograph that unkown land just as they would for any other movie that it sit in a place requiring of put camera in front of mother fucker and let him talk. That only speaks for enlightenment of that mother fucker and not the world around him. Sure, movies will have moments where it utilizes certain techniques in filmmaking to draw feeling of its cultures, but still maintain ground in place camera in front of dude and let him spit. City of God wraps itself in a world that is purely based on the feeling of that world and since that feeling of one of constant chaos, the filmmaking utilizes techniques after techniques that in my mind, likely displays every single technique imaginable in the movies from the last 35 years that speaks of guerilla filmmaking cutting and shooting, with even digital effects that doesn't intrude, but actually intensifies and it is nice because in such a film that brings out the most possible realism, digital filmmaking can still be represented in some way.

Now onto the greatest segway I have ever done, the use of basically every technique imaginable in the last 35 years speaks on one level for this movie being the Citizen Kane of now. Citizen Kane basically was the movie that had every single thing imaginable learned in movies from the times put into one movie, and also had a story that was the extreme for the stories of its time. It was the most epic movie that was completely emerged in the aethesitics of the art of film. City of God, in utilizing everything learned in the last 35 years of cinema, which has been preocuppied in trying to attain realism. And the most used and also exploited thing common in this time period has been the use of violence. City of God is the most extreme story that can be told, the pure hell of a violent world shown and it also proves pure realism is not only not attainable, but not desirable. City of God gets rid of so much bullshit dealing with movies (the theatre techniques of acting, mostly) in attaining realism but heightens that realism over the edge with filmmaking in artiface that transcends the story into an emotional experience that speaks of the power and magic of movies and how great realism is with the movies.

~rougerum

[Jeremy Blackman]

*sounds trumpets (golden ones)*

I've been waiting my entire life for that.

[cowboykurtis]

saw this the other day -- absolutely excellent -- all good things have already been said. very impressed. does any one know the budget?

[MacGuffin]

does any one know the budget?

City of God is a co-production of O2 Filmes and of VideoFilmes. Filming was made in nine weeks between the months of June and August 2001. The production had a $3,300,000 cost, 85% financed by O2 Filmes and the remaining by the audiovisual decree.

[cowboykurtis]

does any one know the budget?

City of God is a co-production of O2 Filmes and of VideoFilmes. Filming was made in nine weeks between the months of June and August 2001. The production had a $3,300,000 cost, 85% financed by O2 Filmes and the remaining by the audiovisual decree.

gracias

[DavTMcGowan]

Its limited release in the US was Jan 17, so it's not eligible for the Oscar anyway... right?

But it was released in its country of origin (Brazil) on Aug. 30 2002. Thus, it qualified to be nominated.

this is the wrong assumption, isn't it.  the academy deals with foreign films according to when they are released in the US.  this explains why y tu mamma tambien was up for best foreign this year, despite the fact that it opened in june of 2001 in mexico.

that being said, if i'm right and this movie will be eligible for next years oscars, this has to be a front runner.  just saw it tonight, this film is amazing.  there were NOT too many handheld shots.  many times handheld shots are used inappropriately and thus many people forget the purpose of handheld shots.  their meant to be chaotic and jarring...which is what this entire movie was about.  stedicam has no place in this movie.  

also, i certainly wasn't desensitized to any of the violence.  which is why i believe the film worked so well.  what made the violence work so well is the way that the film will often make you laugh immediately before or even during an extremely violent scene.  i love it when directors do this, not in a cheesy violence-is-cool kind of way, but in a i-know-you-want-to-laugh-but-don't-this-is-fucked-up-shit sort of way.  makes teh violence more powerful when you catch yourself undervaluing it for a second with laughter.  for example  SPOILER   when lil-dice is shown killing the people in the hotel, his facial expressions make this scene almost amusing, how delighted this kid is with killing, several people in teh theater laughed, but after he started unloading for the second time, with the same smile on his face, the laughter stopped.  thats powerful.   DONE SPOILER

besides, this movie is amazing for the simple fact that i have never seen a chicken personified so well.  move over chicken run, the first four minutes of this movie might make me give up white meat forever.

gonna ride into nyc and pay another $10 to see this one again (and maybe again)     if you haven't seen it, go,  NOW

[Ravi]

I totally forgot about that chicken chase.  That was a fine piece of camerawork.

[MacGuffin]

Its limited release in the US was Jan 17, so it's not eligible for the Oscar anyway... right?

But it was released in its country of origin (Brazil) on Aug. 30 2002. Thus, it qualified to be nominated.

this is the wrong assumption, isn't it.  the academy deals with foreign films according to when they are released in the US.  this explains why y tu mamma tambien was up for best foreign this year, despite the fact that it opened in june of 2001 in mexico.

It is not an assumption, and "Y Tu Mama" was not nominated for Best Foreign Film. It's clearly stated in the Academy rules that they go by release date in country of origin for Best Foreign Film. The year before "Y Tu Mama" was eligible, but Mexico chose "Amores Perros" to represent their country for that year. But since it was released in the US last year, "Y Tu Mama" was eligible to be nominated in other catagories, thus it's only nomination in the screenplay catagory (Mexico's "El Crimen Del Padre Amaro" represented their country and it was nominated for Best Foreign Film).

[DavTMcGowan]

It is not an assumption, and "Y Tu Mama" was not nominated for Best Foreign Film. It's clearly stated in the Academy rules that they go by release date in country of origin for Best Foreign Film. The year before "Y Tu Mama" was eligible, but Mexico chose "Amores Perros" to represent their country for that year. But since it was released in the US last year, "Y Tu Mama" was eligible to be nominated in other catagories, thus it's only nomination in the screenplay catagory (Mexico's "El Crimen Del Padre Amaro" represented their country and it was nominated for Best Foreign Film).

I stand corrected, but no matter, so far City of God is the best film this year and should be up for Best Picture.  But it's only may, and that's only my opinion, and i'm an idiot...

[RegularKarate]

Lately, I see all the movies a month after people stop talking about it.

This film was great... I really thought it was going to be bad at first... thought it was going to be like a brazillian Guy Ritchey film, but it didn't take long for it to reveal it's true self.

I wouldn't go as far as Gold Trumpet here (in fact, given his usually taste in film, I figured he wouldn't like it, maybe once it gets more popular, he'll update his review), but it really is great.

How loosley is this based on a true story?

[dufresne]

you'd think this movie would be on dvd by now, or at least have a date set for the release.

[Gold Trumpet]

RK, I'm not going back on this one and even though some people believe I like movies based on how popular they are, I really don't at all. I do have reasons to support my disagreements with films so don't pigeon hole me even if you think i am wrong. Some films do change over a period of time which should be expected. I only half heartedly liked the wes anderson films before turning my cheek on them as with others.

~rougerum