City of God (Cidade de Deus)
Based On A True Story
15 miles from paradise...one man will do anything to tell the world everything.
Cannes Film Festival selection and 2003 Golden Globe Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film. Told in the style of Goodfellas and Scarface, City Of God recounts a photographer's true memories of childhood in the slums of Rio de Janeiro-one of the world's most dangerous places in the late 60s through the early 80s.
Member Reviews
Brazilian Goodfellas - Tigidou
Tout est dans le titre! Car il s'agit bien d'une formidable chronique étalée sur 30 ans qui présente réalistement le monde du petit crime de rue dans les quartiers défavorisés de Rio. Le rythme est excellent, la photographie est superbe, le jeu des acteurs est très réussis. Je n'ai que des superlatifs pour qualifier ce bijoux visuels.Great movie! - pdas
Martin Scorsese seems to have a heavy influence on the direction of this picture, with many moments looking familiar to fans of the legendary American filmmaker. Close ups, sweeping scene shots, freeze-and-zoom shots, and a frenzied handheld approach are all trademarks that will be recognisably traceable to Scorsese, having been used throughout his career. Many shots remind the viewer of Scorsese's narrative dialogue-camera relationship in Goodfellas, in which the camera was used to brilliant effect to highlight the main points in the script. This technique is used heavily in the first twenty minutes of Cidade De Deus, with the freeze frame trick being used to introduce the story's main characters alongside the dialogue of narrator, Rocketunable to take your eyes off the screen - theleppfamily
We Zipped City of God after it appeared in a book called 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. In this case, the recommendation was not wrong. The movie is riveting from start to finish, with a rich development of each and every character you encounter. The direction makes you feel as though you are there, in the action, and your empathy for both the good and the bad makes it impossible to take your eyes off the screen. This movie is top notch, entertaining, and evokes a realism of a world completely foreign to us, but if we had to imagine it, this seems bang on.
Member Reviews
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Brazilian Goodfellas - Tigidou
Tout est dans le titre! Car il s'agit bien d'une formidable chronique étalée sur 30 ans qui présente réalistement le monde du petit crime de rue dans les quartiers défavorisés de Rio. Le rythme est excellent, la photographie est superbe, le jeu des acteurs ...Great movie! - pdas
Martin Scorsese seems to have a heavy influence on the direction of this picture, with many moments looking familiar to fans of the legendary American filmmaker. Close ups, sweeping scene shots, freeze-and-zoom shots, and a frenzied handheld approach are all ...unable to take your eyes off the screen - theleppfamily
We Zipped City of God after it appeared in a book called 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. In this case, the recommendation was not wrong. The movie is riveting from start to finish, with a rich development of each and every character you encounter. ...