Brazil [DVD] [2007]

Product Information

The first DVD of Cidade dos Homens, the gritty, humorous, and sensitive TV series based on the powerful movie Cidade de Deus. Not-to-be missed; it's Rio at its best and its worse...kindness to unbelievable cruelty.

Caju & Castanha, our favorite (so far...) emboladores and repentistas. You'll enjoy the show, but don't miss the documentary about their lives...to see them as tiny little kids improvising verses and beating on their homemade pandeiros for a living is, at least, very moving. Brasileirinho ao Vivo is a tour de force in which Maria Bethania pays homage to her roots, musical and otherwise. An absolute must-have!All in all, this is a very entertaining film and needs to be viewed with an open mind and attention to detail. Make sure you have two and a half hours to spare in your day and they'll fly by. Great plot, visuals, and makes you think. This is an excellent movie and you're all going to think I'm a softie with my grading scale but it gets an A. Read full review She's a superstar, Grammy-winner, graceful, accomplished singer...and, yes, she does remind us of her mother, Elis Regina. Sivuca, O Poeta do Som. When I first watched this DVD I didn't know whether to laugh for joy (at the beautiful music) or cry for sadness, knowing that Sivuca was already dead. The best of Paraíba's musicians performed with him (Quinteto Uirapuru, Brazilian Trombone Ensemble, Metalúrgica Filipéia, and his wife and partner, Glória Gadelha). Available from Kuarup Discos in Rio.

Cordel do Fogo Encantado defies categorization. Amazing singing rooted on cordel and other poetic traditions from the Northeast, accompanied by unexpectedly heavy percussion and an acoustic guitar that sounds out of this world. Not-to-be-missed! Robert De Niro plays Tuttle, a rogue Air Conditioning repairman who shows up in the middle of the night unannounced to help out Lowry who spent the night with his head in the refridgerator. Tuttle is one of the "terrorists" being sought out by Lowry's company and the reason seems to be that he repairs things without filling out all the crucial paperwork. The future depends on mountains of forms that need to be signed to do anything. Bob Hoskins' character shows up for comic relief and to destroy Lowry's miniscule, gadget-ridden apartment while "fixing" the A/C for him.

I can't say enough about the size and detail of the sets in this movie. Many of them seem to be huge optical illusions making you feel even more small and insignificant in this time period. Big tubes are hanging from ceilings everywhere making apartments and offices feel small and cramped. In offices, you have to share a desk with the office next door through the wall. You have to buy fresh air, every inch of the highway is covered with billboards, and an obsession with plastic surgery looms everywhere. It has an amazing climax that turns everything inside out leaving you wondering what happened.