City of God Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Cinematical has just received this exclusive trailer for Last Stop 174, a Brazilian drama written by City of God's Oscar-winning scribe Bráulio Mantovani and directed by the highly respected Brazilian director Bruno Barreto. Based on the true story of a bus high-jacking, Last Stop 174 takes place in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, where poverty and crime reign supreme. IFC is releasing it on-demand via its IFC Festival Direct program on September 2nd, which showcases films from festivals around the world. Not sure where to find your IFC on-demand? Here's a quick guide:

TIME WARNER: Movies On Demand > IFC In Theaters

Take a look at the trailer after the jump.

In case you don't read Entertainment Weekly and didn't see this week's double issue on "The New Classics," or you didn't see my post last week about their list of the best movies from the last 25 years, here's a sad fact: only six foreign-language films made the list. They are: Wings of Desire (#28); Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (#49); The Lives of Others (#56); All About My Mother (#69); Y Tu Mamá También (#86); and In the Mood for Love (#95). OK, so 6% is not terrible for a mainstream entertainment magazine, but EW had to add insult to injury with an accompanying map labeled "Movies: Breaking Down the List," which points to a number of locations around the globe in which some of these new classics are set. The only continent on the map without any love is South America (Antarctica was not included in the visual aid).

Now, before I get into my love letter to new Latin American cinema, I have to note that no film produced in Africa made the list either. However, on the map the continent was at least given some minuscule bit of love via the filming locations for Casino Royale and Gladiator. Yet despite the fact that South America was definitely used as a location in a few of the 100 films, it's shown no respect. And on top of that, Central America isn't even included on the map. For some strange reason there's just a gap between Mexico and South America. Meanwhile, Latin America's sole representative on EW's list, Mexico's Y Tu Mamá También, is left off the map so that no location from this area of the world, from the Mexican-U.S. border to Cape Horn, receives any recognition.

At this point, I will watch any film that takes place in the Brazilian favelas, as long as Fernando Meirelles is involved. And I imagine that a lot of my peers would feel the same, if they would only see his latest, City of Men. After all, this is the man who in 2002 gave us City of God, which I've determined to be the second most popular contemporary foreign-language film for people of my generation (Amelie being the first). The film also thrust Meirelles into international acclaim and success, including an Oscar-nomination for Best Director, yet it wasn't his first time presenting a riveting story set in the Rio shantytowns.

In 2000, Meirelles and his City of God co-director, Kátia Lund, made a short film titled Palace II. It was something of a precursor to (and apparently a test-run for) City of God, and it was based on an excerpt from the same source novel, written by Paulo Lins. But narratively, it has nothing to do with the subsequent feature film. Palace II is actually set in the present -- City of God takes place in the '80s -- and follows two young friends, Wallace (nickname: "Laranjinha") and Luis Claudio (nickname: "Acerola"), who live in poverty in the favela.

Call me an optimist, but I'm always hoping for Oscar reform. I've been rather excited about recent rumblings that the Academy is finally, finally considering changing its rules regarding foreign film consideration. I saw one of the new nominees last week, The Counterfeiters, and I have to say that there were at least 20 or 30 other, better foreign language films last year. In fact, I'd have to say that The Counterfeiters is a contender for my worst list of 2008; it takes on an interesting story, but cinematically it's sheer amateur hour. The only reason it got nominated is because it takes place in a concentration camp. I also need to mention that the director, Stefan Ruzowitzky, made one of the worst films I have ever seen, All the Queen's Men (2002), starring Matt LeBlanc and Eddie Izzard as soldiers who go undercover as drag queens in WWII.

Did anyone notice that though La vie en rose earned three nominations (Best Actress, Costume, Makeup) it didn't get nominated for Foreign Language Film? Likewise, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (205 screens) -- filmed almost entirely in French -- was nominated for four awards (Best Director, Editing, Screenplay, Cinematography), but not Best Foreign Film. Why? Diving Bell doesn't count as foreign because it has an American director. Not to mention that each country is only allowed to submit one film, and France's choice, Persepolis (100 screens) was not nominated either. Instead, it was nominated for Best Animated Film! This type of thing happens all the time. In 2002, the foreign film committee rejected the Brazilian film City of God. It was released in 2003 to great critical acclaim and success, and was nominated the following year for four Oscars in other categories. In 2000, Taiwan chose to submit the hit Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, rather than arguably the greatest film of the past decade, Edward Yang's Yi Yi. Why couldn't both be nominated?

According to a poll conducted by Pearl and Dean of UK movie audiences, Pan's Labyrinth, from Spain and Mexico, has officially become the nation's favorite foreign film. It and the #2 choice, Amelie (France) are currently the two all-time imported box office champs in the country's history. The rest of the list leaned drastically toward current films, award-winners and money-makers: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (China) and Spirited Away (Japan) (tied for third), City of God (Brazil), Cinema Paradiso (Italy), The Lives of Others (Germany), Life Is Beautiful (Italy), The Motorcycle Diaries (Mexico/Argentina) and Cache (a.k.a. Hidden) (France/Austria). (No Seven Samurai?)

Kathryn Jacob of Pearl and Dean saw good news in the poll: "Foreign films are now seven times more likely to be British box-office hits than they were a decade ago. British film audiences are becoming increasingly sophisticated and are no longer letting subtitles be a barrier to their enjoyment of a great film. Pan's Labyrinth is a beautiful example of a film that would have struggled to get screened in a multiplex 10 years ago, but which has truly captured the imagination of British cinema audiences today."

We've been tracking Blindness, the upcoming Fernando Meirelles film, for months. To recap, Erik Davis first reported that Don McKeller had adapted the novel by Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, which "revolves around a blindness epidemic that sweeps through a contemporary city, paralyzing its citizens to a point where society is on the verge of breaking down." Julianne Moore and Daniel Craig were in talks to star as a doctor and his wife, the only person unaffected by the epidemic. Two months later, Jessica Barnes told us that Craig dropped out. He was replaced by Mark Ruffalo shortly thereafter, as noted by Jennifer DeFilippo. Just a week after that, Monika Bartyzel enthused about the cast members who were added: Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal and Alica Braga. And now the point of the recap: Miramax has secured US distribution rights to the film, as reported by indieWIRE and The Hollywood Reporter. The deal was finalized Saturday morning in Toronto.

In his indieWIRE item, Eugene Hernandez says that Blindness has been shooting locally in Toronto before moving to Brazil. He reports Miramax's description, which adds a positive phrase to the otherwise dire premise: "A small group of the afflicted band together to triumphantly overcome the horrific conditions of their imposed quarantine." Well, that's certainly more cheery, isn't it? With so many fall/festival films described as depressing and dark, perhaps Miramax wants to set Blindness apart as more upbeat, though still serious fare. Will they change the title to Temporary Blindness?

All kidding aside, the dynamic and talented creative combination of Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener), McKellar, and that cast sounds irresistible. The purchase price was $5 million, according to Gregg Goldstein in his Hollywood Reporter story. If you can read Portuguese, you can follow along at the director's blog. Maybe we'll see the completed film next year at Toronto?

When I was a very gullible first-grader, somebody told me the name Pelé was short for "Peg Leg". I was then convinced for a very short, very stupid afternoon that the soccer legend actually played the sport with a wooden leg. After I was set straight on the truth, I felt like an idiot, but the worst of it is that I was never able to fully appreciate Pelé's real talents. I couldn't get over the fact that he'd be more impressive to me if he had that handicap. I haven't thought much about him since elementary school, after which I gave up on soccer, but now I'm looking forward to finally learning about Pelé as I wish I had in the beginning -- with a biopic.

The three-time World Cup winner has just signed with the William Morris Agency, which will be packaging a movie in his honor. Even with both legs, Pelé's story should be perfect for a film with plenty of crowd-pleasing dramatic arcs. He grew up in poverty in Brazil and was taught to play by his father, a former pro footballer. At 15, he went pro, at 16, he joined the Brazil national team, and at 17, he was the youngest person to play in a World Cup final, and subsequently the youngest to win. About a decade later he scored his 1000th goal and then won his third Cup. After retiring from playing the sport in Brazil, he functioned as a star player (past his prime) for the New York Cosmos and also co-starred with Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone in John Huston's Victory. I'm not sure who will be best to star as Pelé, but since the actor will have to be repped by WMA, the list is certainly narrowed down. Unfortunately I have no access to the agency's list of talent. And I don't suppose City of God's Alexandre Rodrigues is on it.

Considering his new three-year production deal over at Universal/Focus, Fernando Meirelles still hasn't been linked to any projects associated with that studio. His next film, Blindness, which will be adapted by Don McKellar from the novel by José Saramago, is so far not set up with any distributor (as far as I can tell), and now the sequel to his breakout hit City of God (co-directed by Kátia Lund), which he did not direct but produced, has just been picked up by Miramax. This latter deal is not that surprising since Miramax also distributed the original, but it would not have been impossible to get the follow-up going at Focus.

The sequel, titled City of Men, which is also the name of the television series spun-off from the first film, was directed by Paulo Morelli and is currently in post-production. From the synopsis that I've seen, it basically looks like either a continuation or remake of the show, as it follows its main characters, Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha) and Acerola (Douglas Silva), both of whom were also the focus of Meirelles' and Lund's short film Golden Gate (Palace II).

So for those doing the math, it seems that City of Men is actually based on a show that was based on a feature film that was based on a short film. Except, maybe we should actually eliminate the feature film part of that equation. Since Cunha and Silva (and other actors from the show) didn't play the same characters in City of God, that film has nothing to do with the rest of these things, and is possibly only related for marketing purposes.