City of Men

As Seen on the SUNDANCE CHANNELFrom the team behind the Academy Award®-nominated feature CITY OF GOD including directors Fernando Meirelles (THE CONSTANT GARDNER) and K tia Lund comes the hit Brazilian television series CITY OF MEN a comedy/drama about two teenage boys growing up in a dangerous Rio de Janeiro slum starring Darlan Cunha and Douglas Silva featured in the motion picture that inspired this series.The CITY is a shantytown located in one of the many mountains of Rio de Janeiro. The MEN are two 13-year-old kids Laranjinha and Acerola. This series brilliantly mixes humor and reality to explore life in the "favelas" and in particular the indomitable spirit of two best friends growing up in one of most volatile communities in the world.System Requirements:Run Time: 570 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 660200314125 Manufacturer No: PALMDV3141
Customer Review: Close to being brilliant!!
"If you die your son will be like us. Fatherless." From a film-makers point of view, this film is a daunting task. It has many characters but still grasps your attention. There are so many very good foreign language films nowadays. I thought Tsotsi was top notch and now, City of Men. I mean, wow! The characters in the film are young men involved in gangs, carefully woven in their anger and paranoid youth is a sense of dread and being doomed. Excellent drama. This is a must watch for anyone who's remotely interested. There will be a scene where you will laugh really really hard. There's a little kid in the film that you'll want to cuddle. You'll never want to live the character's life though. Also ... it actually made me think about something most men don't ever think of. It's about fatherhood. Before I become incoherent, I'll just end by saying, this film is going to do really well and is a must must watch. Thankyou for reading.
Customer Review: EXCELLENT FOLLOW-UP TELEVISION SERIES IN THE SPIRIT OF CITY OF GOD
This series does not follow the exact story or timeline as the movie City Of God but it takes place in Rio de Janeiro in the Favela. I was entertained and pleased with the acting, cinematography, and realness. I almost felt that I was there and I could have been there in my younger years.

If asked to name a piano piece that is near-perfect, one noted example comes to mind for many people. That piece is Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy. Clair de Lune, the third and most famous movement of Debussy's Suite Bergamasque, has entranced listening ears for over century. It has been the inspiration for many dramatic film sequences, as well as the song "When You Wish Upon a Star" from Disney's Pinocchio.

The son of a china shop owner and a seamstress, Claude Debussy began to reveal his brilliance at the age of seven when he started learning the intricacies of the piano. He soon attracted the attention of Mme. de Fleurville, whose son-in-law, French poet Paul Verlaine, would help inspire the piece with one of his poems. Verlaine was also acquainted with Frederique Chopin, as he was one of Chopin's pupils.

Debussy began his proper musical studies at the illustrious Paris Conservatory at the age of eleven. He spent twelve years studying under the giants of the age, stealing their secrets and arguing against the rigidity of the musical theory of the day. Debussy favored dissonance, which was a thorn in the side of his more strictly harmonious teachers. His love of experimentation, however, proved to be his greatest musical asset.

Early works by Debussy were heavily influenced by both his love of Richard Wagner's operas and his general distaste for the operas of Italian luminaries such as Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, who was one of the reigning kings of the style. Though Wagner had been dead for several years before Debussy discovered his works, a cult had grown up around his music.

Wagner's influence was not to last, though, as Debussy's pieces tended to be more introverted than the extravagant Wagnerian sounds. He wrote his Suite Bergamasque, containing Clair de Lune, in his late 20s. As a sublime example of Debussy's sensual, quiet style, Clair de Lune may be perhaps his most lasting gift to the music world.

This lustrous piece was inspired, as were his earlier pieces, by one of his friend Verlaine's poems. Verlaine's poem "Clair de Lune" contains a reference to a bergamask, a clumsy dance performed by the natives of Bergamo. The French spelling of bergamask gives the entire suite its memorable name. The name "Clair de Lune," literally translated as "moonlight," is a perfect name, since the piece gives distinct images of moonlight with its rolling notes and glorious harmonies.

Played properly, Clair de Lune requires a technical mastery of sweeping left hand movements and modulations in intensity to reach its timeless quality of melodic and counter-melodic beauty. While the piece is played mostly pianissimo, its brief journeys into louder dynamic ranges present a need for a highly-developed knowledge of the keyboard. This, combined with the ability to re-interpret the feel of the music according to one's own personality, makes Clair de Lune music that has stood the test of time. It is a piece that is constantly evolving, living and breathing in the fingers of pianists the world over.

Duane Shinn is the author of over 300 DVD home study courses on playing piano, all available at "Piano Playing For Busy Adults".

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