Rating: Summary: Could have been the perfect concert Review: I first encountered Caetano Veloso peforming in Pedro Almodóvar's film Hable con Ella (Talk to Her). His appealing voice and stringed arrangement drew me to seek out a concert DVD, and this one is what I found. Caetano is a tremendously inventive and versatile showman and musician. This DVD is a pure concert from beginning to end, no distracting interruptions for interviews, behind the scenes tidbits, etc. Excellent sound quality; the applause of the audience is audible but does not intrude. This will sound great in your home theater. The songs range from quiet solos to hard-driving, fully orchestrated jazz samba numbers. His show provides a tremendously creative blend of folkloric samba rhythyms, modern Miles Davis style jazz, poetry, sculpture, literature, love, hate, war... well, it is hard to describe, but it is dazzling and very appealing. Fortunately the DVD has subtitles in several languages including English because the lyrics are great... a major element of the show's success. The big failure in this video is the cheapo pseudo-psychedelic camera tricks that permeate the film. I am talking about "techniques" like rapidly focusing and and unfocusing the shot, rapid-fire zoom in, zoom out, intentionally jiggling the camera for an earthquake effect, speeding up the action to simulate the silent film Keystone Kops effect, turning the camera sideways... everything annoying the cameraman could think of to do. On the more upbeat numbers this idiocy becomes nauseating and you have to look away to avoid seasickness. Though this serious flaw is most unfortunate, I still do not recommend that you skip the DVD and get the CD version for music only. If you do that, you will miss the very substantial visual element of the performance... for example Caetano's charming duet with his son Moreno, singing a song Moreno wrote for his father's birthday entitled How Beautiful Can a Being Be? Very beautiful indeed as even the atrocious camera tricks can't completely ruin.
Rating: Summary: Could have been the perfect concert Review: I first encountered Caetano Veloso peforming in Pedro Almodóvar's film Hable con Ella (Talk to Her). His appealing voice and stringed arrangement drew me to seek out a concert DVD, and this one is what I found. Caetano is a tremendously inventive and versatile showman and musician. This DVD is a pure concert from beginning to end, no distracting interruptions for interviews, behind the scenes tidbits, etc. Excellent sound quality; the applause of the audience is audible but does not intrude. This will sound great in your home theater. The songs range from quiet solos to hard-driving, fully orchestrated jazz samba numbers. His show provides a tremendously creative blend of folkloric samba rhythyms, modern Miles Davis style jazz, poetry, sculpture, literature, love, hate, war... well, it is hard to describe, but it is dazzling and very appealing. Fortunately the DVD has subtitles in several languages including English because the lyrics are great... a major element of the show's success. The big failure in this video is the cheapo pseudo-psychedelic camera tricks that permeate the film. I am talking about "techniques" like rapidly focusing and and unfocusing the shot, rapid-fire zoom in, zoom out, intentionally jiggling the camera for an earthquake effect, speeding up the action to simulate the silent film Keystone Kops effect, turning the camera sideways... everything annoying the cameraman could think of to do. On the more upbeat numbers this idiocy becomes nauseating and you have to look away to avoid seasickness. Though this serious flaw is most unfortunate, I still do not recommend that you skip the DVD and get the CD version for music only. If you do that, you will miss the very substantial visual element of the performance... for example Caetano's charming duet with his son Moreno, singing a song Moreno wrote for his father's birthday entitled How Beautiful Can a Being Be? Very beautiful indeed as even the atrocious camera tricks can't completely ruin.
Rating: Summary: A Charming Performance Review: I think the technical aspects of this presentation, like the camera work, are superb. Each song is treated with a different cinematographic technique, approaching Caetano from diverse perspectives, and providing a dynamic panorama of his artistry. The way Caetano is shown dancing, singing, and playing the guitar is obviously well planned, which is specially noticeable in the selective focus and coloring of the takes. The fact that Caetano is on stage yet an audience is never visible seemed a bit strange, but who needs an audience in order to enjoy this performance? The extras, sound mix, and subtitle options make it evident that this DVD has been carefully crafted. My favorite number is Terra, for the relaxed bliss with which Caetano performs this powerful song. His guitar solos near the middle section of the show are also very charming. Overall, this has to be one of the best music DVDs in my collection.
Rating: Summary: Just a relaxing gift from Caetano Veloso to us Review: In this album, beyond the beautiful and pleasant songs, we can also detect an adequate sample of the diversity and details about Tropicalism and Brasilian Popular Music. This concert can show us just a little part of the work developed by this musician, which came from a small city of the state of Bahia, in the northeast of Brazil, and became one of the most creative musicians in the world. Since the beginning of his career he had start writing songs with political connotation and because of it, in the 60s, he was exiled to London, where he got some influence from other rhythms and became even better than he already was (if it could be possible). Caetano is a complete artist who's always changing and improving his qualities, with boldness and intelligence. With an unmistakable tone of voice he has the gift of transforming a simple pop song into a classic. With his simple elegance, he may be out of the spotlight from time to time, but he's always catapulted back, sometimes because of his songs and compositions, others because of a movie or a new play and perhaps becasuse of a book. Needless to say I'm a Caetano's fan, but I think it's perfectly understandable because of the diverse sort of rhythms and variety of languages he composes in. If you don't know anything about Brazilian music, I recommend you to listen one of his songs and you could be sure you'll hear one of the best examples of MPB (Popular Brazilian Music). If you want to get more information and know what really happened in the Brazilian politics in the dictatorship era, and how it influenced our culture, changing MPB history, you will also enjoy Tropical Truth, which is a polemical autobiography by the master of the creativity, rhythm and poetry.
Rating: Summary: Prendha Minha Review: My wife and I are fans of Bossa Nova and Jazz and we bought this DVD not knowing anything about Caetano Veloso.All I can say is GET THIS DVD! The music is simply amazing and beautiful. We are so glad we stumbled upon this great artist. The camera work is at times a tad hyper - but it oes not diminish the music or performance.
Rating: Summary: Caetano, Caetano Review: My wife saw this video and got a big crush on Caetano. Then she found out that he is older than her father. How can a man have such charisma? I saw Caetano Veloso in Chicago in the summer of '99. That is the tour this DVD is taken from. It is the first DVD I purchased and I immediately grabbed it off the shelf when I saw it. I wanted my wife to experience the concert she had to miss a couple of summers ago. It also brought back several highlights I had forgotten from the concert. Let me tell you, if you love art, poetry, music or have a passion for life, get this video. I was very pleased to have subtitles so that I could catch the translations as Caetano sung them. I have listened to his music for several years, but often without a translation. What I found is that his music is even more beautiful than I ever knew. Buy it without hesitation. Though, the camera work is a little "fast" in a couple of places, as I have read in other reviews, I don't feel as though it warrants less than a "five". Afterall, a diamond among rocks is no less a diamond for its flaw.
Rating: Summary: bad camera work Review: This is great music and I love the CD but this is a really bad movie. The camera work is terrible and I could barely watch it once. Buy the CD but skip the movie.
Rating: Summary: bad camera work Review: This is great music and I love the CD but this is a really bad movie. The camera work is terrible and I could barely watch it once. Buy the CD but skip the movie.
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