The City of Samba – Cidade Maravilhosa

The City of Samba video - Tilt shift photography of Rio de Janeiro during Carnival (2011), from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XboAeIjcs2E

This is about the spirit of a place, and the place is Cidade Maravilhosa, the Marvelous City, Rio de Janeiro at Carnival time. Done using time lapse, tilt shift photography, the video gives a good general overview of the city of Rio de Janeiro – you know, all the typical sites and sights - the fabulous white sand beaches, the giant statue of Christ the Redeemer with outstretched arms presiding over the city, cable cars ascending Sugarloaf mountain (Pão de Açúcar), etc.  Then the second half of the video focuses on what Rio is most famous for – Carnival!  So even though we missed posting this on Mardi Gras itself, it is still very enjoyable to watch. 

I found the segment dealing with the parade very spectacular, of course, but very different than what I thought I knew Carnival to be, as obtained primarily from seeing how Carnival is depicted in the movies, such as one of my all-time favorites, Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro), and of course, James Bond’s Moonraker, with its famous (and nerve-racking!) Carnival parade sequence. 

The depiction of Carnival in this video The City of Samba (and it may just have something to do with the nature of the tilt shift photographic technique itself) seems very mechanistic, everybody moving with military-like precision.  The floats are HUGE!  Of course, it would have helped if the video used actual samba music as a soundtrack instead of that ethereal/frenetic stuff that’s playing on there in the background.  But it’s still pretty spectacular. 

Thanks to the Brazilian blog-meister of Urban Demographics, for posting the video.  Tilt shift never fails to amaze, and when the place that’s captured is amazing to begin with, well, what more can one say.  Fabulocity!  Cidade Maravilhosa, indeed!