Filming starts on Rio, Eu Te Amo

Filming on Rio, Eu Te Amo, began last Tuesday, August 6. Scheduled for release next year, the feature is a collage of several short stories that take place in the same city, as told through the vision of 11 directors from Brazil and abroad. This is the third picture in the Cities of Love franchise, which has already produced Paris, I Love You (2006) and New York, I Love You (2009). The project is the brainchild of French writer/director Emmanuel Benbihy and is meant to explore the several different identities of famous urban centers through an audiovisual narrative.

The first part of production will be done throughout August and this material will be used in five shorts. Carlos Saldanha, a Brazilian director who s famous for his work in the animated franchise The Ice Age, will begin the project shooting interiors and exteriors in and around Theatro Municipal, in downtown Rio, August 6 and 7. This theater is a gem, a golden treasure in the middle of a gray universe , says the director, whose film will portray the story of two ballet dancers who fall in love during a pas de deux. The characters will be played by actors Rodrigo Santoro and Bruna Linzmeyer. Rio is a city that embraces you instantly. Few places in the world are like that. I always miss it and the best thing for me is hopping on a plane knowing that I m going home. That makes me smile inside , says Rodrigo Santoro.

Still during this first phase of production South Korean director Im Sang-Soo will shoot scenes in the Vidigal favela. I was lucky to be born in Vidigal, a place that is very representative of Rio de Janeiro. You are just a short walk away from Leblon and Ipanema. You won t find Rio s energy anywhere else , says actress Roberta Rodrigues, who plays the lead in this short, alongside Tonico Pereira. Three more parts of the feature will be shot in August: Lebanese director Nadine Labaki chose Gamboa for her scenes, while Stephan Elliot, from Australia, and Fernando Meirelles, from Brazil, will shoot in the Sugarloaf mountain and Copacabana, respectively.

Filming will resume in October, when Andruccha Waddington (Cachoeira do Horto), Jos Padilha (Pedra Bonita) and Guilhermo Arriaga (Santa Teresa) shoot their own sequences. Two other directors are yet to be announced to round up the team that is putting together this love letter to Rio. They all have final say on the themes and locations of the stories they will film. We are dealing with 11 different directors, 11 different yearnings, all of which makes for very complex production logistics, much more so than in a regular film. This has been one of our biggest production challenges and the final product will be a historical document , believes Conspira o Filmes Pedro Buarque de Holland, whose company is producing the feature with Bossa Nova Filmes and Empyrean Pictures.

LINK:	http://www.riofilmcommission.rj.gov.br/news/filming-starts-on-rio-eu-t...
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