''A Grande Arte'' (in English, ''The Great Art''; US title: ''Exposure''), is a 1991 Brazilian movie directed by Walter Salles Jr. and starring

Peter Coyote Peter Coyote (born Robert Peter Cohon; October 10, 1941) is an American actor, director, screenwriter, author and narrator of films, theatre, television, and audiobooks. He worked on films such as ''E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'' (1982), '' Cro ...

. Loosely based on the book ''A Grande Arte'' by Brazilian Rubem Fonseca, it is one of the first theatrical works of Salles Jr. The cast includes Brazilian and international stars such as Coyote,

Tchéky Karyo Tchéky Karyo (; born 4 October 1953) is a French actor and musician of Turkish origin. Beginning his career as an actor on stage in classical and contemporary works, he began to work as a character actor in films in the 1980s. He has acted in nu ...

and

Amanda Pays Amanda Pays (born 6 June 1959) is an English actress. She is known for her roles as Theora Jones in the film and television series '' Max Headroom'' and as Christina "Tina" McGee in ''The Flash'' and reprised her role in the 2014 series of th ...

Plot

Peter Mandrake (Coyote), an American photographer in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, is preparing an ''in loco'' essay for his new book, about the "Train Surfers" (groups of boys who court danger "surfing" on the roof of the trains) in the city of

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. A local call girl with whom he is friends is murdered, and when the police can make no progress Mandrake decides to investigate himself. Subsequently, two hired thugs break into his apartment demanding a disk, and, when he doesn't produce it because he can't do so, they rape his girlfriend and stab him, leaving him to die. Vowing revenge, Mandrake enlists the help of Hermes (Karyo), a professional

knife fight A knife fight is a violent physical confrontation between two or more combatants in which one or more participants is armed with a knife.MacYoung, Marc, ''Winning A Street Knife Fight'', (Digital format, 70 min.), Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, (J ...

er who owes Mandrake a debt, to teach him the art of knife fighting. The obsession this develops into causes Mandrake's girlfriend to leave him, wanting the whole thing to simply go away, but Mandrake refuses to let go. The thugs are discovered to be working for an undisclosed Brazilian criminal organization closely tied with the

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

n cocaine

cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collude with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. Cartels are usually associations in the same sphere of business, and thus an alliance of rivals. Mos ...

. The head of the organization is attempting to uncover a traitor in his organization, who apparently stole a

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

containing important information. Mandrake allies himself with some of the organization's rivals to help them find the disk, in return for discovering who killed the call girl. The disk is ultimately found, and Mandrake learns that the organization head murdered the call girl himself, slashing her face in an act of arrogance. Hermes appears suddenly, and the head orders him to kill Mandrake, but Hermes tells him to do it himself before leaving. They violently fight, and Mandrake manages to stab his opponent to death. However, the fulfillment of his revenge quest leaves Mandrake feeling empty and without purpose. He wanders for a while before, on a whim, taking a picture of a couple kissing in a window. This reinvigorates his passion for photography, and, whereas he used to take pictures of violent and dangerous situations, now his work has a theme of love and simple pleasures. He heads out to the plains to see his girlfriend, who is an archaeologist working on-site. After showing her the pictures, he tells her he's been assigned to Africa, but promises to return someday.

Knife culture

The film explores the mysterious and hidden world of the "Persevs" (a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsknifesmiths, such as

Rex Applegate Rex Applegate (June 21, 1914 – July 14, 1998) was an American military officer who worked for the Office of Strategic Services, where he trained Allied special forces personnel in close-quarters combat during World War II. He held the rank of co ...

and William. E. Fairbairn,

Bo Randall Bo Randall (September 27, 1909 – December 25, 1989) was an American knifemaker who founded Randall Made Knives in Orlando, Florida. Early life Randall was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on September 27, 1909. His family moved to Orlando, Florida ...

(whose assault knife "Randall 14" is a key weapon in the film) and Joe Kious.

Cast

as Peter Mandrake, the photographer *

as Hermes, the knife fight master *

as Mariet, Mandrake's girlfriend * Raul Cortez as Thales de Lima Prado *

Giulia Gam Giulia Daysi Gam (born 28 December 1966) is a Brazilian actress. Biography Giulia was born in Perugia when her father, José Carlos Gam Heuss, was taking a course. She has a Danish grandfather. Career She became famous in Brazil after perfo ...

as Gisela the hooker * Tonico Pereira as Rafael *

Eduardo Conde Eduardo Conde (April 9, 1948 – January 16, 2003) was a Brazilian singer and actor. He portrayed Jesus Christ Superstar in Brazil in the 1970s, and a journalist in the movie ''The Emerald Forest ''The Emerald Forest'' is a 1985 British a ...

as Roberto Mitry *

Miguel Ángel Fuentes Miguel Ángel Fuentes Azpiroz (born 6 August 1964) is a Spanish retired footballer who played mainly as a right-back. He spent his entire professional career with Real Sociedad, appearing in nearly 500 competitive matches, among the highest t ...

as Camilo Fuentes

Production

The movie was filmed on location on Rio de Janeiro streets (usually at night) and in the highlands of

and

Pantanal The Pantanal () is a natural region encompassing the world's largest tropical wetland area, and the world's largest flooded grasslands. It is located mostly within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it extends into Mato Grosso and p ...

. It was the first feature film directed by Walter Salles Jr., who had been known primarily for his documentaries. He later directed films such as '' Diários de Motocicleta'' (''The Motorcycle Diaries'') and the horror remake ''

Dark Water Dark Water may refer to: Books * '' Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil'', 1920 book by American philosopher W.E.B. Du Bois * ''Dark Water'' (book) (仄暗い水の底から; ''Honogurai mizu no soko kara''; literally ''In the Depths of Dark ...

''.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Grande Arte 1991 films 1991 crime thriller films English-language Brazilian films Films directed by Walter Salles Films set on trains Films scored by Jürgen Knieper 1991 directorial debut films