(ART DIRECTORS CONT'D) Art-deco buildings at Botafogo Beach, Lagoa Hospital, City landmarksCopacabana Palace Hotel and Palácio Gustavo Capanema, Clube Monte Líbano, and Praça da Harmonia, were some of the locations chosen to pass for Rio before the real state boom.

A few interior scenes, such as those at the English school, were shot at sets built in sound studios. A major task for the production designing department was recreating Juan's tailor shop, with furniture of the '20s, which was found at an old hat shop called Radiante, which had managed to keep its doors open until one year prior to the beginning of the production of BOSSA NOVA. "We tried to recreate a posh, old, art nouveau place, to send out a message of values and tradition," tell art directors Amarante and Caffé. They achieved that by doing a very accurate job in terms of details, from the wallpaper to old telephones, each thing in accordance with the timelessness of the film, as well as the character and his or her significance in the story."

"Our major concern was the right mix between what was created and what was real. And it's precisely the right mix which adds the right flavor. In films, one cannot be totally true, because not everything is coherent as far as colors are concerned, but not everything that's created is fake either," concludes Cássio Amarante.