L'agent secret

"The Secret Agent" is a film I just saw at the Philadelphia Film Festival. Before I talk about the plot, I must warn you....this is NOT a film for kids or for those turned off by violence. The film features some brutal murders near the end and the story is certainly depressing...as it should be.

The story is set in Brazil in the 1970s. The nation had been under a military dictatorship since 1964 and the police in the film are uniformly shown to be evil. One of the people the police are looking for a man who you learn has done NOTHING illegal...he just got on the wrong side of a well-connected and evil man. So, much of the film consists of him hiding as well as various evil scum looking to kill him.

Is this a recipe for a fun film? Certainly not! But it is very well made and teaches us about a period in history we might not know much about and should! Well made and a sad film that might leave you feeling a bit drained by the time it's completed.

This movie is a conversation of Pernambuco with Pernambuco. Brazil with Brazil. Maybe may look strange for people Who are not from here (even silly) But every story (even the hairy leg one) is conected with Pernambuco's culture.

Excelent direction, screenplay and acting by Wagner Moura.

About the ending, spoilers ahead:

A lot of people can find that it has a lot of loose endings, but that's the point. The whole movie is about resistance of memory and how unfortunaly, in Brazil, we tend to cast aside. The opening scene shows the indiference we have with violence and how we don't care with individuals. The ending doesn't explain what happened, Who did it, because in real life there's a million storys we just forget and treat like numbers (91 deads and Carnaval)

For people Who maybe feel this film is too long, this movie is not trying to entertain you. Is trying to speak with you, talk to you.

I like Director Kleber Mendonça Filho, who doubles up as script writer in AGENTE SECRETO. He pulls no punches when it comes to depicting reality in his beloved Brazil.

Over the course of its 160 minutes, AGENTE SECRETO portrays three men in the Solimões family of Brazil's Pernambuco State who have experienced in different ways the evils of dictatorship, with Wagner Moura delivering yet another magnificent performance as each of those men in their generation.

As other reviewers point out, this is an account of events in Brazil at a difficult time when dictatorship reigned over that marvellous and multicultured land, and Mendonça Filho hides no details hard to admit about one's country.

The dialogue floats from apparently normal conversation among common people to a growing realization that everyone is under threat. Photographs of then Brazilian dictatorial President Ernesto Geisel and other senior government officials hang in just about every office, corrupt policemen give cover to hitmen, welcome bribes and keep breaking the law.

In a film where you also get the amiable soul of Brazilians, the contrast comes from the main villain, the wealthy company owner Ghirotti well played by Luciano Chirolli, who wants university professor/researcher Solimões I's patent, and centralization of the university funding and operation.

That contrast also hits home with raw, at times exceedingly violent action, where JAWS (yes, the Spielberg-directed 1975 film) has a double with a human leg in it, and the supernatural intervenes as that leg suddenly comes alive, becomes hairy - kids laugh about comic pictures of the "hairy leg" in newspapers - and starts kicking people engaging in sex, and other compromising positions. A black Angolan woman displaying an excellent, just perfect diction of Portuguese Portuguese, keeps the residents at Solimões II's place informed about that leg. Why she and her husband appear in the film only baffled me, as they do not add to the narrative or action, other than they fled Angola and are on their way to Sweden.

The animistic, supernatural element also comes in with a scarecrow-like masked man on the side of a Pernambuco country road, which revisits Solimões II in his nightmares.

Add to that a cat with two faces and four eyes, at least two blind. One can interpret that in various ways. I see it as symbolizing the many angles of history and human memory.

Constantly in the background of dictatorial Brazil of the 1970s, the government poses an elusive but real and constant threat to all citizens.

Ultimately, nothing is sacred: two young girls are listening to tape recordings of Solimões II interviewed by a woman called Elza. How and why they have that supposedly personal and secret material, who they are - neither is a relative of the Solimões - and work for, is not disclosed but they have very modern high quality computers, so they are current generation.

A positive note emerges toward the end, with Solimões III at the helm of a blood donor unit, symbolizing the heart of Brazil pumping in spite of all menaces and democratic hiccups.

Superb period reconstruction - plenty of lovely VW Beetles, and other 1960s/70s vehicles on show - only heightens the enormous quality of Evgenia Alexandrova's cinematography, backed by highly effective editing by Matheus Farias and Eduardo Serrano.

I sincerely believe AGENTE SECRETO and actor Wagner Moura deserve Academy Award nominations as Best Foreign Film and Best Actor, respectively. 8/10.

The Secret Agent is a film that, while ambitious, doesn't quite deliver on its promises. Its long runtime weighs heavily on the narrative, which oscillates between moments of great intensity and others where the pacing falters. The title, though intriguing, feels somewhat disconnected from the true essence of the story.

The acting is, without a doubt, the film's strongest asset. There's authenticity in the performances, well-crafted nuances, and a clear sense of commitment from the cast. The 1970s setting and the backdrop of Brazil's military dictatorship are excellent thematic choices, with immense potential to provoke reflection.

However, the script loses focus. Too many storylines are introduced, too many subplots promised, only to be left unresolved or poorly developed. The result is a lingering sense of a film that aimed to say more than it could effectively organize.

In short, The Secret Agent is a visually competent and well-intentioned work that ultimately gets lost in its own ambition. The marketing built expectations of a powerful impact that the final product fails to sustain. In the end, it's a middling film, full of good ideas and solid performances, but with uneven execution.

The film has a Brazilian setting, not the stylized Brazilian setting, but one that makes you feel you actually know those people. In truth, the entire film gives this feeling.

It is a work that seems to be something you recognize. The way people speak, the "villains", everything is so symmetrically believable that the tension establishes itself naturally. The story does not deal with big points, it is the story of one person. Perhaps of many.

In this sense, the work is characterized by the characters, and all are very well realized and acted. Even though in certain moments scenes are prolonged in order to show these characters, as occurs throughout the film. Although time passes quickly while watching the film, it has many scenes that seem to serve only to extend the length of the work.

Even with its excesses, one of the greats of Brazilian cinema.