I haven’t written anything on this website in a few months. That’s partly due to work but that’s also due to struggling to be able to write anything. I just didn’t really feel the motivation to write, even for films I loved like One Battle After Another. The Secret Agent however has motivated me to write.

This is just an incredibly dense and rich film that I’m trying to fully comprehend. It’s an incredible treatise on authoritarianism and living under authoritarian rule, while also not losing a sense of culture and what culture really means. It starts off as this sprawling sort of crime film where you’re unsure of how all the pieces come together, and yet they do in ways you’re not expecting. I think I probably need to watch it again to fully grasp everything that Kleber Mendonça Filho is trying to say but even on a first watch I was completely riveted. There’s this one scene in the middle when you’re starting to see all the pieces come together and it’s mostly just one character talking and I was completely blown away. I’ve seen some criticisms of the pacing and length of this film but I didn’t feel the length at all and I thought that the leisurely pace really fit with what Mendonça was trying to do. 

The performances are also top notch. Wagner Moura is the stand out and is the one getting all the awards attention and he absolutely deserves it. Just a wonderfully subdued performance that goes hand in hand with what Mendonça wants to do with the character of Miguel. However this is just a terrific ensemble. Tânia Maria is delightful here and Udo Kier’s scene is great, acting as an incredible look at how fascist regimes will rewrite and, at times, fetishise certain aspects of history. I could honestly praise everyone in this film. Just an across the board well-acted film.

I will rewatch this and when I do I’ll probably have even more to talk about. This is just me struggling to grasp at why I was so spellbound by this film, and so have probably written as a sprawling a review of a film that’s sprawling in of itself. I don’t think I could ever really do this film justice, even if I watch this every day until the day I die. It’s just an incredible piece of art and incredible document of time in near history that doesn’t feel as bygone as it should. Thank you Kleber Mendoça Fliho. This is a film that I didn’t realise that I needed on an artistic, political and spiritual level. A film that makes me want to write films and write about films. It’s far too early for me to cite this as a masterpiece but fuck it, it’s a masterpiece.

Once I rewatch this then I will write another piece on this, hopefully a little more focused, but for now these are my thoughts on The Secret Agent. I hope people seek this one out because it is just tremendous and I’m looking forward to delving more into Brazilian cinema after this as I’m fairly ignorant of this corner of cinema and I’m looking to rectify that. But anyway, The Secret Agent. Masterpiece. Please Watch it.

Overall Rating – *****