Classic Movies Live Season 7, Episode 5 – The Secret Agent

Classic Movies Live Season 7, Episode 5 – The Secret Agent

From Classic Movies Live! by Heatwave Radio

March 4, 2026

About this episode

The episode discusses 'The Secret Agent', a Brazilian film nominated for Best Picture, exploring its themes and the hosts' opinions.

This week on Classic Movies Live! our hosts finish this year's Best Picture series! The Secret Agent is the second Brazilian movie in as many years to be nominated for Best Picture! A film by Kleber Mendonça Filho, The Secret Agent stars Wagner Moura as Armando, a professor on the wrong side of the Brazilian dictatorship in 1977. Arguably as much a film about a man on the run as it is about life in Recife under the dictatorship, The Secret Agent stands out as somewhat experimental among this year's Best Picture nominees. It's both a movie that trusts the audience to fill in the blanks when it comes to the plot and world, and also leaves a few too many blanks for the audience to be comfortable. The Secret Agent is a film that would be difficult to have a boring conversation about, so this episode is guaranteed to be one of the best in this year's Best Picture series! What did our hosts think? Did they like it? Does that matter? Tune in to find out... Live! And stick around to the very end for our hosts' thoughts on each of the Oscars categories. In some years, naming their picks has been a matter of seconds. This time... well, it's a lot harder!

Topics covered

  • Best Picture nominees
  • Brazilian cinema
  • dictatorship
  • experimental film
  • film reviews

Keywords

  • The Secret Agent
  • Wagner Moura
  • Best Picture
  • Brazilian dictatorship
  • film review

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Kleber Mendonça Filho

Books & works: The Secret Agent

Places: Brazil, Recife

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