Lúcio Flávio: The Passenger of Agony
The Secret Agent Network
January 7 - 13
Héctor Babenco’s mean, street-level thriller follows a notorious bank robber whose fugitive fame collides with the clandestine violence of Brazil’s police death squad during the military dictatorship.
Released at the height of Brazil’s military dictatorship, Héctor Babenco’s mean, street-level thriller charts the rise and fall of Lúcio Flávio (Reginaldo Faria), a charismatic bank robber whose headline-grabbing holdups, jailbreaks, and fugitive celebrity unfold alongside the covert operations of the Esquadrão da Morte, the regime’s notorious police death squad. As Flávio slips between safehouses, negotiates with corrupt detectives, and watches allies disappear into custody or turn informant, the boundary between outlaw bravado and state-sanctioned violence begins to dissolve. Adapted from José Louzeiro’s investigative reportage and shot in Rio’s sun-flecked streets and cramped police interiors, the film’s grit and near-documentary immediacy made it a popular sensation at the time, and a daring portrait of a society where criminal enterprise and official power operate in quiet tandem. A visual and tonal precursor whose imprint runs through The Secret Agent.
"It's mean, it's dirty, it's full of energy, it has a great pace. It's the kind of film that we don't really see a lot these days—quite daring, I think, quite violent and brutal. It was a blockbuster back in 1977, '78. For us making The Secret Agent, it was a major visual reference because our film was shot in 1977. So, we had the pleasure of rewatching it and taking notes on what pants looked like, what walls would look like, what cars would look like, street scenes, the photography, and the hairstyles. Seen almost 50 years later, it really feels like a documentary shot in the '70s. Besides being a great thriller and a very Brazilian thriller, it's a film that gave us a lot of visual ideas about the reconstruction of a certain period."
—Kleber Mendonça Filho
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