Wagner Moura’s four favourite movies of all time: “A spectacular film”
Although he was best known to global audiences for his terrifying performance as Pablo Escobar in the hit Netflix series Narcos, Wagner Moura has crashed the current Academy Award race for ‘Best Actor’ thanks to his stunning role in The Secret Agent, which has been submitted as the nation’s entry for ‘Best International Feature’.
After winning the ‘Best Actor’ prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Moura has been raking in accolades for his performance, and has thus far earned recognition from the Critics’ Choice Awards, Golden Globes, and NYFCC honours.
His excellent turn in The Secret Agent is the type of starmaking role that could only have been pulled off by an actor with significant experience, but he has also done some notable work behind the camera as the director of the political thriller Marighella, and given that Moura has starred in films from all over the world, it makes sense that the four he selected as his favourites come from unique backgrounds.
The first of his picks was Il Posto, a classic of the Italian neorealism movement from director Ermanno Olmi, and although the neorealist style is often associated with slightly earlier films, such as Bicycle Thieves and Germany, Year Zero, this 1961 masterpiece was hailed at the time for its nimble blend of humour and drama, and even ended up winning a prize at the Venice International Film Festival.
Il Posto may have been a slightly more obscure pick, but Moura also named a more well-known, “feel good” classic with Cinema Paradiso, a whimsical coming-of-age story about a young boy in Sicily who grows up near a wondrous moviehouse.
While the film features many references to current events in Italian culture, it has become beloved around the globe for the way in which it celebrates the experience of going to the movies, and in a time in which the future of the theatrical market is threatened by the potential acquisition of Warner Bros by Netflix, Cinema Paradiso feels more relevant than ever.
Another classic that he cited as “a spectacular film” is Iracema – Uma Transa Amazônica, which comes from his home country of Brazil, which, interestingly, was released in 1974, right around the time that The Secret Agent takes place. Whereas the latter examines how Brazilian culture was able to survive amidst the oppressive regime of the military dictatorship, which cracked down hard on those willing to speak out, the former would make for a great companion piece because it was part of the Cinema Novo movement, in which Brazilian artists made films with strong social themes and an emphasis on equality.
Another Brazilian film that Moura is a fan of is Terra Estrangeira, an action feature directed by Walter Salles, and his affinity for which is not surprising, seeing that in between his acclaimed roles in arthouse dramas, the actor has popped up in genre films like The Gray Man and Civil War.
Salles is a legendary Brazilian director who just recently took home a Best International Feature prize at the Academy Awards for his latest masterpiece, I’m Still Here, and even though it was only the fifth time in history in which Brazil was nominated in the category, it’s more than likely that The Secret Agent will be the sixth, based on how much praise Moura’s work has been receiving.
Wagner Moura’s four all-time favourite films:
- Il Posto (Ermanno Olmi, 1961)
- Cinema Paradiso (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988)
- Iracema – Uma Transa Amazônica (Jorge Bodanzky, Orlando Senna, 1981)
- Terra Estrangeira (Walter Salles, 1995)
