Choses secrètes (2002)

Note des utilisateurs:

6.1/10   

Réalisateur:

Jean-Claude Brisseau

Scénariste:

Jean-Claude Brisseau (writer)

Release Date:

16 octobre 2002 (France)

Genre:

Comedie | Drame | Fantasy | Romance

Accroche:

The delectably twisted fable centers on two penniless but shapely young women who set out to better their social station by manipulating men.

Plot:

Two young women find themselves struggling to survive in Paris, street-wise Nathalie, a stripper, and naïve Sandrine...

Plot Keywords:

Office | Orgy | Friendship | Jealousy | Sex

Awards:

1 win

Avis des utilisateurs:

Les Choses Secretes and its discontents...

Ensemble

Coralie Revel	...	Nathalie
Sabrina Seyvecou	...	Sandrine
Roger Miremont	...	Delacroix (as Roger Mirmont)
Fabrice Deville	...	Christophe
Blandine Bury	...	Charlotte
Olivier Soler	...	Cadene
Viviane Théophildès	...	Mme. Mercier
Dorothée Picard	...	Delacroix's Mother
Pierre Gabaston	...	Bar Patron
María Luisa García	...	Sandrine's Mother (as Lisa Hérédia)
Arnaud Goujon	...	Personnel Manager
Liès Kidji	...	The Young Thief
Patricia Candido Trinca	...	Office Employee
Lydia Chopart	...	Office Employee
Michaël Couvreur	...	Office Employee

Autre(s) titre(s):

Secret Things (International: English title)

Durée:

115 min

Pays:

France

Langue:

Français

Couleur:

Couleur

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Son:

DTS | Dolby SR

Classification:

UK:18 | Canada:R (Alberta/Manitoba) | South Korea:18 | Portugal:M/18 | Italy:VM14 | Finland:K-15 | France:-16 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:III | Japan:R-18 | Switzerland:18 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:18 (canton of Vaud) | USA:Unrated | Mexico:C

Emplacements De Pelliculage:

Paris, France

Company:

Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC)

Anecdotes:

Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 2002 (#01, with "Ten")

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The end of the movie is supposed to take place after Nathalie is released from prison, several years after the main plot takes place. Yet the movies advertised on the advertisement pillar in the background (See Spot Run (2001), Town & Country (2001)) were released in France around the same weeks as the movies referenced in the main plot's time frame (Sleepwalker (2000) etc.).

Movie Connections:

References Sleepwalker (2000)

Soundtrack:

La Passion selon Saint-Jean

Les Choses Secretes and its discontents...

First of all I think something should be clarified, namely the explicitness of this film. If you are familiar with French films, there is a relatively little amount of full frontal nudity. And the sex scenes are on par with those of many a British film. Though that being said whilst the nudity of french cinema might be there to merely add a simple level of realism or aesthetic to the film, and the sex of British cinema be there again to add realism and a bit of British bravado. Les Choses Secretes uses sex merely as a plot device, and since the plot is pretty awful, so is the sex and by extension, the film.

The film starts with a woman masturbating in front of a big crowd of people at a bar. The bar tender is a young twenty something who seems to have formidable maths skills yet is working at a sleazy bar(?). She befriends the masturbating lady and from then the two girls seem intent on playing a game of manipulating men for no apparent reason other than to assert their female dominance on them.

What has the potential of being an interesting treatise on feminism, ends up essentially being a misogynistic bore. Whilst the first two acts keep you mildly interested with suspense to see how things unfold, it is the third act which ruins the film. Too much is given too late, we are suddenly confronted with a character, and a whole other plot dimension within the last 10 minutes. We are left asking many questions and none of them are answered. This coupled with a bizarrely surprising orgy scene and a curiously operatic score, shows how confused the film is. It sits on the fine line between potentially an arty shoot and a soft core porn shoot.

It would have been a lot better if it chose to be one or the other.