''A Secret'' (french: Un secret) is a 2007
French film
French cinema consists of the film industry and its film productions, whether made within the nation of France or by French film production companies abroad. It is the oldest and largest precursor of national cinemas in Europe; with primary influ ...
directed and written by
Claude Miller
Claude Miller (20 February 1942 – 4 April 2012) was a French film director, producer and screenwriter.
Life and career
Claude Miller was born to a Jewish family. A student at Paris' IDHEC film school from 1962 through 1963, Miller had his fi ...
. The screenplay was based on the 2004 novel by
Philippe Grimbert.
Synopsis
The film follows Maxime Nathan and his family in France during the years before and after World War II. François Grimbert (played as a young boy by Valentin Vigourt and as an adult by Mathieu Amalric) grows up in Paris in the 1950s. He is the skinny, sickly son of two marvelously athletic parents, Tania (
Cécile de France
Cécile de France (; born 17 July 1975) is a Belgian actress. After achieving success in French cinema hits such as '' L'Art (délicat) de la séduction'' (2001) and ''Irène'' (2002), she gained international attention for her lead roles in ''H ...
) and Maxime (
Patrick Bruel). For a while, he dreams of a stronger, fitter, more charismatic older brother to compensate for his own feelings of inadequacy. Only gradually does he learn of his parents' tragic past and that he had a sibling – a half-brother named Simon, his father's first son.
Simon is the big secret, but the discovery opens the door to further revelations and deeper enigmas. François knows that his parents met sometime around the war, and he imagines their courtship and marriage in the shadow of atrocities which nobody talks about any more. Eventually he learns that his family is Jewish. His parents were each married to someone else before the Holocaust, and his father had a son, Simon. His parents' first spouses and his half-brother Simon were arrested by the Nazis and gassed at Auschwitz. His parents have never fully recovered from the trauma and eventually they both commit suicide.
Cast
*
Cécile De France
Cécile de France (; born 17 July 1975) is a Belgian actress. After achieving success in French cinema hits such as '' L'Art (délicat) de la séduction'' (2001) and ''Irène'' (2002), she gained international attention for her lead roles in ''H ...
as Tania Stirn/Grimbert
*
Patrick Bruel as Maxime Nathan Grinberg/Grimbert
*
Ludivine Sagnier
Ludivine Sagnier (born 3 July 1979) is a French actress and model who has appeared on screen since 1989. She was nominated three times for the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for ''Swimming Pool'' (2003), '' Peter Pan'' (2003), and ''A ...
as Hannah Grimbert
*
Julie Depardieu
Julie Marion Depardieu (born 18 June 1973) is a French actress who has appeared in a number of successful films.
Early life
Born 18 June 1973 in Paris, she is the daughter of Gérard Depardieu, Gérard and Élisabeth Depardieu and the sister of t ...
as Louise
*
Mathieu Amalric
Mathieu Amalric (; born 25 October 1965) is a French actor and filmmaker. He is best known internationally for his roles in the James Bond film '' Quantum of Solace'', in which he played the lead villain, Steven Spielberg's ''Munich'', Wes An ...
as François Grimbert (age 37)
*
Eric Godon
Eric Godon (born 7 February 1959) is a Belgian character actor, director and writer. Recognisable by his burly appearance and deep voice, he is perhaps best known in English language circles, for his roles in ''In Bruges'', and '' The Missing'' ...
as
Serge Klarsfeld
Serge Klarsfeld (born 17 September 1935) is a Romanian-born French activist and Nazi hunter known for documenting the Holocaust in order to establish the record and to enable the prosecution of war criminals. Since the 1960s, he has made notab ...
*
Nathalie Boutefeu
Nathalie Boutefeu (born 1968) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter. She has appeared in 40 films since 1990. She starred in the film '' The Butterfly's Dream'', which was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1994 Can ...
as Esther
*
Yves Verhoeven as Guillaume
*
as Commandant Béraud
*
Annie Grégorio as Léone
*
Laurent Lafitte
Laurent Lafitte (born 22 August 1973) is a French actor. He is known for playing the role of Patrick in ''Elle
''Elle'' (stylized ''ELLE'') is a worldwide women's magazine of French origin that offers a mix of fashion and beauty content, tog ...
as The cop
Awards and nominations
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César Awards
The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the ' ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Min ...
**Won: Best Actress – Supporting Role (Julie Depardieu)
**Nominated: Best Actress – Leading Role (Cécile De France)
**Nominated: Best Actress – Supporting Role (Ludivine Sagnier)
**Nominated: Best Cinematography (Gérard de Battista)
**Nominated: Best Costume Design (Jacqueline Bouchard)
**Nominated: Best Director (Claude Miller)
**Nominated: Best Editing (Véronique Lange)
**Nominated: Best Film
**Nominated: Best Music Written for a Film (Zbigniew Preisner)
**Nominated: Best Production Design (Jean-Pierre Kohut-Svelko)
**Nominated: Best Writing - Adaptation (Nathalie Carter and Claude Miller)
*
Montréal Film Festival
**Won: Grand Prix des Amériques (tied with ''
Ben X'')
Reception
On review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, ''A Secret'' has an approval rating of 80% based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 7.00/10. The site's consensus reads: A "Secret is poignant, sad, and beautifully crafted, featuring fine performances that stave off a drift toward soap opera territory". On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100 based on 15 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
References
External links
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French war drama films
2000s French-language films
French World War II films
Films directed by Claude Miller
Films scored by Zbigniew Preisner
2000s French films
{{2000s-France-film-stub