Secret Things (2002/2004) (AKA Choses
Secretes)
Some things should remain secret.
Oh, I love being a typical, snide,
cynical, jaded film critic.
Seriously, this French thriller
starts out as an erotic and interesting exploration
of female empowerment through sexuality and ends up
as a horrid mess that evokes egotism doused in theism
as well as paying a unnecessary homage to Stanley
Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut." Or at least the "Penthouse-esque"
segments of that film.
Director Jean-Claude Brisseau (who,
surprise surprise is 60 years old) sure starts his
film off on the right foot. The opening dance sequence
is as (heterosexually) erotic, arty and captivating
as the beginning of any film might hope to be. We
are introduced to the main characters, both female,
quite easily and find them engaging and interesting.
The film takes almost no time in getting into story
and showing us just how saucy it is going to be.
Sexual politics, especially in the
workplace, become the theme here and we are absorbed
in a situation where the two young women take control
of their sexuality and by doing so also gain control
of the social status and work situation as well as
becoming empowered as modern day females. Sadly, anyone
expecting a sort of French twist on "The Company of
Strangers" is soon disappointed. The first sniff of
a clue of failure comes when the CEO of the company
where the young ladies work is introduced into the
plot and some unusual exposition about his background
begins to take center stage.
As the film enters its second hour,
the CEO will become a major player in the film's plot,
which utterly falls apart. Worse yet, the film begins
to escape reality and become downright silly wallowing
in pretentious symbolism and unbelievable sexual situations.
It's too bad too because up until
this point the film seemed headed on a unique and
intriguing path. This is how badly the film ends up:
In a scene of ridiculous symbolism that would make
David Lynch throttle a college filmmaker, a hawk,
as a symbol of death, literally pecks a dead guy's
heart out. While this film begins for the viewer with
jaw-dropping audacity it ultimately ends with laugh-out
loud guffaws that denigrate it to the status of failure.
Notes:
Released in France in October 2002,
the film received its official US arthouse release
in January 2004.
The film won the France Culture
Award at Cannes in 2003.
Viewed at a press sneak at the Dobie
Theater in March 2004 where the audience of press
members did actually laugh out loud at the heart pecking
scene.
