Friday, December 19, 2008

Movie review: A Secret (Un Secret)

"Based on true events." AARGH!

By John P. Meyer

A Secret is a subtitled, French-language, virtually humorless and unapologetically introspective film whose subject matter deals with the pogrom against Jews implemented by Hitler and his Nazi cohorts during the Second World War.

What, still reading? Glutton for punishment, eh? Haven't you seen enough Holocaust-themed, Nazi-oriented films for one movie-viewing season? I'm pretty sure I have, and I can't by any means claim to have seen all of them.

(Though you will be hearing from me on on the subject of the Daniel Craig starrer Defiance when that movie opens in January.)

Fortunately, director Claude Miller's ... Secret (from a Philippe Grimbert novel) has more going for it than just the Nazi stuff. It's an insightful (if essentially depressive) character study, centering on the person of François Grimbert, who we encounter during three different stages of his life, beginning when he's seven and ending when he's 37 (in 1985).

"Ha, ha ha. I do so love naked twister."

In fact, the early part (perhaps the first half-hour) of this long-seeming 105-minute film becomes a rather tedious exercise in flashing back and forwards (and back again), alternating between the various François incarnations and portrayers: skinny Orlando Nicoletti plays him as an weakling, ectomorphic mama's boy; Quentin Dubuis takes over for the modestly more sociable (though still pretty dang skinny) teenaged persona; and Mathieu Amalric (fresh from his arch-villain stint in the recent Bond movie) stands in as the adult François.

Weighing in heavily on the plus side is lead actress Cécile De France as François' mother, Tania. To say that Cécile is easy on the eyes is a miserable understatement: she's a hybridized visual mashup of Catherine Deneuve and Grace Kelly, and - brother - that ain't bad. Furthermore (I hasten to add), she is a talented actress, able to convey the inner turmoil experienced by her character as she attempts to submerge her inner passions beneath a sea of propriety. But more on that later.

My dear, you dance divinely. How 'bout a lit'l smokey?"

François' early life is marred by a total lack of self-confidence, which is exacerbated by the fact that his father holds him in a form of benign disdain, due (we suppose) to his (François') physical frailty; Maxime (Patrick Bruel, all beefcake and brooding) is a talented athlete who has a hard time coming to grips with the fact that any fruit of his loins could turn out to be so delicate and lily-livered.

As a result, François invents an imaginary friend, a sort of phantom brother capable of overcoming any obstacle, be it physical or emotional. He creates a rich fantasy existence in which he dives from the high platform and pulls dizzying g's on the horizontal bar, while his happy parents wine and dine on the tranquil grounds of a comfortable country estate.

"I hate Nazis. You?"

Their real life is something less glamorous, and "happy" would be a considerable stretch. Maxime, in particular, experiences bouts of sadness and anger, which can only be assuaged by the confident and loving ministrations of Tania. A particularly deep glumness takes hold of his father when François unearths a long-neglected stuffed dog toy from an attic footlocker; his phantom brother taunts him into hurling it through his bedroom window and into the courtyard below - from whence a clearly stricken Maxime recovers it.

Thus we are introduced (through the storytelling agency of family friend Louise, played by Julie Depardieu) to the pre-François backstory involving the lives of Maxime and Tania - and a sad, sad tale it is.

(Are we having fun yet?)

Back in time we go (again), all the way to pre-Nazi invasion France, where Maxime is about to take as his bride the lovely Hannah (Ludivine Sagnier) - full name Hannah Golda Stirn. In short, a young woman of Jewish descent.

(Maxime himself - full name Maxime Nathan Grinberg - is also Jewish, but less demonstrably so. He is not a practicing Jew, and when the Vichy government mandates that those of the Hebrew persuasion wear the embroidered yellow star on their everyday clothing, he refuses to do so.)

"Could we possibly pick up the pace? I've got a Bond film to make."

It's on the occasion of Maxime and Hannah's wedding that he's introduced to Hannah's brother and his gorgeous wife, Tania (Ms. De France), who is so stunning she makes Ms. Sagnier's character appear mousy by comparison - no mean trick. Right from the get-go Maxime and Tania have chemistry: she gives really great eye, and he laps up what she's dishing - surreptitiously, at first.

Without giving away too much more of the pre-François storyline - which, centering on the aforementioned pogrom, lies at the tragic heart of the narrative - suffice it to say that events are not kind to the marriage of Hannah and Maxime; a foolhardy act of defiance against her husband's wandering eye seals the fate of both Hannah and another character whom I will refrain from naming.

In a clever and effective stylistic ploy, director Miller has filmed the contemporary (1985) scenes in black and white, while the flashback segments are presented in vibrant living color - as if to demonstrate that - in the case of these characters - their past is more alive than their present.

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