Opens
Friday, Feb. 20
New York
NEW YORK -- It's easy to see why Cahier du Cinema voted this effort from French director Jean-Claude Brisseau as film of the year. Combining steamy eroticism and baroque stylization to a degree only imagined by Stanley Kubrick in "Eyes Wide Shut", to which this film has been frequently compared, "Secret Things" is an artistically ambitious exercise that enables audiences to be simultaneously teased erotically and intellectually. Unfortunately, the film is more effective on the former front, as the writer-director allows the proceedings to sink under far too much symbolic weight.
Beginning like the 100th installment of the popular "Emmanuelle" series, the film introduces us to its impossibly beautiful lead female characters: Natalie (Coralie Revel), who performs an erotic act in which she seems to please herself far more than the audience at the most unlikely strip club you're ever likely to see
and Sandrine (Sabrina Seyvecou), a young barmaid who is quickly dismissed for not agreeing to sleep with the customers.
Natalie takes Sandrine under her wing, which in this case means instructing her in the exotic arts of self-pleasuring and exhibitionism. The pair also soon wind up in a torrid clinch, though Natalie takes pains to assure her partner that she's not really a lesbian. Talk about male fantasies!
The film eventually progresses from this soft-porn territory into something more serious, a la Neil LaBute, as the women take jobs in a Parisian bank with the intent of using their sophisticated sexual wiles to advance up the corporate ladder. All goes swimmingly until they encounter Christophe (Fabrice Deville), the bank owner's Mephistophelean son, the sort of man whose former girlfriends have the unfortunate tendency to set themselves on fire. Christophe's cruelty and deviousness is more than a match for the women's machinations, and the resulting power struggle achieves metaphysical proportions.
While visually stylish and thematically ambitious, "Secret Things" is ultimately more preposterous than provocative, its vague explorations of sexual and class struggle failing to coalesce in a coherent manner. There is quite a lot to enjoy along the way, however, not the least of which are the physical charms of the lead actresses, which well compensate for the film's more ludicrous aspects.
SECRET THINGS
First Run Features
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Jean-Claude Brisseau
Producers: Jean-Claude Brisseau, Jean-Francois Geneix
Director of photography: Wilfred Sempe
Editor: Maria Luisa Garcia
Cast:
Sandrine: Sabrina Seyvecou
Nathalie: Coralie Revel
Delacroix: Roger Mirmont
Christophe: Fabrice Deville
Charlotte: Blandine Bury
Running time -- 115 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Friday, Feb. 20
New York
NEW YORK -- It's easy to see why Cahier du Cinema voted this effort from French director Jean-Claude Brisseau as film of the year. Combining steamy eroticism and baroque stylization to a degree only imagined by Stanley Kubrick in "Eyes Wide Shut", to which this film has been frequently compared, "Secret Things" is an artistically ambitious exercise that enables audiences to be simultaneously teased erotically and intellectually. Unfortunately, the film is more effective on the former front, as the writer-director allows the proceedings to sink under far too much symbolic weight.
Beginning like the 100th installment of the popular "Emmanuelle" series, the film introduces us to its impossibly beautiful lead female characters: Natalie (Coralie Revel), who performs an erotic act in which she seems to please herself far more than the audience at the most unlikely strip club you're ever likely to see
and Sandrine (Sabrina Seyvecou), a young barmaid who is quickly dismissed for not agreeing to sleep with the customers.
Natalie takes Sandrine under her wing, which in this case means instructing her in the exotic arts of self-pleasuring and exhibitionism. The pair also soon wind up in a torrid clinch, though Natalie takes pains to assure her partner that she's not really a lesbian. Talk about male fantasies!
The film eventually progresses from this soft-porn territory into something more serious, a la Neil LaBute, as the women take jobs in a Parisian bank with the intent of using their sophisticated sexual wiles to advance up the corporate ladder. All goes swimmingly until they encounter Christophe (Fabrice Deville), the bank owner's Mephistophelean son, the sort of man whose former girlfriends have the unfortunate tendency to set themselves on fire. Christophe's cruelty and deviousness is more than a match for the women's machinations, and the resulting power struggle achieves metaphysical proportions.
While visually stylish and thematically ambitious, "Secret Things" is ultimately more preposterous than provocative, its vague explorations of sexual and class struggle failing to coalesce in a coherent manner. There is quite a lot to enjoy along the way, however, not the least of which are the physical charms of the lead actresses, which well compensate for the film's more ludicrous aspects.
SECRET THINGS
First Run Features
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Jean-Claude Brisseau
Producers: Jean-Claude Brisseau, Jean-Francois Geneix
Director of photography: Wilfred Sempe
Editor: Maria Luisa Garcia
Cast:
Sandrine: Sabrina Seyvecou
Nathalie: Coralie Revel
Delacroix: Roger Mirmont
Christophe: Fabrice Deville
Charlotte: Blandine Bury
Running time -- 115 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Opens
Friday, Feb. 20
New York
NEW YORK -- It's easy to see why Cahier du Cinema voted this effort from French director Jean-Claude Brisseau as film of the year. Combining steamy eroticism and baroque stylization to a degree only imagined by Stanley Kubrick in "Eyes Wide Shut", to which this film has been frequently compared, "Secret Things" is an artistically ambitious exercise that enables audiences to be simultaneously teased erotically and intellectually. Unfortunately, the film is more effective on the former front, as the writer-director allows the proceedings to sink under far too much symbolic weight.
Beginning like the 100th installment of the popular "Emmanuelle" series, the film introduces us to its impossibly beautiful lead female characters: Natalie (Coralie Revel), who performs an erotic act in which she seems to please herself far more than the audience at the most unlikely strip club you're ever likely to see
and Sandrine (Sabrina Seyvecou), a young barmaid who is quickly dismissed for not agreeing to sleep with the customers.
Natalie takes Sandrine under her wing, which in this case means instructing her in the exotic arts of self-pleasuring and exhibitionism. The pair also soon wind up in a torrid clinch, though Natalie takes pains to assure her partner that she's not really a lesbian. Talk about male fantasies!
The film eventually progresses from this soft-porn territory into something more serious, a la Neil LaBute, as the women take jobs in a Parisian bank with the intent of using their sophisticated sexual wiles to advance up the corporate ladder. All goes swimmingly until they encounter Christophe (Fabrice Deville), the bank owner's Mephistophelean son, the sort of man whose former girlfriends have the unfortunate tendency to set themselves on fire. Christophe's cruelty and deviousness is more than a match for the women's machinations, and the resulting power struggle achieves metaphysical proportions.
While visually stylish and thematically ambitious, "Secret Things" is ultimately more preposterous than provocative, its vague explorations of sexual and class struggle failing to coalesce in a coherent manner. There is quite a lot to enjoy along the way, however, not the least of which are the physical charms of the lead actresses, which well compensate for the film's more ludicrous aspects.
SECRET THINGS
First Run Features
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Jean-Claude Brisseau
Producers: Jean-Claude Brisseau, Jean-Francois Geneix
Director of photography: Wilfred Sempe
Editor: Maria Luisa Garcia
Cast:
Sandrine: Sabrina Seyvecou
Nathalie: Coralie Revel
Delacroix: Roger Mirmont
Christophe: Fabrice Deville
Charlotte: Blandine Bury
Running time -- 115 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Friday, Feb. 20
New York
NEW YORK -- It's easy to see why Cahier du Cinema voted this effort from French director Jean-Claude Brisseau as film of the year. Combining steamy eroticism and baroque stylization to a degree only imagined by Stanley Kubrick in "Eyes Wide Shut", to which this film has been frequently compared, "Secret Things" is an artistically ambitious exercise that enables audiences to be simultaneously teased erotically and intellectually. Unfortunately, the film is more effective on the former front, as the writer-director allows the proceedings to sink under far too much symbolic weight.
Beginning like the 100th installment of the popular "Emmanuelle" series, the film introduces us to its impossibly beautiful lead female characters: Natalie (Coralie Revel), who performs an erotic act in which she seems to please herself far more than the audience at the most unlikely strip club you're ever likely to see
and Sandrine (Sabrina Seyvecou), a young barmaid who is quickly dismissed for not agreeing to sleep with the customers.
Natalie takes Sandrine under her wing, which in this case means instructing her in the exotic arts of self-pleasuring and exhibitionism. The pair also soon wind up in a torrid clinch, though Natalie takes pains to assure her partner that she's not really a lesbian. Talk about male fantasies!
The film eventually progresses from this soft-porn territory into something more serious, a la Neil LaBute, as the women take jobs in a Parisian bank with the intent of using their sophisticated sexual wiles to advance up the corporate ladder. All goes swimmingly until they encounter Christophe (Fabrice Deville), the bank owner's Mephistophelean son, the sort of man whose former girlfriends have the unfortunate tendency to set themselves on fire. Christophe's cruelty and deviousness is more than a match for the women's machinations, and the resulting power struggle achieves metaphysical proportions.
While visually stylish and thematically ambitious, "Secret Things" is ultimately more preposterous than provocative, its vague explorations of sexual and class struggle failing to coalesce in a coherent manner. There is quite a lot to enjoy along the way, however, not the least of which are the physical charms of the lead actresses, which well compensate for the film's more ludicrous aspects.
SECRET THINGS
First Run Features
Credits:
Director-screenwriter: Jean-Claude Brisseau
Producers: Jean-Claude Brisseau, Jean-Francois Geneix
Director of photography: Wilfred Sempe
Editor: Maria Luisa Garcia
Cast:
Sandrine: Sabrina Seyvecou
Nathalie: Coralie Revel
Delacroix: Roger Mirmont
Christophe: Fabrice Deville
Charlotte: Blandine Bury
Running time -- 115 minutes
No MPAA rating...
- 2/20/2004
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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