Le Secret DVD (2001) (1 Disc) (UK)

Starring: Anne Coesens, Michel Bompoil
Director: Virginie Wagon
Original UK Premiere: 2001
Dvd Release: 19th November, 2001
Number Of Discs: 1
Format: PAL, Subtitled, Region 2 Encoding

Subtitled In: English

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Le Secret, starring Anne Coesens & Tony Todd , is rather limp as erotic dramas go. The story is that of an attractive wife & mother trapped in a humdrum marriage to a loving but unexciting husband. This leads her to commit tasteful adultery, & then they all live ambivalently ever after. The script tends to rely rather too often on unsubtle allegory, such as the husbands symbolic death during a game with their children, & the obvious parallels between the main protagonists monotonous personal life & her job as a door-to-door encyclopaedia salesperson.

Where the film scores rather more highly is in its depiction of the smug complacency of the contemporary French bourgeoisie. It does have a few moments of genuine poignancy; & theres also a beautifully handled scene in which Coesens uncertainly removes her dowdy Monoprix clothing with all the enthusiasm of someone being fitted for a surgical corset, while at the same time conveying jittery surges of sexual anticipation with nothing more than a half-smile & a tilt of the head. Like The Dreamlife of Angels from the same stable, this film is perhaps best considered as a fairly easy analysis of personal & social relationships .