SYNOPSICS
Un secret (2007) is a French,Yiddish,German,Hebrew movie. Claude Miller has directed this movie. Cécile de France,Patrick Bruel,Ludivine Sagnier,Julie Depardieu are the starring of this movie. It was released in 2007. Un secret (2007) is considered one of the best Drama,War movie in India and around the world.
In 1953, a sensitive French boy finds out from a neighbor that his family's Jewish. François Grimbert becomes a physician, and gradually peels the layers of his buried family history which resulted in his difficult upbringing, raised as Catholic by his "Aryan" appearing parents. His athletic father labored to stamp out stereotypical Jewish characteristics he perceived in his son, to keep the family's many secrets, as most relatives fought in World War II, and later were hauled off to labor and death camps by the Gestapo. Based on a true story.
Un secret (2007) Trailers
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Un secret (2007) Reviews
Excellent portrayal of love, loss and rejection
This is a complex, moving and beautifully realised film by Miller. The themes of rejection, love, loss and guilt are explored in a complex narrative structure where ultimately the guilt of one man and the rejection felt by one woman are mirrored in the guilt of the French nation in their rejection and abandonment of their Jewish fellow countrymen. Lush cinematography, precise mise en scene and excellent performances including Ludivine Sagnier cast against type as the object of non-desire make for a totally satisfying cinematic experience. Perhaps we could have done without the coda in Laval's pet cemetery but by that stage I and the rest of the audience were emotionally drained. Go see.
One of the best
Well, I'm very definitely with those who praise this film. I think it's quite excellent. It has many qualities that I value. To begin with, the narrative is entirely believable. I particularly liked the fact that one of the principal characters was a Jew who didn't didn't care much about being a Jew and felt no need to proclaim his Jewishness to the world: there are many Jews like that and they are as entitled to respect as a non-practising Christian or Muslim or anyone else. The knowledge of the son that he's a disappointment to his father rang true. The acceptance by some Jews of the Nazi laws, and the belief of those same Jews that if they obey the laws, wear the star, stay away from public swimming pools, then they will be all right. The desire of those who live through the holocaust to put it behind them rather than dwell on it. I like its directness and understatement. There are no histrionics. The story is told; the audience observes and draws its own conclusions. The acting and directing are uniformly outstanding. I'd never had much time for Cécile de France, but she is perfect in this rôle. Patrick Bruel as the athletic father is just as good, and Julie Dépardieu as the family friend and the three actors who play the son at different times of his life are up there too; in fact, it's unfair to leave anyone out. The director Claude Miller deserves special mention. I haven't seen any of his other films, but I'll look out for him from now on. He handles the film with absolute confidence, never obtruding, but conveying every nuance without faltering. This is a classic example of how simplicity, directness and lack of elaboration can add to the power of a story. This film deserves much more than it's current user rating of 6.7.
A touching film; I have summarized the film for those who wish to know more before seeing it
I didn't know exactly what to expect when I went to see this film, so I arrived with an open mind. Upon leaving, I was pleasantly surprised by how this film had reached in and grabbed me, leaving me thinking about it for the rest of the evening. The film revolves around François, and takes place over a number of decades, starting in the 1950's and fast-forwarding at certain parts to the 1980's. François in the 1950's is a young boy, a bit shy, who doesn't seem to meet the expectations of his gymnast father, Maxime, here played by French singer/actor Patrick Bruel. We can see that the relationship between François and Maxime is strained, and we can sense that even the relationship between Maxime and Tania (François' mother, played by the superb Cecile de France) is not exactly "normal." François, an only child, has an imaginary friend, or should I say an "imaginary brother." This brother is stronger, faster, better than François, and leaves François frequently daydreaming about him. This leads us to the "secret" which the film title hints at. At this point we know that things in general aren't "right", that something has happened that François doesn't know about, but feels. Finally, at the age of 15, a kindly neighbor who has known Maxime and Tania for many years, lets François in on the "secret" and we go back in time 20 years. In the mid 1930's, Maxime has married a beautiful young woman named Hannah and has a big, spectacular Jewish wedding. At this point, Hannah introduces Maxime to her brother Robert and Robert's wife Tania. Life is good and Hannah and Maxime have a son, Simon. Over the 5 or 6 years that follow, World War II unravels and France slowly becomes occupied. French Jew's start wearing the Star of David on their clothing, but Maxime refuses to wear one. This causes an uproar in the family as he is accused of denying his Jewish faith. Both Robert and Maxime are sent away to fight in the war, and whereas Maxime makes it back, Robert is still stuck at war. Not to give away the climax of the film, I will briefly summarize the next part. Maxime and part of his family decide to obtain false papers and head to unoccupied France, with the intention of the rest of the family (Hannah, Simon, etc) later... I will not give away the rest of what happens next. It is at this point in the film that François (at age 15) understands the importance of the famous family "secret" and begins to understand his life, why his parents are how they are, why he is even alive. The flash-forwarding to the 1980's at different points in the film show us a grown François, and an even older Maxime and Tania. They give us a better understanding of the characters, a more complete aspect of the whole story. As I mentioned, the film is incredibly touching. The film is shrouded in a profound sadness that can be felt from the beginning, but for just cause. It is not until François learns this secret that he can even begin to understand his existence. Overall great acting. I have not read the book, and as books are usually better than the movie, I cannot make a comparison. But I do believe an honest effort was made to bring the story to life. I definitely recommend this film.
This is an excellent movie
It's worth noting, if you have read other comments, that the people who have bad mouthed it actually had no idea what was going on, why things happened and who was who. I find this "solidly" irritating. This movie was great from start to finish. Tania is married to Robert. Robert is Hannah's brother. So Tania and Hannah are sisterS-in-law. From first meeting, Maxime is mesmerized by Tania and who wouldn't be. As Louise says "... I find her desirable ...". Cécile De France is superbly cast as Tania and every credit to the film makers for making her that object of desire in every scene. This alone makes the movie a delicious treat. I have not read the book. The movie is a tragedy of war and a masterpiece of the senses. Spoilers follow: Robert is sexy enough himself, there is no reason to suspect that Tania would ever wander. Robert is sent to a POW camp early on, so WE know he's not likely coming back ... but THEY do not. Hannah has seen the way Maxime looks at Tania but Tania makes it perfectly clear to Maxime that nothing is going to happen between them. However, Hannah doesn't know this. Hannah is a young mother with quite normal insecurities and a little irrational jealousy. Hard to avoid these feelings when you see Cécile in this movie. Any woman would be jealous. Maxime's devotion to his wife and son are never in question over his simple obsession with Tania. He loves his wife, he lusts after Tania. Maxime also alienates Hannah's parents by refusing to register as a Jew. Hannah goes behind Maxime's back and registers herself. The tragedy lies in Hannah's doubts and subsequent anger over what she "thinks" Maxime "feels" for Tania. This is compounded when her parents are transported. When she finds out that Tania will also be in their hiding place, she becomes even more frustrated at her position and doesn't want to leave Paris. Her act of "outing" herself as a Jew is simple rebellion and disobedience directed at Maxime. Nothing more. Herein lies the awful tragedy of the war. The major point to remember here is that as you sit watching this unfold, YOU know immediately what will happen to her and Simon, but she did not. The full horror or the holocaust was not revealed until after liberation so none of these people can know their fate in reality. At worst, she probably thought she would meet up with her parents somewhere else. At best she was showing Maxime she would do as she pleased. This tragedy was the highlight of the movie for me. It was such a simple act of disobedience that changed everyone's lives forever. It is a haunting wonderful film that leaves you thinking about it long after it has finished.
not everything works, but when it does it's some riveting, tragic stuff
One of the big achievements of Un Secret which must be noted is that the director, Claude Miller, doesn't entirely sympathize with his characters or make them out to be all completely good Jews. They're not. This is a film concerning the holocaust that doesn't just make a blanket statement like "Nazis = Bad". No, there were Jews who were in denial, and tried to cloud over the horrible fact that was upon all of Europe, and indeed it's when the film takes its most dissecting view at the flaws of these characters that the veneer is stripped away of completely innocent people being swept up in the maelstrom. While Miller obviously acknowledges and shows the horror of anti-semitism in France (one brief scene in a classroom showing Night and Fog is especially startling) and of the rise of Hitler, he puts his eye on the Grinberg family and what really happened between François Grimbert's parents (name changed when he was a kid) before and during World War 2. Miller's approach with Un Secret is a tricky one structurally, and it doesn't quite find it's footing until a third of the way into the film. He tries to find a back-and-forth-and-back form of dealing with three periods of time: 1930s, 1950s/1960s and 1985 when everybody is older and it turns to black and white (an opposite touch that works, for a moment), and it's only effective in about the first five minutes. I became wary of those sudden jumps to the 1985 portion of the film, where we see an old Maxime Nathan Grinberg (Patrick Bruel) grieving over the loss of his dog and his son trying to find him, and found it didn't strike anywhere near as well as the 50s scenes. On top of this, after all of the film has ended, that huge chunk of the film with the focus on that first marriage of Grinberg's with Hannah and his very obvious but eventually-acted-on infatuation with Tania (very sexy Cecile de France) was far more effective dramatically and tonally than anything else in the film. This is not to say Un Secret doesn't cast a very fascinating look into this particular boy's lack of perspective and of his father's determination to compete on a physical level with the Germans, to almost "be" one in a perfectionist sense athletically, and how this one secret is part of scarred memory, attachment to one's faith and religion and who they are, and love and lust. The cast is generally excellent, with Bruel, De France and Sagnier delivering work with nuance and exquisite, painful emotions that resonate from one into the next scene (Sagnier is so good she gets us to feel repulsed, or at least taken completely aback, by what she does while in hiding). And the moods of joy and despair in a Jewish family circa 1930s and 1940s- and the subsequent self-imposed shame of people in Europe even after the war ended- is captured with some real power and accuracy. But Miller also can't completely fix together his narrative; he feels the need to jump around as if it will create a really intriguing rhythm, where if he stepped back and told it without sudden jumps or surreal bits like the "brother" in the boy's bedroom at night the film would benefit. There is also a lack of a real resolution; the 1985 scene just didn't cut it for me as far as an unspoken father/son thing, and despite it sounding conventional a confrontation of the boy to his parents might have brought something more interesting than the uneven subtlety of the ending. A lot of this is so hearth-breaking in its true dimensions and probing of the subject that the only real disappointment is how it doesn't fell... complete with itself.