Choses secrètes (2002)

Director:

Jean-Claude Brisseau

Writer:

Jean-Claude Brisseau (writer)

Release Date:

16 October 2002 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Romance

Tagline:

The delectably twisted fable centers on two penniless but shapely young women who set out to better their social station by manipulating men.

Plot:

Two young women find themselves struggling to survive in Paris, street-wise Nathalie, a stripper, and naïve Sandrine...

Plot Keywords:

Friendship | Stripper | Office | Orgy | Sex

Awards:

1 win

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Coralie Revel	...	Nathalie
Sabrina Seyvecou	...	Sandrine
Roger Miremont	...	Delacroix (as Roger Mirmont)
Fabrice Deville	...	Christophe
Blandine Bury	...	Charlotte
Olivier Soler	...	Cadene
Viviane Théophildès	...	Mme. Mercier
Dorothée Picard	...	Delacroix's Mother
Pierre Gabaston	...	Bar Patron
María Luisa García	...	Sandrine's Mother (as Lisa Hérédia)
Arnaud Goujon	...	Personnel Manager
Liès Kidji	...	The Young Thief
Patricia Candido Trinca	...	Office Employee
Lydia Chopart	...	Office Employee
Michaël Couvreur	...	Office Employee

Also Known As:

Secret Things (International: English title)
Тайные страсти (Russia) [ru]
Coisas Secretas (Brazil) (festival title) [pt]
Heimliche Spiele (Germany) [de]
Himegoto (Japan) [ja]
Il potere dei sensi (Italy) [it]
Mahrem seyler (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Salaiset leikit (Finland) [fi]
Salakired (Estonia) [et]
Sekrety (Poland) [pl]

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby SR

Certification:

UK:18 | Canada:R (Alberta/Manitoba) | South Korea:18 | Portugal:M/18 | Italy:VM14 | Finland:K-15 | France:-16 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:III | Japan:R-18 | Switzerland:18 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:18 (canton of Vaud) | USA:Unrated | Mexico:C

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC)

Trivia:

Chosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 2002 (#01, with "Ten")

Goofs:

Anachronisms: The end of the movie is supposed to take place after Nathalie is released from prison, several years after the main plot takes place. Yet the movies advertised on the advertisement pillar in the background (See Spot Run (2001), Town & Country (2001)) were released in France around the same weeks as the movies referenced in the main plot's time frame (Sleepwalker (2000) etc.).

Quotes:

Sandrine: What do you feel dancing naked with all those people watching?
Nathalie: Nothing.
Sandrine: But you excite them.
Nathalie: Usually it's routine.
Sandrine: Usually?
Nathalie: On stage once, I came the hardest I ever had.
Sandrine: Even with a guy?
Nathalie: That night I came the hardest I ever had.
Sandrine: Why?
Nathalie: Because people were watching.
[...]

Movie Connections:

References La boîte (2001)

Soundtrack:

La Passion selon Saint-Jean

Coulda/shoulda been better

"Secret Things" is about two beautiful young women, a stripper and a barmaid, who find themselves unemployed and decide to use their sex appeal as a tool to get on the fast track to success in the corporate world. Their scheme works well until they run up against a man who is even more cunning, ruthless, and base than they are. "Secret Things" opens with a nude autoerotic dance and appears to being going somewhere until it self-destructs in a crescendo of ponderous nonsense. The sagacious female protags become clueless dupes, the male antagonist turns into something so perverse it's almost funny, a black veiled figure with a bird appears and hangs out like some sort of specter, and the film quickly loses its credibility. "Secret Things" is chock full of sex which is obviously staged and the psychodramatics simply aren't believable. A coulda/shoulda been better example of when less would have been more. (C+)