Le Secret, starring Anne Coesens (Ma Vie en Rose) and Tony Todd (Final Destination), is rather limp as erotic dramas go. The story is that of an attractive wife and mother trapped in a humdrum marriage to a loving but unexciting husband. This leads her to commit tasteful adultery, and then they all live "ambivalently ever after". The script tends to rely rather too often on unsubtle allegory, such as the husband's symbolic "death" during a game with their children, and the obvious parallels between the main protagonist's monotonous personal life and 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; and there's 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 and 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 and social relationships (leavened with some occasional bonking). --Roger Thomas

107 minut

Reżyseria

Virginie Wagon

Scenariusz

Virginie Wagon , Erick ZONKA