Movie Review

A Secret (2008)

EW's GRADE
B

Details Limited Release: Sep 10, 2008; Rated: Unrated; Length: 105 Minutes; Genres: Drama, Foreign Language; With: Cecile De France

 PSST! Cécile De France in A Secret A Secret
PSST! Cécile De France in A Secret

The secret uncovered by an adolescent in 1950s Paris is strikingly specific, yet echoes with the history of millions: A frail only child (Quentin Dubuis) of athletic parents (Cécile De France and Patrick Bruel) learns he had a half brother, whose fate was caught up with that of countless other French Jews in the Nazi era. Claude Miller's adaptation of Philippe Grimbert's spare, autobiographical novel is sometimes ungainly in its leaps backward from the present in A Secret (where Mathieu Amalric plays the now grown-
up Grimbert). But the filmmaker's decision 
to shoot the past in color and the present in murky black and white is an inspired visual translation of psychological truth. B

Originally posted Sep 16, 2008 Published in issue #1013 Sep 26, 2008 Order article reprints

Add your comment

The rules: Keep it clean, and stay on the subject or we might delete your comment. If you see inappropriate language, e-mail us. An asterisk * indicates a required field.

500 characters remaining
Advertisement