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Secret Défense (1998)

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 1

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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 374

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Innovative director Jacques Rivette created the memorable, multi-leveled classic Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974), seemingly the inspiration for Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). Rivette generates a far-different mood in this French-Swiss-Italian murder mystery. Medical researcher Sylvie (Sandrine Bonnaire) is keeping late lab hours when she catches her brother Paul (Gregoire Colin) with her gun. Having discovered a five-year-old photo with new evidence of their father's

Jan 2, 2002

Leonor Films

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All Critics (13) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (10) | Rotten (3) | DVD (3)

The brooding intimations of Greek tragedy are part of what keeps this 170-minute thriller fascinating throughout.

November 12, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Hermetic and somewhat opaque, this perfectly symmetrical tragedy is not for every taste. For those willing to enter the Rivette zone, however, it's a chess puzzle devised by a grand master.

November 13, 2001 Full Review Source: Village Voice | Comment
Village Voice
Top Critic IconTop Critic

As the glacially paced film inches forward with its halting conversations and accusatory glances, it tests your patience. And when the truth ultimately tumbles out and more violence erupts, don't expect a catharsis.

November 13, 2001 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Thanks to Bonnaire's characteristically intelligent performance, the circumlocutions hold some interest, proving again that since her discovery by Pialat she has become the most uncompromising of French actresses.

November 12, 2007 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

The film will either draw you in (as Rivette's best films can), or simply wear you out.

November 12, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comment
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Rivette stretches the proceedings out to 2 hours and 45 minutes, gradually revealing little bits of the puzzle to us and ending on a perfect, sublime note.

November 25, 2006 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

For all its mysteries, the movie thoroughly repudiates suspense.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

An icy thriller from Rivette.

November 7, 2002 Comment
San Francisco Examiner

Sandrine Bonnaire is a good reason to see this unconventional thriller that isn't quite a thriller -- yet it is.

July 31, 2002 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Rivette uses this time to flesh out his characters and their actions to the point where the movie feels closer to a novel than cinema.

March 5, 2002 Full Review Source: MovieMartyr.com | Comment
MovieMartyr.com

Yes, it's long, but Bonnaire holds it together with a statuesques and human performance, and whilst not Rivette's best, this is still a fascinating example of his work.

November 13, 2001 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Secret Défense

A meditative anti-thriller-cum-Electra adaptation that broods along and unravels slowly. This is easily the most conventional Rivette film, focusing more on sketching out the characters' psychological terrain than any of his other works, though the film's style and narrative structure is pure Rivette, including a set

May 1, 2007

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