A Secret

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Cast & Crew

Cécile De France
Tania

Patrick Bruel
Maxime

Ludivine Sagnier
Hannah

Julie Depardieu
Louise

Mathieu Amalric
Francois

Nathalie Boutefeu
Esther

Claude Miller
Director

Claude Miller
Screenwriter

Natalie Carter
Screenwriter

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Critic Reviews for A Secret

Audience Reviews for A Secret

• May 21, 2013

  Nothing extraordinary or a secret that most can't see coming, yet I liked it. Maybe because besides being based on real events, the execution too was good enough & that it's not just a Holocaust/war movie.
  familiar s Super Reviewer
• Sep 16, 2011

  A scrawny boy grows up in the shadow of what he believes was an older, more talented son he never knew. This history is a closely guarded secret until he is a teenager and a sympathetic aunt spills the beans about what really happened with his Jewish family during the German occupation. There are infidelities, betrayals, and inexplicable fateful decisions, none of which are nearly as compelling as what you might imagine. This is based on a true story, and while the circumstances are tragic for those involved, it does not necessarily make for gripping cinema the way this story is told. For example, there is a smouldering flame of passion between two characters that you already know will get together because we have been shown the future, so getting there is ineffectually protracted. (When they finally do though - whoa, that's one steamy scene!) Cecile de France looks glorious in her 1940s coiffure, plus Ludivine Sagnier and Julie Depardieu fill out a first-rate female cast in this second-rate adaptation.
  Doctor S Super Reviewer
• May 23, 2011

  A rather slow moving, nice French film about the holocaust, and its effects on an entire family. The movie is rather tedious, even as it portrays deep passions, and grief, flickering just below the surface of its characters. However, the acting is wonderful, and all else is beautifully done....so I forgive them.
  Cynthia S Super Reviewer
• Apr 06, 2011

  Est-il juste parce qu'il est Francais? Based on a true story, Un Secret sees post-war France through the eyes of pre-teen Francois, an only child of two ridiculously good-looking parents. When he becomes curious about the inner workings of his parents' relationship, a close friend reveals secrets about the multi-layered and convulated love affair that began 15 or so years earlier, and the consequences (some fatal) that occurred because of it. The film captures the complexities of being a Jew in France from the 1930's to the present, where layers of a family's history are revealed by jumping back and forth in time. It's about a gripping mystery and an ever-timely reminder of the terrible power of repression and silence. Beautifully acted and exquisitely photographed, director Claude Miller's superb drama is awash with the ripples created by unlived lives. He brings together beautiful actors, great sceneries and thought-provoking stories but misses the mark in the alignment of all the elements. Still, the performances of all the cast are compassionate and compelling. The cinematography for the most is absolutely gorgeous. But it seems that Miller has cheapened the audience's experience, for rather than exploring the entire body of one or two stories, he merely nibbles at the ear of many. And again, what is with the bizarre epilogue?
  Cinema F Super Reviewer

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