Deepened by its complex back-and-forth chronology, deft shifts in perspective, and a significantly counterintuitive color-coding of past and present, A Secret suggests that it's not illicit passion, but rather the crime of denial, that has screwed up this family down the generations.
A Secret(Un secret)
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
France · 2007
1h 45m
Director Claude Miller
Starring Patrick Bruel, Cécile de France, Ludivine Sagnier, Julie Depardieu
Genre Drama
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
François Grimbert, a physician, gradually peels the layers of his buried family history which resulted in his difficult upbringing. To keep the family's many secrets, Grimbert's athletic father labored to stamp out stereotypical Jewish characteristics he perceived in his son.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
The New York Times by A.O. Scott
Nearly every melodramatic impulse has been suppressed in favor of a calm precision that serves both to intensify and delay the emotional impact of the film’s climactic disclosures.
A clanking, old-fashioned period drama infused with almost unbearable grief, Claude Miller's film A Secret has an enormous significance in France that it can never possess elsewhere.
Claude Miller's ravishingly shot drama A Secret gives up its titular mystery early, so it may seem odd to speak of the suspense it generates.
A fine drama that stands as Gallic vet Claude Miller's best in at least a decade.
New York Daily News by Jami Bernard
Beautifully acted and exquisitely photographed, director Claude Miller's superb drama, from Philippe Grimbert's autobiographical novel, is awash with the ripples created by unlived lives.
A gripping mystery and an ever-timely reminder of the terrible power of repression and silence.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
A harrowing and wrenching coming-of-age story.
A Secret is suitably tense, sad, and deeply poignant as it moves toward an epilogue exploring the idea that everything rots and decays, no mater how well-maintained.
The fractured timeline covers five decades, which Miller weaves together, with the past shot in color and the present in black and white. Still, the soapy climax is unnecessary.
Users who liked this film also liked
Manon of the Spring
(Manon des sources)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Switzerland, Italy, France • 1986
- Director Claude Berri
- Cast Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Béart, Hippolyte Girardot, Margarita Lozano, Yvonne Gamy
- Genre Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel
Moliere
(Molière)
To satisfy his creditors, a witty actor reinvents himself as a satirical playwright.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2007
- Director Laurent Tirard
- Cast Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Edouard Baer, Ludivine Sagnier, Laura Morante, Fanny Valette
- Genre Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
White Wedding
(Noce blanche)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1989
- Director Jean-Claude Brisseau
- Cast Vanessa Paradis, Bruno Cremer, Ludmila Mikaël, François Négret, Jean Dasté, Véronique Silver
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on No streaming locations found.
On Guard
(Le Bossu)
A count uses nefarious methods to inherit a dukedom that was never truly his.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Italy, Germany • 1997
- Director Philippe de Broca
- Cast Daniel Auteuil, Fabrice Luchini, Vincent Perez, Marie Gillain, Yann Collette, Jean-François Stévenin
- Genre Adventure
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, Kanopy
The Butterfly
(Le Papillon)
Eight-year-old Elsa and her mother move in next to Julien, an ornery old entomologist with a lavish butterfly collection.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2002
- Director Philippe Muyl
- Cast Michel Serrault, Claire Bouanich, Nade Dieu, Françoise Michaud, Pierre Poirot, Jacky Nercessian
- Genre Drama, Family
- Available on OVID, Kanopy
Of Gods and Men
(Des hommes et des dieux)
In the face of terror, their greatest weapon was faith...
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2010
- Director Xavier Beauvois
- Cast Lambert Wilson, Michael Lonsdale, Olivier Rabourdin, Philippe Laudenbach, Jacques Herlin, Loïc Pichon
- Genre Drama, History
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
Essaye-moi
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2006
- Director Pierre-François Martin-Laval
- Cast Pierre-François Martin-Laval, Pierre Richard, Marina Foïs, Julie Depardieu, Kad Merad, Wladimir Yordanoff
- Genre Comedy, Romance
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Princess of Montpensier
(La Princesse de Montpensier)
Love. Conflict. Betrayal.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Germany • 2010
- Director Bertrand Tavernier
- Cast Mélanie Thierry, Lambert Wilson, Gaspard Ulliel, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Raphaël Personnaz, Michel Vuillermoz
- Genre Action, Drama, History, Romance
- Available on AMC+ Amazon Channel, IFC Films Unlimited Apple TV Channel, Apple TV, Amazon Video
The Under-Gifted
(Les sous-doués)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1980
- Director Claude Zidi
- Cast Daniel Auteuil, Michel Galabru, Maria Pacôme, Philippe Taccini, Hubert Deschamps, Raymond Bussières
- Genre Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
The Grand Highway
(Le Grand Chemin)
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 1987
- Director Jean-Loup Hubert
- Cast Anémone, Richard Bohringer, Antoine Hubert, Vanessa Guedj, Christine Pascal, Pascale Roberts
- Genre Drama
- Available on No streaming locations found.
War of the Buttons
(La Guerre des boutons)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2011
- Director Yann Samuell
- Cast Eric Elmosnino, Mathilde Seigner, Fred Testot, Alain Chabat, Vincent Bres, Salomé Lemire
- Genre Family, Adventure
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, YouTube
Love Is in the Air
(Amour & turbulences)
- ✭ ✭
- France • 2013
- Director Alexandre Castagnetti
- Cast Ludivine Sagnier, Nicolas Bedos, Jonathan Cohen, Arnaud Ducret, Brigitte Catillon, Jackie Berroyer
- Genre Comedy, Romance
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Nelson Mandela's journey from childhood in a rural village to anti-apartheid revolutionary, and finally to South Africa's first democratically-elected president.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, South Africa, France • 2013
- Director Justin Chadwick
- Cast Idris Elba, Naomie Harris, Tony Kgoroge, Riaad Moosa, Fana Mokoena, Robert Hobbs
- Genre Drama, History
- Available on Apple TV, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store
Little England
(Μικρά Αγγλία)
One home, one secret, one man, two sisters.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Greece • 2013
- Director Pantelis Voulgaris
- Cast Penelope Tsilika, Sofia Kokkali, Anneza Papadopoulou, Andreas Konstantinou, Maximos Moumouris, Vasilis Vasilakis
- Genre Drama, Romance
- Available on Apple TV, Amazon Video, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Cineverse, Kanopy, Plex, Plex Channel
Do Not Disturb
(Une heure de tranquillité)
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France • 2014
- Director Patrice Leconte
- Cast Christian Clavier, Carole Bouquet, Valérie Bonneton, Rossy de Palma, Stéphane De Groodt, Sébastien Castro
- Genre Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.
Ma famille t’adore déjà !
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- France, Belgium • 2016
- Director Jérôme Commandeur
- Cast Arthur Dupont, Déborah François, Thierry Lhermitte, Marie-Anne Chazel, Valérie Karsenti
- Genre Comedy
- Available on No streaming locations found.