Non dirlo a nessuno

The pediatrician Alexandre Beck (François Cluzet) misses his beloved wife Margot Beck (Marie-Josée Croze), who was brutally murdered eight years ago when he was the prime suspect. When two bodies are found near where the corpse of Margot was dumped, the police reopen the case and Alex becomes suspect again. The mystery increases when Alex receives an e-mail showing Margot older and alive.

I am a big fan of French cinema, but "Ne le Dis à Personne" is an awesome thriller and superseded my expectations. The story and the characters are well-developed and there are simply no flaws in the complex plot, with all the situations being perfectly explained. The cast is fantastic, giving credibility to their characters. Only now I have seen the number of awards and nominations of this great film. Congratulations, the people that made this film really deserve them. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Não Conte a Ninguém" ("Do not Tell Anybody")

Note: On 09 Oct 2021, I saw this film again.

Excellent film. I'd never heard of the book it's based on. The movie does have the kind of complex characters that are more associated with novels than with cinema.

It's Hitchcockian to some extent - its premise is a classic "wrong-man" scenario, with suspense, humour and chase sequences. But the de rigeur romantic element here is, for the most part, tinged with a strange melancholy , and it's this that gives the film such an unusual atmosphere.

Leading man François Cluzet is probably weary of being compared to Dustin Hoffman, but the fact is there is more than a passing resemblance. Nevertheless, Cluzet is very much his own man, and is as good, if not better, than the Hoffman of, say, 'Marathon Man', which inevitably comes to mind as one watches Cluzet taking to his heels in the breathless, breathtaking chase sequence.

Although Cluzet carries the movie, the rest of the cast, which contains a number of very distinguished French actors, is first-rate.

The plot is full of twists and turns, and the story-telling full of time-jumps, so you really need to concentrate. I'll need to get the DVD to check I understood it right.

All in all, it's an excellent edge-of-your-seat thriller: a splendid, somewhat scary, night out at the movies.

Tell No One (2006)

An intense, constantly evolving ambush of suspicion, including an epic footchase in the center of the movie and a couple final twists that will rock you at the end.

The leading character, Alexandre, is central throughout, played with drawn poker-face by Francois Cluzet. You might even say he overplays his sobriety, because he's not so much impassive in the face of upheaval as blank to it at times. But overall it's what he is, this man who faced a personal tragedy eight years earlier and now still struggles with the truth of it.

And we all struggle with this truth. Once the initial murder happens we are struck by the absence of a body. And by a feeling that something isn't what it seems. When the police re-interview Alexandre after eight years (which seems to be long enough for a statute of limitations declaration, though I don't know French law), we suddenly suspect him of either the murder or of complicity. There are new facts. There is a suspicious sighting in a surveillance video. There are his own doubts. And our doubts about his doubts.

The cast sprawls a bit at times--there are four main women, and several lesser men, so keep alert. The father and the father-in-law, the girlfriend's girlfriend, the sister, the lawyer, and so on. And it is the unfolding of conversations and stories and confessions that make the truth come out, one of those cases of telling rather than showing what happened. By the end this becomes a huge weakness in a movie that had so much shown and so much action until the last half hour. The twists are so huge, and played out with a couple of re-makes (so that the same actors replay the scenario differently now that the facts are rearranged), it's slightly flabbergasting.

If you don't mind having the wool pulled over your eyes this way (in a way you can't object to), you will be impressed by the overall tone of things. There is the energy and worry of a good American adventure crime film with fewer pyrotechnics and some convincing realism, both welcome in a world of overly produced movies. And the chase scene is notable--the man gets tired and sweaty, he has a lucky break or two, and then there's a brilliant if unlikely entry of a side of Paris we don't often see in mainstream movies, the minority neighborhoods with their brooding anger against the police which reminded me of late 60s America. It's a short insight.

If this seems like your arena at all, I'd definitely give this a look. We're all pretty used to unlikely twists by now, anyway, so the rest of the movie will hold itself up well.

This movie is extremely engaging, well-acted, detailed, moving, thrilling, exciting and satisfying to watch. The stakes get higher and higher as the plot unfolds. What is so unexpected is the many facets the film has, it's not told on one-level there is a mixture of comedy and tragedy that is totally charming and believable. There is a great sense of involvement that gets the viewer attached to the characters and the unique situation that presents itself. It's a total roller- coaster of a movie that has you on the edge of your seat. An extraordinary story that is interestingly told. I've never felt the desire to write a comment on a movie before so the fact that I've taken the time to do it says a lot about the power of it's content. I really recommend this film, it takes you on a journey that divulges secrets beautifully as the story unravels. I left the film crying with a mixture of joy and sadness.

A very good second film for this young director, and in a genre which is not always a "day at the beach" for french directors... I'm not talking about directors like Melville or others of that generation, but for some of Canet's generation which prefer too easily to use sophisticated special effects and endless fights to fill up their scenes. Canet always stays close, very close to his characters and their feelings, and his storyline/plot and gives the audience an excellent humanistic suspense…

The film exists by itself, and doesn't need to be compared to the novel (that I read and liked), because it's transposed in another culture, with different rhythms, variations in the original characters

**** SPOILERS*****

(thanks Mr. Canet for making the psychopath "fingers" killer … a woman ! . Good idea !. And François Berleand, as a police inspector who has a little obsessive-compulsive disorder, and giving yourself the most disgusting part). Excellent choices that add subtle details to the french version.

Two hours of good cinema, good directing of actors, and needless to say that François Cluzet is a great great actor (Gee, brought me to tears at the end, very moving last scene BTW).

An excellent adaptation, well directed, not pretentious ! Canet gets his degree. Congratulations !