Secrets & Lies (1996)

Drama | 142 minutes

3,72 568 votes

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3 comments

Genre: Drama

Duration: 142 minuten

Alternative title: Secrets and Lies

Country: United Kingdom / France

Directed by: Mike Leigh

Stars: Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Brenda Blethyn and Timothy Spall

IMDb score: 8,0 (50.932)

Releasedate: 24 May 1996

Secrets & Lies plot

"Roxanne drives her mother crazy. Maurice never speaks to his niece. Cynthia has a shock for her family. Monica can't talk to her husband. Hortense has never met her mother."

Hortence, a young black woman, has known from childhood that she was adopted. While the rest of the family fights for the house after the death of her foster mother, Hortence decides to visit her biological mother. Much to her surprise, her mother is white. She lives with her daughter Roxanne and has a difficult relationship with her brother Maurice, a wedding photographer. Once Hortence's "secret" surfaces, a host of other family secrets surface.

Full Cast & Crew

Actors and actresses

Brenda Blethyn

Stuart

All Media

Trailer & other videos

Secrets & Lies Q&A | Mike Leigh in Conversation

Main Title Sequence

Photo Studio Scene

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3 comments

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3 COMMENTS

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Dievegge

3165 messages
8185 votes

17 October 2019 at 09:54

Mike Leigh does not start with a fully developed scenario, but starts from improvisation assignments in which the actors only know what their character knows. The result is very realistic. The accent of the London working class is part of this.

Maurice (Timothy Spall) and Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) have worked their way up the social ladder with careers as photographers or optometrists - both visual professions. However, they are surrounded by people who are socially deprived, as a result of alcoholism or teenage pregnancy. Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) wants to warn her daughter Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook) not to make the same mistake, but that makes her seem bossy and meddling.

When Cynthia and Hortense first meet, it looks like a hidden camera, with the occasional vehicle passing through the frame. Then follows a long take with a largely improvised dialogue. It's hard to believe that Hortense is her biological daughter, but that just sparks a tense showdown.

Monica, Maurice's wife, shows off her new interior, while Cynthia still lives in their parents' cluttered and dilapidated house. Monica wants children, but can't have one; while Cynthia had two children without wanting them. Maurice philosophically decides that it's better to just stand up for the truth. During the group dialogues, the reactions of those who are not speaking are also shown. Dark sounds of strings and brass enhance the gloomy atmosphere.