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Moment after moment, scene after scene, “Secrets & Lies” unfolds with the fascination of eavesdropping. We are waiting to see what these people will do next, caught up in the fear and the hope that they will bring the whole fragile network of their lives crashing down in ruin. When they prevail--when common sense and good hearts win over lies and secrets--we feel almost as relieved as if it had happened to ourselves.

Mike Leigh 's best films work like that. He finds a rhythm of life--not “real life,” but real life as fashioned and shaped by all the art and skill his actors can bring to it--and slips into it, so that we are not particularly aware we're watching a film; he has a scene here, set at a backyard barbecue, that shows exactly how family gatherings are sometimes a process of tiptoeing through minefields. One wrong word, and the repressed resentments of decades will blow up in everyone's face.

It would be easy, but wrong, to describe the plot of “Secrets & Lies” as being about an adopted black woman in London who seeks out her natural birth mother, discovers the woman is white, and arranges to meet her. That would be wrong because it sidesteps the real subject of the film, which is that the mother and her family have been all but destroyed by secrets and lies. The young black woman is the catalyst to change that situation, yes, but her life was fine before the action starts and will continue on an even keel afterward.

Given the deep waters it dives into, “Secrets & Lies” is a good deal funnier and more entertaining than we have any right to expect. It begins with the black woman, a thirtyish optometrist with the quintessentially British name of Hortense Cumberbatch (played by Marianne Jean-Baptiste ). After the death of her adoptive mother, she goes to an adoption agency to discover the name of her birth mother, and thinks there must have been a mistake, since the papers indicate her mother was white. There was no mistake.

We meet the mother, named Cynthia, who is played as a fearful, nervous wreck by Brenda Blethyn (who won the best actress award at Cannes for this performance). She lives in an untidy council house with her daughter Roxanne ( Claire Rushbrook ), who works as a street sweeper, is in a foul mood most of the time, and has a boyfriend whom she has thoroughly cowed. Cynthia mourns the fact that her beloved younger brother Maurice ( Timothy Spall ) hasn't called her in more than two years, and blames Maurice's wife Monica ( Phyllis Logan ), that “toffee-nosed cow,” for the long silence.

The phone rings. It is Hortense. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no, dear--there's been some mistake!” says Cynthia. But Hortense persists. Cynthia hangs up. The phone rings again, and she approaches it like an animal sure the trap is set to spring. But she agrees to meet Hortense, and the scene of their meeting--outside a tube station and then in a nearby cafe--is one of the great sequences in all of Mike Leigh's work, based on incredulity, disbelief, memory, embarrassment and acceptance. “But you can't be my daughter, dearie!” Cynthia exclaims. “I mean . . . just look at you!” She claims she has never even slept with a black man, and she is telling the truth, but then a moment comes when she arrives at a startling revelation, and we don't know whether to smile or hold our breaths.

Much of the film is devoted to the domestic life of Maurice and Monica. He is a photographer specializing in wedding pictures; she is a loving woman whose life becomes unbearable for herself and her husband every 28 days. Spall, whom you may remember as the proprietor of the doomed French restaurant in Leigh's “ Life Is Sweet ,” is a born conciliator, wanting to make everyone happy and usually failing.

The movie arrives at its magnificent conclusion at the family reunion, the barbecue where Cynthia brings Hortense and introduces her as a “friend from work.” Soon the family is trying to puzzle out why an eye doctor would be employed at a cardboard box factory. Leigh and his actors (who develop the characters and dialogue together, in collaboration) play this scene in one unbroken take, in which six characters eat, drink, talk, and stumble across secrets and lies.

I have admired the work of Mike Leigh ever since 1972, when his “ Bleak Moments ” premiered in the Chicago Film Festival. For many years he was an outcast from British cinema; it's hard to get financing when you don't have a script or even the idea for a film, but Leigh stubbornly persisted in his method of gathering actors and working with them to create the story. In the 1970s and 1980s, he worked mostly in London theater and for the BBC, and then came “ High Hopes ” (1988), “Life Is Sweet", “Secrets and Lies,” which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, is a flowering of his technique. It moves us on a human level, it keeps us guessing during scenes as unpredictable as life (the visit, for example, of the former owner of the photography studio), and it shows us how ordinary people have a chance of somehow coping with their problems, which are rather ordinary, too.

One intriguing aspect of the film is the way Leigh handles race: The daughter is black, the mother is white, the family has no idea Cynthia had another child, and yet race is not really on anybody's mind in this film. They think they have more important things to worry about, and they're right.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Secrets and Lies (1996)

Rated R for language

144 minutes

Timothy Spall as Maurice

Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Hortense

Brenda Blethyn as Cynthia

Phyllis Logan as Monica

Claire Rushbrook as Roxanne

Lee Ross as Paul

Elizabeth Berrington as Jane

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Secrets & Lies Reviews

Whether it be a contemporary or a period piece, Leigh once again provides a provocative portrait on a subject that can (dis)connect the family dynamics in any area.

Full Review | Mar 6, 2023

This is exactly the challenge taken up by Leigh: bring film back to its community calling and remember that, beyond the confusion of images and identities, there are... people with pasts, sufferings, things to say, families -- and we are all part of it.

Full Review | May 3, 2022

A benchmark for comedy dramas, this award-winning 1996 film is a bonafide masterpiece.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 4, 2022

Much of Secrets & Lies unfolds as if we're peeking around corners, watching Mike Leigh's characters struggle with personal, yet hidden, pain. Everyone in the film is hurting but unwilling to reach out to others in the family.

Full Review | Oct 12, 2021

a masterful dramedy about that wonderfully, terribly complex thing we call family

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 19, 2021

It's a beautifully performed British film which sensitively explores issues surrounding identity, race, roots and class.

Full Review | May 10, 2021

Secrets & Lies is a mesmerizing film, with the emotional stakes raised so high that each confrontation or revelation generates as much (or more) genuine suspense as anything found in Hollywood's latest thriller-of-the-week.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 3, 2021

There may not be a whole lot of plot to it, but what's there is emotionally engaging, and performed by a remarkable ensemble.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 29, 2021

Secrets and Lies is a beautifully constructed sentimental melodrama, with none of the rough edges that Mike Leigh has insisted on in the past.

Full Review | Nov 15, 2017

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 7, 2011

In the hands of another director, it would have been a sentimental melodrama, a soap opera, but with nuanced writing and sharp helming, Mike Leigh mixes humor and pathos in equal measure.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Mar 18, 2011

Much more than just a touching story of the ties that bind humanity and the way we reveal ourselves, "Secrets and Lies" (1996) is a staggering work of cinematic genius. It is truly a perfect film.

Full Review | Original Score: A+ | Sep 2, 2009

It's hard to argue against it being a sharply observant and deeply felt melodrama, one that is accessible, contemporary and frightingly realistic.

Full Review | Original Score: A | May 7, 2006

Leigh's script and direction pushes all the right emotional buttons without getting overly melodramatic.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 14, 2005

Leigh's film stops short of catharsis, providing the potential for the characters' rebuilding of their relationships without suggesting that such projects are simple or immediate.

Full Review | Mar 1, 2005

Secrets & Lies is littered with scenes that begin at a fever pitch before descending into a becalmed, meditative state.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 19, 2005

The characters are so painfully real it's more like watching a documentary than a made-up story.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 1, 2004

An English mother-daughter racial melodrama that resonates with simplicity and insight. Leigh is considerate of his movie's identity and spirit just as much as demonstrates this with his wounded protagonists

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 26, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 12, 2004

His characters look normal, act normal, chatter, and scream. And even when they choose not to speak, not to give away secrets, they're still heard.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 13, 2003

Secrets and Lies (United Kingdom/France, 1996)

By wedding comedy with tragedy in intricate, realistic unions, Mike Leigh has become one of the foremost film making voices for the British working class. Yet, even though his movies bring a certain social viewpoint to the screen, this in no way limits the universality of Leigh's themes. Secrets and Lies , 1996's Palme D'Or winner at Cannes, represents the director at his best -- unsentimental yet powerful, funny and poignant, and, in the end, undeniably satisfying.

The film will resonate with anyone who has ever hidden a secret or told a lie (that should cover everyone). This isn't overblown melodrama; rather, it's the kind of starkly believable tale that could happen to anyone. Nothing in Secrets and Lies demands even a momentary suspension of disbelief. In fact, the film works best for those who approach it as a reflection of life. We can all relate to the issues being raised -- simple truths like adoption, infertility, and mother/daughter friction.

Secrets and Lies opens with a funeral, then quickly switches to a wedding. During the former ceremony, Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a 27-year old black optometrist, is burying her mother. In the next scene, we meet Maurice (Timothy Spall), a 38-year old white photographer who's taking pictures of a nervous bride. It takes nearly the entire movie before these two characters come face-to-face, but that happens during that meeting represents the climax of Leigh's beautifully-realized film. Hortense and Maurice are crucial to unraveling the entire sequence of secrets and lies.

Hortense was adopted. She has known this since she was seven years old, but it's not until both of her parents are dead that she feels compelled to seek out her birth mother. Despite being warned by a social worker to anticipate unpleasantness or disappointment, Hortense is shocked to learn that her mother is white. Her name is Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), and she's a 42-year old neurotic living in a dark, gloomy rowhouse with her 21-year old daughter, Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook). Cynthia is disliked by just about everyone who knows her, except perhaps her brother, Maurice. Even Maurice's wife, Monica (Phyllis Logan), hates the idea of spending a day in Cynthia's company.

Secrets and Lies chronicles Hortense's initial approach to Cynthia, their first meeting, and the development of a tentative bond. Each offers something unique to the other: Cynthia has lost her "real" daughter's love and respect, and is desperate to find a surrogate -- who better than the grown-up child she once gave away? Hortense, on the other hand, feels rootless now that the two people who brought her up are dead, and, while she doesn't look to Cynthia for parenting, she is curious about, and, ultimately, sympathetic with the disappointments that have defined her biological mother's life. There are no recriminations, at least not on Hortense's part. Any guilt that Cynthia feels is entirely of her own creation.

Leigh develops the story slowly, introducing us to each character, and, through actions and dialogue, allowing us to learn about their lives. We are not force-fed facts and details. There are no flashbacks nor is there a voiceover narration. The film's almost-documentary quality is belied only by the care and thought put into each camera shot. From beginning to end, Secrets and Lies is exceptionally well thought-out.

Emotional impact is crucial to the movie's success. Leigh employs a number of single-camera, unedited shots to facilitate dramatic development by letting the depth of emotions play out on screen. (How many movies cut away when things get too heavy?) One such sequence is the first meeting between Hortense and Cynthia. It's an incredible scene, with these two sitting side-by-side in a restaurant booth, trying to reconcile the past with the present, and groping for words to express what they're feeling. This is all accomplished in one shot, with no cuts or edits. A similar approach is used for their third meeting, and during a cookout near the end.

Brenda Blethyn won the Cannes Best Actress award for her daring, emotionally naked portrayal of Cynthia, and, while she's excellent, it's hard to single out any individual in this ensemble cast. These actors aren't just good, they're superlative. Leigh has a history of getting the most out of his performers (look at David Thewlis in Naked ), and, if Secrets and Lies is anything to judge by, it's a well-deserved reputation. This is the kind of film that is made or broken by actors, and there's not a false note to be found in any of the performances.

With Secrets and Lies , Leigh has surpassed his considerable achievements in Life is Sweet and Naked . This film exhibits the kind of breathtaking power that can be unearthed in a simple story. There's no sensationalism -- Leigh has ignored stereotypes in carefully developing the situation (wealthy black professional; underprivileged, uneducated whites) to dispel racial tension. This allows the dysfunctional family dynamics to be the sole focus. Maurice sums up Leigh's most pressing theme when he laments, "Secrets and lies...We're all in pain! Why can't we share our pain?" What the director has accomplished with this picture is to fashion an amazingly-textured story that grips us with unexpected force on the first viewing, and is sure to reveal a new aspect each time we come back. Without a doubt, Secrets and Lies is worth more than one trip to the theater.

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Secrets & lies, common sense media reviewers.

British dysfunctional family dramedy has strong language.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

How sharing your emotions and opening up about dam

Photographer Maurice has deep affection for his dy

There is a good gender balance among the cast, whi

An adult daughter pushes her mother. A character d

A couple are seen kissing and stripping off on a b

Language used includes "f---ing," "arse," "bloody,

A chain of British movie theaters is clearly ident

Characters smoke cigarettes, especially when under

Positive Messages

How sharing your emotions and opening up about damaging secrets can improve your life and family relations. Showing courage to deal with difficult situations.

Positive Role Models

Photographer Maurice has deep affection for his dysfunctional family. He wants everyone to be happy and gets closer to achieving this when he learns the importance of sharing his emotions and being honest. When challenged, he stands up for himself. Cynthia is at first shown to be neurotic and self-centered. But when she expands her horizons, her happiness improves. She has overcome the challenges of bringing up her daughter alone and is shown to care about others. Hortense is an adopted woman of color who pursues her birth mother, only to find out she's a White woman. She is kind and characters praise her for her courage in meeting her new family.

Diverse Representations

There is a good gender balance among the cast, which includes characters of different ethnicities and race. A woman of color is a successful optometrist and is depicted with no weight to her race but with some matter of fact discussions of her family's culture. A White middle-class woman that is dismissing of a woman of color is clearly shown to be prejudice and in the wrong. People from a variety of social classes are all depicted as having their own problems and issues.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

An adult daughter pushes her mother. A character decides to look for their birth mother after the death of their adoptive parents.

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Sex, Romance & Nudity

A couple are seen kissing and stripping off on a bed. Sex is implied but no nudity or graphic behavior is shown. Sex is discussed including the use of contraception and "one-night stands."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language used includes "f---ing," "arse," "bloody," "balls," "bitch," "s--t," "bollocks," "bugger," and the British slang term "tosser."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

A chain of British movie theaters is clearly identifiable as is the logo of a well-known brand of beer.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters smoke cigarettes, especially when under stress, and drink on occasion.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Secrets & Lies is a BAFTA-winning, darkly comic British family drama with themes of adoption and grief, as well as some strong language. The acclaimed movie carries a positive message of sharing emotions and feelings among family. Almost all the main characters are kind at heart. While some are adrift emotionally, together they learn to improve their situations. The main story revolves around Hortense ( Marianne Jean-Baptiste ), an adopted woman of colour, finding out her birth mother -- played by Brenda Blethyn -- is White and attempting to form a relationship with her. The movie is a drama with comedic moments and features strong language, including "f--k," "s--t," "bollocks," and British slang such as "tosser." Cigarettes are a go-to for stress relief for some characters and others drink wine. There is some talk of sex and contraception, and in one scene a couple kiss and strip on a bed with the implication being they have sex. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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What's the Story?

In SECRETS & LIES, Hortense ( Marianne Jean-Baptiste ), an adopted woman of color, decides to seek out her birth mother. To her surprise, Hortense discovers her birth mother is a White woman with a complicated past and a dysfunctional family.

Is It Any Good?

A benchmark for comedy dramas, this award-winning 1996 film is a bonafide masterpiece. For Secrets & Lies , writer-director Mike Leigh took the 1960s British gritty kitchen sink drama and updated it with laughs and heart, the legacy of which can be seen in all good comedic dramas that followed. This slice of life movie is brimming with just that: life. Its characters are flawed, sometimes absurd, but utterly believable, with every cast member making the screen sizzle. The performances and direction are so good that small-scale set pieces, such as a suburban barbecue, become movie masterclasses.

Despite some difficult themes, including the loss of parents, its message is ultimately hopeful, with growth and warmth underpinning it all. Add to that a never better Brenda Blethyn as factory worker Cynthia, who is reunited with the daughter she gave up for adoption decades ago. The story is drip-fed by Leigh, with the audience having to wait for key revelations that explain behaviors, reactions, and relationships. This never feels unfair though. Instead we lean in, enjoy the company and cringe, laugh, cry, and love along the way.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the strong language used in Secrets & Lies . Did it seem necessary or excessive? Was it needed to make the story more realistic?

Which characters did you most sympathize with? Would you consider any of them role models ? How did Hortense demonstrate courage ? Why is that such an important character strength to have?

How did the movie portray adoption? Was it handled sensitively? Did it affect Cynthia's life or how Hortense felt about her when they met? Do you know anyone who was adopted, or perhaps you were adopted yourself? How did this portrayal compare?

Movie Details

In theaters : September 27, 1996
On DVD or streaming : February 1, 2005
Cast : Brenda Blethyn , Timothy Spall , Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Director : Mike Leigh
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors
Studio : October Films
Genre : Comedy
Character Strengths : Communication , Courage
Run time : 136 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : language
Award : BAFTA
Last updated : February 28, 2022

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Secrets And Lies Review

24 May 1996

140 minutes

Secrets And Lies

Many who saw Mike Leigh's last film, Naked, would have stumbled out into the street in shock. With this, Leigh returns to the familiar hearth of bittersweet suburban comedy, Life Is Sweet and Timothy Spall. The result is hilarious, as touching a film as any Leigh has made.

This is the story of people who were once connected by birth but are currently, for a variety of reasons, estranged. Maurice (Spall) is a decent, well-meaning portrait photographer who has worked hard to provide his fastidious wife Monica (Logan) with a large, comfortable home. For all their gadgets and accoutrements, they badly want children.

In their upward climb, they have neglected Maurice's older sister Cynthia (Blethyn), a dowdy, pinched-faced worrier who is stuck in her cluttered terraced house with an outrageously moody 21-year-old daughter Roxanne (newcomer Claire Rushbrook).

As Maurice and Monica choose from a scintillating range of pre-cooked freezer fare, Cynthia and Roxanne spend their evenings smoking fags and scowling bitterly at their fate.

Meanwhile, oblivious to them all, an adopted young black woman, Hortense (the brilliant Marianne Jean-Baptiste), is scouring London for her real mother - who, she learns to her shock, is white. The convergence of these five characters is gradual, beset by hitches, red herrings and more questions than answers.

The last-reel pathos of Life Is Sweet is present here from the start; the cringe-inducing social gatherings - a Leigh speciality - are worthy of his hands-over-eyes classic Bleak Moments. Belly-laughs are frequent, as are some terrific running gags (Spall's "relaxing" spiel to his customers; Roxanne's awesomely seedy boyfriend played to perfection by Lee Ross).

Flush with superb dialogue and interesting sub-plots, this uses every minute of its lengthy running time to surprise and to balance Blethyn's poignant, close-to-tears performance against those of the loveable Spall and the coolly troubled Logan. It is one of the most ambivalent and riveting comedy-dramas of recent times.

Movies | 05 09 2016

Secrets & Lies

Blu-ray edition reviewed by Chris Galloway
March 30 2021

See more details, packaging, or compare

Writer-director Mike Leigh reached new levels of expressive power and intricacy in his ongoing contemplation of unembellished humanity with this resonant exploration of the deceptions, small and large, that shape our relationships to those we love. When Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a Black optometrist who was adopted as a child, begins the search for her birth mother, she doesn’t expect that it will lead her to Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn, winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s best actress award), a desperately lonely white factory worker whose tentative embrace of her long-lost daughter sends shock waves through the rest of her already fragile family. Born from a painstaking process of rehearsal and improvisation with a powerhouse ensemble cast, Secrets & Lies is a Palme d’Or–winning tour de force of sustained tension and catharsis that lays bare the emotional fault lines running beneath the surface of everyday lives.

Picture 8/10

Mike Leigh’s Secrets & Lies gets a new Blu-ray edition from The Criterion Collection, presenting the film in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on a dual-layer disc. The 1080p/24hz high-definition encode is sourced from a new 2K restoration, which in turn comes from a scan of the 35mm original negative.

Though I can’t say anything sticks out about the presentation, good or bad, it is a lovely looking one in the end. The restoration has cleaned things up nicely, with no serious flaws popping up (nor minor ones for that matter) and details look sharp and clean. The film is encoded nicely, and grain is rendered cleanly. No digital artifacts of note pop up.

There is a warm, green-ish hue to the picture, though I didn’t find it overbearing in anyway; it’s there but doesn’t impact black levels and whites still have a white look . I can’t recall how the film looked on previous home video releases, but the look does suit the general mood of the film so I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it is indeed intentional. Whatever the case on that latter point, the image still looks clean with a sharp photographic look and I was more than pleased with it.

The disc includes a DTS-HD MA 2.0 surround soundtrack. The film is dialogue heavy, of which sticks to the fronts, and it sounds clear and sharp. Music only pops up during transitions (as I recall anyways), but it ends up filling out the environment nicely, and street effects and such are also spread out. It’s not an overly showy mix by any means, but it’s sharp, clean, clear, and effective.

Extras 7/10

Criterion throws in a few supplements for this release, and though it may not look like much the material does an incredible job digging into the film's making.

From the archives Criterion digs up a 1996 audio-interview between Leigh and film critic Michel Ciment . Running 88-minutes and playing over a still from the film, the two talk about the development of the film and its characters, Leigh even referencing a number of his other films for comparison ( Life is Sweet and Naked coming up most), while also touching on the research he puts into his work. He explains why he chose for the film to focus on the one family and not delve more into the Hortense’s family, goes over the reasoning behind subplots that aren’t directly related to the driving story, and even talks about why he was against the film’s title. It’s lengthy, and the audio can be hard to hear in spots, but it offers an incredibly extensive look into Leigh’s creative process.

Criterion then includes two new interview segments, both over Zoom, the first between Leigh and composer Gary Yershon , the second between actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste and film critic Corrina Antrobus . Both reflect on the making of the film, though from fairly different perspectives. Leigh touches on similar topics touched on in the Ciment interview, though expands on the research he did around the film and then the two additional storylines (the woman with the scar and the previous owner of the photography shop), explaining how the financiers wanted those subplots cut. Interestingly, they also wanted the scenes between Hortense and her friend cut, but Leigh fought hard to keep all of these sequences in. Both interviews also touch on the improvisations and rehearsals that helped to develop the characters and story (amusingly, Brenda Blethyn and Jean-Baptiste hadn’t met before improvising their first meeting), along with the film’s success, while Jean-Baptiste shares additional details around her character that didn’t make it into the film. Both are terrific reflections, running less than 30-minutes each.

The disc then closes with the film’s trailer and the included insert features an essay on the film, written by Ashley Clark, looking at in relation to Leigh’s other work and how it handles Hortense’s experience. It makes up for the lack of other academic material though an interview of some sort would have been beneficial.

Not stacked in the end (somewhat of a surprise considering its success) but the interviews delve deeply into everything that went into developing the story and characters.

The disc sports a nice-looking presentation while its features exhaustively covering the film’s development and Mike Leigh’s creative process.

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Film Reference
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Secrets and Lies - Film (Movie) Plot and Review

Secrets And Lies - Film (Movie) Plot and Review

Director: Mike Leigh

Production: Film Four (UK), CiBy 2000 (France), Thin Man Films; color (Metrocolor), 35mm; running time: 141 minutes. Released 23 April 1996 (Cannes Film Festival), 24 May 1996, United Kingdom. Filmed on location in London, England. Budget: $4.5 million (US).

Producer: Simon Channing-Williams; screenplay: Mike Leigh; photography: Dick Pope; editor: Jon Gregory; production design: Alison Chitty; original music: Andrew Dickson.

Cast: Timothy Spall ( Maurice Purley ); Brenda Blethyn ( Cynthia Rose Purley ); Phyllis Logan ( Monica Purley ); Marianne Jean-Baptiste ( Hortense Cumberbatch ); Claire Rushbrook ( Roxanne Purley ); Elizabeth Berrington ( Jane ); Michele Austin ( Dionne ); Lee Ross ( Paul ).

Awards: Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or (Mike Leigh) and Award for Best Actress (Brenda Blethyn), 1996; Cameraimage Golden Frog Award (Dick Pope), 1996; Los Angeles Film Critics' Association (LAFCA) Awards for Best Actress (Brenda Blethyn), Best Director (Mike Leigh), and Best Picture, 1996; Australian Film Institute Best Foreign Film Award (Simon Channing-Williams), 1997; British Academy Awards (BAFTA) Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film (Simon Channing-Williams), BAFTA Film Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Brenda Blethyn), and Best Screenplay—Original (Mike Leigh), 1997; Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture—Drama (Brenda Blethyn), 1997; Golden Satellite Award for Best Director of a Motion Picture (Mike Leigh), Best Motion Picture—Drama (Simon Channing-Williams), and Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture (Brenda Blethyn), 1997; Humanitas Prize (U.S.) in the Feature Film Category (Mike Leigh) 1997; Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film (Mike Leigh), 1997; London Critics' Circle ALFS Awards for British Actress of the Year (Brenda Blethyn), British Director of the Year (Mike Leigh), and British Film of the Year, 1996–97.

Publications

Leigh, Mike, Secrets and Lies , London, 1997.

Cavanagh, David, review in Empire (London), June 1996.

Jones, Alan, review in Film Review (London), June 1996.

Ansen, David, review in Newsweek (New York), 30 September 1996.

Corliss, Richard, "Family Values," in Time (New York), 30 September 1996.

Quart, Leonard, "Raising Questions and Positing Possibilities: an Interview with Mike Leigh," in Cineaste (New York), vol. 22, no. 4, 1997.

Best known for his bleak take on life in the suburbs, in Secrets and Lies Mike Leigh surprised many critics with a happy, perhaps rather sentimental ending. Besides its general point about our ability to hide our feelings even from those we love most, the film also confronts head-on an issue that remains pertinent in Britain; namely the extent to which British society is a multiethnic, multicultural one. It tells the story of Hortense, a young, black optometrist looking for her biological parents. To her surprise, her mother turns out to be a poorly educated white factory worker, living with her daughter from another relationship. Unmarried and pregnant at a young age, Cynthia was shamed into giving up her black baby at birth, and at first denies their relationship.

At their first meetings Brenda Blethyn (Cynthia) and Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Hortense) play the parts of damaged naif and young sophisticate with a rawness that has become a hallmark of Leigh's filmmaking. Constructing the script through extensive improvisation sessions with the cast, he manages to draw from his actors a level of commitment and realism in their roles that is seldom achieved by other directors. In the case of Secrets and Lies , the two female leads were kept apart until it was necessary to film their on-screen meeting, so that the first meeting of the characters was also the first meeting of the actors. Between them the two women produce the most extraordinary moments in the film, such as one awkward eight-minute scene, produced in a single take, in which the pair talk in a restaurant and the bond between them grows despite their different experiences of life.

Secrets and Lies , like Leigh's other films, champions people whose ambitions are simple and honest over those who pretend sophistication and social superiority. Leigh is well known for revealing in his films the dignity and extraordinary resilience of people whose lives seem mundane and uninteresting. Leigh's fascination with the difference between the way things are and the way they appear is embodied in Secrets and Lies in the professions of Cynthia's brother, Maurice, and her newly discovered daughter. As a professional portrait photographer, Maurice's skill with lenses involves creating illusions about his subjects. At one point, for example, he takes a photograph of a woman with a facial disfigurement, cleverly disguising her face to make her look conventionally beautiful. The art of illusion continues in his own life: Maurice and his unhappy, childless wife, Monica, live in a big house, hiding their misery behind expensive furnishings. In contrast, as an optometrist, Hortense is dedicated to improving the vision of her clients, enabling them to see the world more clearly. Through her relationship with Cynthia, Hortense helps the family to see the truth about themselves and each other.

—Chris Routledge

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“Secrets and Lies” (1996) Movie Review; Women in Film

Ever since Patricia Arquette gave her acceptance speech for Best Actress at the 2015 Academy Awards, calling for wage equality for women, it has been shaping up to be the Year of Women in film. Joss Whedon recently got caught (probably unfairly) in the crosshairs of the feminist debate, being accused of making Scarlett Johansson’s character, Black Widow, in The Avengers: Age of Ultron significant only in how she relates to a man. Mad Max: Fury Road, on the other hand, has been lauded for being a female-centric action film.

There has certainly been a push in recent film criticism for more films that explore the world from a woman’s point of view. As a young man with two brothers, this was not the sort of thing I cared about. But, now as a father of two daughters who challenge my thinking, this intrigues me. Are the movies my daughters watch giving them a picture of women who are fully human, and who have friendships with other women? Or are they only seeing women who exist in relationship to a male hero, or worse, are only important if they are beautiful or sexy? When I go back to the movies I grew up with, I realize just how many of them are centered on a male character and a male point of view. This may be because most directors (about 93%) and screenwriters are male, but also because box office demographics show that movies made for males 10-25 make the most money (and what studio doesn’t want to make money?). Just as I have to be honest in acknowledging that I have been slow to realize my white privilege, I also probably need to acknowledge that I have been slow to realize my male privilege in media, how most pop culture has been aimed at people just like me.

In 1986, Liz Wallace and Alison Bechdel unwittingly invented the ‘Bechdel Test.’ This test has three rules:

1. The movie has to have at least two women in it.

2. who talk to each other.

3. about something besides a man.

This doesn’t seem like such a hard test, but it is kind of shocking to realize how few movies can actually pass this test (half of the top-grossing films of 2013 fail the test). And, while the test is certainly limited, the good news is that the role of women in film is not an entirely new concern. In 1996, the British director Mike Leigh wrote and directed a film called Secrets and Lies that passes the Bechdel Test, with a ton of room to spare.

Secrets and Lies is about a successful woman named Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) who decides to search for her birth mother. Hortense, who is black, is surprised to find that her mother, Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), is not only white, but also lower class and a bit of a mess. The scene where they meet for the first time is a master class in acting, as we watch Cynthia go through a whole range of emotions in an 8 minute uncut scene. The two women must overcome their fears to get to know one another and to face friends and family with some uncomfortable truths.

One of the things that strikes me about Leigh’s film is that he doesn’t just flesh out the two main characters. He loves all of his characters. Timothy Spall and Phyllis Logan play Cynthia’s brother and sister-in-law and are sympathetic and well-drawn as two people in the midst of a tough marriage and family situation. Spall’s character, Maurice, is a photographer and is constantly observant and sympathetic towards other people, while Jean-Baptiste’s Hortense is an optometrist who, as a black professional and outsider to Cynthia’s family, must always be aware of how other people view her.

The rich characterization Leigh achieves in Secrets and Lies is not a fluke, as another one of his masterpieces, Another Year (2010), matches the level of character depth, making us understand and sympathize with all kinds of people (albeit all British). One of the criticisms of Leigh’s work is that his characters don’t do much, they talk and interact, but the plots of his films don’t evolve (possibly due to the way that he works, writing bare screenplays and having the actors rehearse for months to inhabit their characters and improvise their own dialogue). That criticism does not hold up for Secrets and Lies, a film that develops its themes and its characters. Its running time is a bit long, but would be a great film to show young women to expose them to fully-drawn women and to discuss family dynamics.

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Secrets & Lies

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

If you want to find a real auteur, track down Mike Leigh, shown above in an exultant moment after winning the Palm d’Or at Cannes for Secrets and Lies. Leigh is best known in his native England, where his character-driven plays, TV films and features (High Hopes, Life Is Sweet , Naked) won him an Order of the British Empire title, in 1993. In America, the shy, secretive Brit (he builds his scripts after months of private improvisation with actors) is admired mostly by cultists. Look for Secrets and Lies, which opened the New York Film Festival, to blow his cover.

Transcendent and moving, not to mention blisteringly funny, Secrets and Lies is something very special indeed. At first glance, Leigh’s most accessible and heartfelt film sounds like a soap opera: Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn) is a lonely, boozy, white-trash factory wage slave who takes a call from Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a stranger claiming to be the daughter Cynthia gave up at birth. They agree to meet at a cafe. Hortense, 27, is a dignified London optometrist. She is also black. Cynthia is unbelieving, ashamed. “It ain’t true, sweet’art,” she says, her cockney accent thick with panic as she launches into a crying jag that ends in a devastating realization of the truth.

Blethyn, who played Brad Pitt’s repressed mom in A River Runs Through It, inhabits this lovably disreputable character so totally that any qualms about reverse stereotyping soon fade. Her unerring performance ranks with the year’s finest. Blethyn took acting honors at Cannes and should be up for more prizes as the awards season heats up. She is an emotional whirlwind – brimming with bawdy humor, ready compassion and raw need.

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A high level of acting is a Leigh hallmark. Jean-Baptiste is a find. Her scenes with Blethyn cut to the bone as mother and daughter move from wariness to warmth. Conflict enters in the form of family. Cynthia has another daughter, Roxanne (Claire Rushbrook), a road sweeper who lives with her mother but rarely bothers to talk to her. Cynthia is also estranged from her younger brother, Maurice (Timothy Spall), a wedding photographer whose childless snob of a wife, Monica (Phyllis Logan), prefers to keep Cynthia at a distance. Spall, the eccentric restaurant owner in Leigh’s Life Is Sweet , gives a performance of amazing tenderness. Maurice loves and deeply misses his sister. He convinces his wife to allow a 21st-birthday party for Roxanne to be held in their new house. Cynthia, proud of her secret daughter, asks to bring Hortense along. Both agree to lie about Hortense’s identity – she’ll be introduced as a chum from the factory. The stage is set for a birthday party on a land mine.

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The writer and director handles the ensuing explosion of laughs, tears, rage and reconciliation with rare skill and immediacy. Leigh, a world-class filmmaker at the top of his form, has sometimes been accused of patronizing his working-stiff characters. But the pain of Maurice’s cry – “Why do the people I love most in the world hate each other’s guts?” – has a poignancy that hardly smacks of exploitation. At Cannes, Leigh said his award was “encouraging for those of us who are trying to make films about people, relationships, real life, love, passion, caring and all the things that matter.” Secrets and Lies matters.

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SECRETS AND LIES

What You Need To Know:

(B, H, LL, S, A, D, M) Biblical worldview promoting commitment & speaking the truth in love; 2 profanities & 10 obscenities; implied immorality involving couple on bed in undergarments & two occasions where condom use is discussed; alcohol use and abuse; smoking; and, woman on toilet applying a tampon and person vomiting into sink

More Detail:

SECRETS AND LIES tells the story of a young black woman named Hortance living on in London. Shortly after the death of her adoptive mother, she looks for her real mother and she finds a white, never married factory worker who lives with her daughter Roxanne. Her mother, Cynthia, at first refuses to recognize Hortance. Only Cynthia’s brother, Morris, knows of Hortance. However, Hortance, quickly befriends her mother. Simultaneously, brother Morris begins to feel guilty because he has neglected Cynthia. He has a very successful business and decides to invite his sister, Cynthia, and Roxanne over for Roxanne’s 21st birthday. Cynthia decides she will pass off Hortance as a co-worker from the factory. However, soon “the secret” gets out, resulting in emotional healing for the whole family.

The major theme of the movie states that all families have secrets and lies, and to persist in them does not get rid of them. When a biblical principal of speaking the truth is practiced, the result is wonderful. Not only does it talk about identity within a family, but it also addresses the question of race. Can we accept members of a different race into our own family? SECRET AND LIES suggests yes. Containing a few obscenities and some implied sexual immorality, it is a mostly moral look at commitment and speaking the truth in love.

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: Following the death of her adoptive parents, a successful young black optometrist establishes contact with her biological mother.

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Following the death of her adoptive parents, a successful young black optometrist establishes contact with her biological mother -- a lonely, white factory worker living in poverty in East London.

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Starring: Marianne Jean-Baptiste , Brenda Blethyn , Timothy Spall , Phyllis Logan , Dick Pope

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Slant Magazine Eric Henderson Secrets & Lies is littered with scenes that begin at a fever pitch before descending into a becalmed, meditative state.
Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Dennis Schwartz It's hard to argue against it being a sharply observant and deeply felt melodrama, one that is accessible, contemporary and frightingly realistic.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert It moves us on a human level, it keeps us guessing during scenes as unpredictable as life, and it shows us how ordinary people have a chance of somehow coping with their problems, which are rather ordinary, too.
USA Today Mike Clark Leigh's best work yet is indisputably screen art, but it's a flesh-and-blood 'people' movie, too.
EmanuelLevy.Com Emanuel Levy In the hands of another director, it would have been a sentimental melodrama, a soap opera, but with nuanced writing and sharp helming, Mike Leigh mixes humor and pathos in equal measure.
ColeSmithey.com Cole Smithey Much more than just a touching story of the ties that bind humanity and the way we reveal ourselves, "Secrets and Lies" (1996) is a staggering work of cinematic genius. It is truly a perfect film.
TheMovieReport.com Michael Dequina Leigh's script and direction pushes all the right emotional buttons without getting overly melodramatic.
Not Coming to a Theater Near You Leo Goldsmith Leigh's film stops short of catharsis, providing the potential for the characters' rebuilding of their relationships without suggesting that such projects are simple or immediate.
Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) Judith Egerton The characters are so painfully real it's more like watching a documentary than a made-up story.
Movie Eye Frank Ochieng An English mother-daughter racial melodrama that resonates with simplicity and insight. Leigh is considerate of his movie's identity and spirit just as much as demonstrates this with his wounded protagonists
Filmcritic.com Norm Schrager His characters look normal, act normal, chatter, and scream. And even when they choose not to speak, not to give away secrets, they're still heard.

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'Past Lies' Review: Hulu's female-led series is perfect recipe for a suspense thriller that leaves you wanting more

Contains spoilers for 'Past Lies'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Hulu's ' Past Lies ' serves as an excellent reminder that everyone has made mistakes throughout their formative years and these mistakes at one point in our lives will resurface and force us to confront them head-on, despite our best efforts to avoid them.

Based on an Elia Barceló book, the thriller drama series is co-helmed by Clara Roquet and Júlia de Paz Solvas. The series' premise focuses on a group of apparently accomplished women whose lives are upended by the discovery of the remains of a former classmate, the same student who inexplicably vanished on their end-of-year trip in 1998.

The discovery of the remains leads the women to confront their past, jeopardizing their friendships and confronting underlying emotions, and without any doubt it's safe to say that the six-episode series succeeds in delivering a thriller with a strong hint of mystery.

'Past Lies' touches upon themes of memories and secrets

'Past Lies' was shot in Altea (YouTube/@Disney+ España)

At its heart, 'Past Lies' explores the interconnected themes of memory, secrecy, and the complicated connection with the past. The intrigue of 'Past Lies' is triggered after the mortal remains of a girl are discovered in a Mallorcan cave, which forces Inspector Paula ( Irene Escolar ) to face her own past.

'Past Lies' investigates how the past influences the present, as well as how long-buried secrets may emerge with terrible consequences. The show also deftly explores the nuanced subject of female friendship in great detail. It depicts the way relationships change over time as a result of envy and betrayal.

Elena Anaya shines as Rita in 'Past Lies'

A Still from 'Past Lies' (YouTube/disney+espana)

It is genuinely remarkable to see a show of such grandeur being headed by an all-female ensemble. Because of their diverse acting abilities, each cast member tries their best to incorporate authenticity into the narrative through their performances.

Elena Anaya's portrayal of Rita, the acclaimed director who has separated herself from her past, exemplifies the difficulties of dealing with lost relationships and the repercussions of long-ago decisions.

Belén Cuesta also impresses as Teresa, who embraces the picture-perfect character of a wife and mother. Her portrayal expertly depicts the fears that lay under the surface of an apparently ideal existence.

Furthermore, Irene Escolar's portrayal of Paula, the investigator seeking to solve her sister's case, conveys an unshakeable sense of justice. Her portrayal is firm in seeking answers which adds depth to the narrative.

Clara Roquet and Júlia de Paz Solvas weave an intriguing narrative in 'Past Lies'

A riveting narrative is expertly woven by directors Clara Roquet and Júlia de Paz Solvas. The screenplay skillfully transitions between flashbacks to the tragic summer of 1998, which adds intrigue to the plotline. This non-linear narrative keeps the audience interested as they piece together the jigsaw of the past to comprehend the happenings of today.

All in all, despite your first assumption that 'Past Lies' must be an adaptation of ' Big Little Lies ,' the series digs deeper into the long-lasting strength of female friendships and the psychological effects of unresolved tragedy.

'Past Lies' successfully transports viewers into a world of mystery, suspense, and emotional depth, and it should without a doubt be on your watch list.

'Past Lies' trailer

What is Ashley Madison? How to watch the new Netflix doc 'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal'

Almost a decade has passed since the infamous Ashley Madison scandal that exposed the names and accounts of thousands of affair-seekers ; yet, interest in the whole lurid affair remains, according to Netflix.

The streaming service is set to release a new docuseries about the cheating website's 2015 data breach, which revealed the information of over 30 million users, and the aftermath this week called "Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal."

It is the second such documentary to have been released in the last year, following behind Hulu's July 2023 docuseries titled "The Ashley Madison Affair," which focused more on the website's founding , rise to popularity, downfall and eventual return.

While the 2015 leak brought disrepute to some prominent figures, including celebs and politicians, and led to the CEO's resignation, the site featuring the tagline "Life is short. Have an affair," continues to operate to this day. According to claims made in the Hulu doc, the service had 75 million members worldwide as of 2021.

The name Ashley Madison ringing a bell but you can't quite remember the juicy details? Wonder what all the hubbub was about in the first place? Here's what to know about the new Netflix doc, Ashley Madison and the scandal.

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A disastrous hack, CEO's scandal: Revelations from 'The Ashley Madison Affair' Hulu docuseries

What is 'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies and & Scandal' about?

The new, three-part Netflix documentary series on Ashley Madison will be released exclusively to the streaming platform on May 15.

In the official Netflix summary, "Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal" is described as focusing on the 2015 data breach and its repercussions.

"When a dating site for people seeking adulterous affairs is hacked, millions of users' intimate data is exposed, wrecking marriages and destroying lives ," says the series' descriptor line.

In a blog shared by Netflix , the themes of the doc are described with a bit more detail:

...chronicles the rise, fall, and rebirth of a website that has had a profound effect on countless couples and families. Featuring interviews with former employees and clients, the documentary series presents an unflinching look at what happens when millions of secrets are exposed at once, told through the eyes of a group of people who experienced it firsthand — and many of them offer some surprising perspective."

The docuseries was produced by Minnow Films and is directed by Toby Paton, produced by Chris McLaughlin, and executive produced by Fiona Caldwell and Sophie Jones.

How to watch 'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal' docuseries

"Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal" is a Netflix exclusive set to premiere on Wednesday, May 15. The limited series will feature three 50-minute episodes.

Netflix offers three membership options ranging from $6.99 a month to $22.99 a month. New users can also sign up for a free trial.

Watch the 'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal' trailer

What is ashley madison.

Launched in 2001, Ashley Madison was something of a dating website aimed at people looking to have extramarital affairs. Meant to be a discreet platform for connecting married people hoping to step out, the model entailed male members paying for credits needed to message female members, who signed up for free.

CEO Noel Biderman was open about the website being a place for facilitating adultery and happily used shock campaigns to promote it, like an ad with a photo of Hillary Clinton accompanied by text saying “New adventures. Start with ... AshleyMadison.com"

Biderman worked on these campaigns with his wife but was later exposed as being unfaithful via an email hack. He resigned as CEO in August 2015 following the infamous Ashley Madison data leak.

What was the infamous Ashley Madison data breach?

In the summer of 2015, a hacker group calling themselves "The Impact Team" gained access to Ashley Madison's data and leaked stolen files containing the personal information of up to 37 million people.

In July, the hackers contacted Ashley Madison staff members with threats of releasing stolen user data if the website did not shut down and cease operations immediately. The personal information and names of 2,500 users were initially released to prove the validity of the threat, but the company denied that their website had security issues and refused to concede to the demands.

The hacking group made good on those threats a month later on August 18, publicly releasing more than 60 gigabytes of company data including user details. Some exposed users had previously paid the company to delete their personal information, but the leak exposed its failure to do so.

Ashley Madison celebrity list from 2015 breach

The catalog of exposed accounts was long - so long, in fact, that it was turned into a searchable list. Celebrities, influencers, politicians and other notable names were on the list mixed in with normal people.

Some, like the oldest Duggar child Josh Duggar, became associated with the leak and saw hits to their reputations. Duggar has since been arrested and sentenced to 12 1/2 years in jail for possessing child pornography , which was discovered after he did a stint in rehab following the Ashley Madison revelations.

Josh Duggar - A now infamous member of the ultra-conservative Christian Duggar family, best known for their TLC television show "19 Kids and Counting."
Hunter Biden - President Joe Biden's son was one of multiple politically connected people who were accused of (and denied) having an account
Sam Rader - A Christian family influencer known from the Sam and Nia YouTube channel that was popular in 2015.
Jionni LaValle - Husband of Nicole Polizzi, aka Snooki from "Jersey Shore." Both denied that he cheated.
Josh Taekman - A former Real Housewives of New York star who was married to Kristin Taekman.
Jeff Ashton - Is a former Florida State Attorney and was known as the lead prosecutor in the Casey Anthony case.
Jason Dorée - Was an executive director of the Republican Party of Louisiana at the time. According to Wired , 15,000 .gov or .mil email addresses were found in the leak. All of the American politicians implicated, including Dorée, denied any involvement with the site.
Michelle Thomson - The then-MP for Edinburgh West was one of multiple international government officials found on the site. She claimed someone had signed up using an old email without her knowledge.

How to watch "The Ashley Madison Affair"

While Netflix's series on the infamous website is new, Hulu put one out last summer called "The Ashley Madison Affair."

The three-part docuseries focuses on the origins and growth of the website and the narrative of unapologetic CEO Noel Biderman.

"The Ashley Madison Affair" is available for streaming on Hulu with a standard account.

Contributing: Erin Jensen , Aberdeen News

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Secrets & Spies: A Nuclear Game

Showcases the inner details of Cold War operatives in the 80s, tracking the spies that operated behind the scenes in the Reagan Era. Showcases the inner details of Cold War operatives in the 80s, tracking the spies that operated behind the scenes in the Reagan Era. Showcases the inner details of Cold War operatives in the 80s, tracking the spies that operated behind the scenes in the Reagan Era.

Oleg Gordievsky
Aldrich Ames
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The Second Act – first-look review

The opening film of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival offers a limp metafictional critique of the modern film industry.

T here’s much more smug sanctimony than there is innovation or genuinely novel humour in Quentin Dupieux’ dashed-off doodle, The Second Act, which is a film that wants to have its metafictional cake and eat it (insomuch as a film can do such things). French acting royalty – Léa Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and lesser-known Raphaël Quenard – round up, presumably for a bit of a weekend lark, but also to indulge in some lacerating self-criticism and essay the apocalyptic, artistically-bankrupt future of the global filmmaking industry.

Which would be all well and good if Dupieux weren’t so quick to lean on tired tabloid talking points, wacky pop culture references and “cancel culture” as easy-option punchlines, making the film come across like a particularly egregious (albeit self-aware) Netflix comedy special. There’s a deeply uncomfortable and unfunny transphobic tirade within the opening ten minutes which is placed in quotes marks in an attempt to diffuse its apparent viciousness, but you’re left with the sense that Dupieux wants to give something to both the haters and the liberals who would be offended by such a script choice. It’s a hackneyed jab at a brigade of politically correct types who don’t actually exist, and so falls completely flat.

The film is then built around four, pillar-like tracking shots in which two members of the cast engage in what feels like an improvised conversation. Each plays an actor who is playing a part in a strange, bifurcated narrative – later on we learn why the film looks and feels like it does when its writer/director/producer is finally revealed. The joke is that they hate the experience of making this “film”, and they constantly smash down the fourth wall to offer their real feelings on what they believe to be a denigrating and cheap profession.

If there’s anything to be salvaged from the film it’s the actors, who are all on side with the director and savvy with his tricksy MO. Lindon, usually so serious and intense, allows his freak flag to fly, and Louis Garrel fires off some very funny little gestures between line-readings. Quenard is strong, but is saddled with most of the contentious material, while Seydoux has to push back against the ritual humiliations that come with her role.

Maybe from reading this you’re getting a sense of what this film is and what it’s doing, but to intricately describe all of its self-aware nesting layers would be tiresome in the extreme. Godard did this in Le Mepris over 60 years ago, and there have been many variations on the material since (many made by Dupieux!), and this one fronts like its barbs are box fresh, and they very much ain’t. But designer cynicism can only get you so far, and even at a curt 75 minutes, this one feels like an hour too long.

Published 14 May 2024

Tags: Cannes French Cinema Léa Seydoux Louis Garrel Quentin Dupieux Vincent Lindon

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About Little White Lies

Little White Lies was established in 2005 as a bi-monthly print magazine committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them. Combining cutting-edge design, illustration and journalism, we’ve been described as being “at the vanguard of the independent publishing movement.” Our reviews feature a unique tripartite ranking system that captures the different aspects of the movie-going experience. We believe in Truth & Movies.

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Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian leaning against a pick-up.

Love Lies Bleeding review – Kristen Stewart keeps it real in deliciously lurid outlaw romance

Rose Glass’s follow-up to her acclaimed Saint Maud is a scorchingly sexy, darkly violent tale of a gym manager’s love affair with a bodybuilder

T his may seem an unexpected point to make about an actor who is arguably one of the coolest people on the planet, but the key to Kristen Stewart ’s mesmerising screen presence is her ordinariness. I don’t mean her looks, although as Lou, the manager of a bodybuilding gym in an insalubrious New Mexico backwater, Stewart’s natural magnetism is somewhat muted behind a whey powder pallor, an air of defeated weariness and hair that looks as if it’s been deep-fried rather than washed.

Rather, it’s the unstudied, naturalistic quality of her performances, which are seeded with little glitchy details and gestures – the way she rakes her fingers through her fringe; the moment when she nervously wipes her nose on the sleeve of her T-shirt. Small things, perhaps, but these seemingly unconscious tics humanise her characters. They are recognisable, relatable moments of social awkwardness that anchor her in (or at least near) the real world. It’s a quality that adds to all her performances, but which is particularly invaluable in British director Rose Glass’s second picture, the deliciously lurid and thrillingly degenerate outlaw romance Love Lies Bleeding . When the rest of the movie launches itself headlong into outlandish, almost cartoonish excess, Lou is plausibly three-dimensional and grounded. The rooted realism that underpins Stewart’s performance offers a necessary balance to some of the more untrammelled impulses in Glass’s follow-up to her impressive debut feature, Saint Maud (2020).

Another significant asset is newcomer Katy O’Brian, who shoulders what is probably the most demanding role in the film. Jackie is a bodybuilder from the kind of Godfearing midwestern farming country that views a “muscle chick” as an unnatural abomination. Blowing into Lou’s grim home town, more a collection of strip malls and casual violence than a functioning community, Jackie decides to hole up for a while and earn some money while she prepares for a bodybuilding competition in Las Vegas.

She is a magnificent creature, glistening with confidence and physical assurance. It’s no wonder that Lou gawps across the gym, mouth agape, when she catches sight of Jackie, with her dark honey tan and a swarm of men preening around her. Eager to impress the new arrival later that evening, Lou scurries off into the office to fetch a box of steroid shots; she lays them in front of Jackie like an offering to a deity. The relationship that ignites between them is sweaty, grubby and scorching hot, but as the steroids do their work, warping and distorting Jackie’s body and her mind, a savage, self-destructive, simmering violence creeps into their romance.

And this is where Lou’s sister Beth (Jena Malone) and her husband, JJ (Dave Franco), come in. At first glance the pair seem to be woefully underwritten, schematic cardboard cutouts rather than layered characters. She’s the battered wife; he’s the short-fused bully who takes out his inadequacy on his spouse. Concern for Beth’s safety is why Lou can’t bring herself to leave this spiteful small town, despite numerous reasons to do so (first of these being her gun-toting estranged father, played with reptilian menace by Ed Harris). But I suspect that Glass intends Beth and JJ to be more than just the dramatic device that unleashes the film’s dark heart and violent impulses. They also serve as a kind of twisted mirror image of Lou and Jackie’s amour fou and a cautionary warning that any relationship this thoroughly soaked in blood can’t, ultimately, end well, however invincible the partnership and the passion that drives it might seem at the time.

And there’s a whole lot of blood, in a movie that embraces full-bore nastiness on every level. With the lip-smacking relish that she brings to the body-horror elements of the picture, and the sickening, sinewy crunches in the sound design, Glass ranks alongside the French director of Titane , Julia Ducournau , as one of the most exciting film-makers working in genre cinema. Both she and Ducournau share a heady, freewheeling independence in their approach and a healthy resistance to genre conventions. Both combine an appetite for gruesome excess with an impressive intellectual rigour.

Love Lies Bleeding won’t be for everyone. I’ve watched it twice, and it plays rather better to an up-for-it, late-night audience than it does at 11am on a Sunday morning. But this is a movie that will find its people. And once it does, cult status is more or less assured.

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1. Ethan continues to face a backlash

charles anderson, ethan anderson, emmerdale

Nicky's family receive disappointing news as the doctors confirm that he can't be brought out of his coma yet.

Cain, Caleb and Ruby are all furious when they see Ethan in the village as he remains on bail. All three appear murderous as they consider their next moves.

2. Ethan is seriously injured

On the outskirts of the village, Ethan is left bloodied and bruised as he's targeted in a deliberate hit and run. He interrupts the community event by making his way back to Main Street, where he collapses.

Once Ethan regains consciousness, he claims that he didn't see his attacker. The three main suspects – Cain, Caleb and Ruby – all seem suspicious as they watch the chaos unfold from a distance.

3. Tom lies about Belle

Tom agrees to get help for his violence and anger issues, as Belle is threatening to leave him. However, during his doctors appointment with Liam, he falsely insinuates that Belle is the angry and abusive one in their marriage.

Once Tom returns home, he lies to Belle by claiming that he made positive progress in his appointment with Liam.

4. Tom isolates Belle further

The Dingles prepare to mark the anniversary of Lisa's death with a memory picnic, but Tom doesn't want Belle to attend. He engineers a situation whereby Belle needs to wait home for a parcel while he's at work.

Tom faces his performance review at the vets surgery and reacts badly when he realises that Vanessa and Rhona are going to share some criticism. By the end of his appraisal, Tom is in a foul mood.

5. Belle and Tom clash publicly

Tom flies into a fury when he finds out that Belle didn't wait home for the parcel. He berates her for ruining the day and makes some nasty comments about her late mother.

At breaking point following Tom's months of abuse, Belle pushes Tom over in the village. Rhona, Vanessa and Marlon watch the row unfold and rush over to help Tom. Will this strengthen the false narrative that Tom is developing over Belle's behaviour?

6. Ella's secrets start to be revealed

Ella is embarrassed when Manpreet finds her sleeping in her car. She begs Manpreet not to tell Liam about her living arrangements, but Manpreet later spills the secret. Liam immediately steps in to help by suggesting that Ella should move into the spare room at his place.

Ella's strange behaviour continues as she snaps at Mandy, then later refuses to let the photographer take her picture during the village fete.

7. Liam receives a warning over Ella

Mandy suggests that Liam should make sure Ella has no skeletons in the closet before their relationship develops further. Liam starts asking Ella questions, but this clearly rattles her and she rushes off.

Later, Ella visits a care home. Who is she going to see?

8. Mack and Charity face an embarrassing moment

charity dingle, mackenzie boyd, emmerdale

Chaos unfolds when Minty the lamb goes missing, just as Mack and Charity find a way to put the spark back into their relationship.

Mack and Charity enjoy a passionate encounter in a barn, but they're interrupted by the search for Minty and the newspaper photographer who's taking pictures of the village fete.

9. Rhona and Marlon attend counselling

Rhona and Marlon are determined to save their fractured marriage and they attend their first counselling session.

Sadly, the meeting doesn't go well, creating further doubt over their future as a couple.

10. Billy and Dawn reach breaking point

dawn fletcher, billy fletcher, emmerdale

Billy struggles to manage his pre-existing commitments with the new challenges of Evan's illness. Dawn also finds the family's ordeal difficult and starts to blame her past mistakes for Evan's condition.

Billy breaks down at the hospital, fearful that he's not doing enough for Dawn and the family.

Will notices the couple struggling and encourages Dawn to make amends with Billy.

Emmerdale airs on weeknights at 7.30pm on ITV1, and streams on ITVX .

Read more Emmerdale spoilers on our dedicated homepage

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Secrets and Lies movie review (1996)
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COMMENTS

Secrets and Lies movie review (1996)
Every camera setup, every closeup, the size and timing of every closeup, the editing of the whole, works to unfold the scene powerfully. Material enough for a season of soap opera is handled in several minutes and never seems forced or arbitrary. The tricky thing with many Leigh films is to process the comedy.
Secrets & Lies
After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a successful black eye doctor, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to a lower-class white woman ...
Secrets and Lies movie review (1996)
Secrets & Lies. Moment after moment, scene after scene, "Secrets & Lies" unfolds with the fascination of eavesdropping. We are waiting to see what these people will do next, caught up in the fear and the hope that they will bring the whole fragile network of their lives crashing down in ruin. When they prevail--when common sense and good ...
Secrets & Lies (1996)
8/10. a woman's secret causes family problems to rise to the surface. blanche-2 10 September 2013. Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Timothy Spall, Phyllis Logan, and Claire Rushbrook star in "Secrets & Lies," a 1996 film written and directed by Mike Leigh.
Secrets & Lies (film)
Secrets & Lies is a 1996 drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh.Led by an ensemble cast consisting of many Leigh regulars, it stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Hortense, a well-educated black middle-class London optometrist, who was adopted as a baby and has chosen to trace her family history - and discovers that her birth mother, Cynthia, played by Brenda Blethyn, is a working-class ...
Secrets & Lies
Secrets & Lies is my favorite film from a terrific director in Mike Leigh. It's about intricate and rocky relationships evolving around a family, and at it's heart a woman finding her real mother becoming introduced into this family. It's not just another "searching for birth parent" film, but one of real emotion and complexity.
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Secrets & Lies: Directed by Mike Leigh. With Timothy Spall, Phyllis Logan, Brenda Blethyn, Claire Rushbrook. Following the death of her adoptive parents, a successful young black optometrist establishes contact with her biological mother -- a lonely white factory worker living in poverty in East London.
Secrets & Lies
Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Mar 4, 2022. Much of Secrets & Lies unfolds as if we're peeking around corners, watching Mike Leigh's characters struggle with personal, yet hidden, pain ...
Secrets and Lies
Secrets & Lies is the first Leigh film in which all the performances absolutely gel with the world portrayed, from the leads down to a multiplicity of bit parts, sometimes lasting only a few ...
Secrets and Lies
A movie review by James Berardinelli. By wedding comedy with tragedy in intricate, realistic unions, Mike Leigh has become one of the foremost film making voices for the British working class. ... Secrets and Lies, 1996's Palme D'Or winner at Cannes, represents the director at his best -- unsentimental yet powerful, funny and poignant, and, in ...
Secrets & Lies Movie Review
Kids say: Not yet rated Rate movie. A benchmark for comedy dramas, this award-winning 1996 film is a bonafide masterpiece. For Secrets & Lies, writer-director Mike Leigh took the 1960s British gritty kitchen sink drama and updated it with laughs and heart, the legacy of which can be seen in all good comedic dramas that followed.
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Secrets & Lies. An expert observer of unembellished humanity, writer-director Mike Leigh reached new levels of expressive power and intricacy with this exploration of the deceptions, small and large, that shape our relationships. When Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a Black optometrist who was adopted as a child, begins the search for her ...
Secrets & Lies: Seen and Not Seen
In Another Year (2010), Leigh produces crackling tension simply from the quiet juxtaposition of a happy, ever-so-slightly smug middle-aged couple with their wayward, alcohol-dependent single friend. Leigh's midcareer masterpiece, Secrets & Lies (1996), is one of the finest examples of his ability to construct riveting drama from ordinary life.
Secrets And Lies Review
15. Original Title: Secrets And Lies. Many who saw Mike Leigh's last film, Naked, would have stumbled out into the street in shock. With this, Leigh returns to the familiar hearth of bittersweet ...
Secrets & Lies Review :: Criterion Forum
Picture 8/10. Mike Leigh's Secrets & Lies gets a new Blu-ray edition from The Criterion Collection, presenting the film in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on a dual-layer disc. The 1080p/24hz high-definition encode is sourced from a new 2K restoration, which in turn comes from a scan of the 35mm original negative.
Secrets and Lies
Secrets and Lies , like Leigh's other films, champions people whose ambitions are simple and honest over those who pretend sophistication and social superiority. Leigh is well known for revealing in his films the dignity and extraordinary resilience of people whose lives seem mundane and uninteresting.
"Secrets and Lies" (1996) Movie Review; Women in Film
In 1996, the British director Mike Leigh wrote and directed a film called Secrets and Lies that passes the Bechdel Test, with a ton of room to spare. Secrets and Lies is about a successful woman ...
Secrets and Lies (1996)
Check out our review for Number 94 on the TIMEOUT Top 100 Movies of all time - Secrets and Lies (1996).Following the death of her adoptive parents, a success...
Secrets & Lies
Maurice loves and deeply misses his sister. He convinces his wife to allow a 21st-birthday party for Roxanne to be held in their new house. Cynthia, proud of her secret daughter, asks to bring ...
SECRETS AND LIES
SECRETS AND LIES tells the story of a young black woman named Hortance living on in London. Shortly after the death of her adoptive mother, she looks for her real mother and she finds a white, never married factory worker who lives with her daughter Roxanne. Her mother, Cynthia, at first refuses to recognize Hortance.
Secrets and Lies (TV Series 2015-2016)
Secrets and Lies: Created by Barbie Kligman. With Juliette Lewis, Ryan Phillippe, KaDee Strickland, Jordana Brewster. Each series, a detective focuses on the prime suspect in a murder case; but everyone has something to hide.
Watch Secrets & Lies
Watch Secrets & Lies and more new movie premieres on Max. Plans start at $9.99/month. Following the death of her adoptive parents, a successful young black optometrist establishes contact with her biological mother -- a lonely, white factory worker living in poverty in East London.
Watch Secrets & Lies (1996) Full Movie Online
Cynthia lives in London with her sullen street-sweeper daughter. Her brother has been successful with his photographer's business and now lives nearby in a more upmarket house. But Cynthia hasn't even been invited round there after a year. So, all round, she feels rather lonely and isolated. Meanwhile, in another part of town, Hortense, adopted at birth but now grown up, starts to try and ...
'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal' review: Life is short, but this
Less than a year after Hulu's Ashley Madison documentary, Netflix settles for seconds with "Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal," a three-part British production that has the advantage of ...
'Past Lies' Review: Hulu's female-led series is perfect recipe for a
Contains spoilers for 'Past Lies' LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Hulu's 'Past Lies' serves as an excellent reminder that everyone has made mistakes throughout their formative years and these mistakes at one point in our lives will resurface and force us to confront them head-on, despite our best efforts to avoid them. Based on an Elia Barceló book, the thriller drama series is co-helmed by Clara ...
'Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal': Affairs site gets Netflix doc
"Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal" is a Netflix exclusive set to premiere on Wednesday, May 15. The limited series will feature three 50-minute episodes. The limited series will feature three ...
Secrets & Spies: A Nuclear Game (TV Series 2024- )
Secrets & Spies: A Nuclear Game: With Oleg Gordievsky, Aldrich Ames. Showcases the inner details of Cold War operatives in the 80s, tracking the spies that operated behind the scenes in the Reagan Era.
The Second Act
About Little White Lies. Little White Lies was established in 2005 as a bi-monthly print magazine committed to championing great movies and the talented people who make them. Combining cutting-edge design, illustration and journalism, we've been described as being "at the vanguard of the independent publishing movement."
Love Lies Bleeding review
Love Lies Bleeding won't be for everyone. I've watched it twice, and it plays rather better to an up-for-it, late-night audience than it does at 11am on a Sunday morning.
Emmerdale spoilers (May 20 to 24)
Next week on Emmerdale, there's a mysterious hit and run in the soap's milestone 10,000 th episode. Elsewhere, Belle is pushed to breaking point by Tom, and Ella's secrets start to unravel. Here's ...

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