Secrets & Lies (DVD)

When a British film perspires social comment and sneezes the nasal residue of class culture, then we all know there can be only one man behind the script and the camera. *The Film. With the death of her adopted mother and the squabblings of her siblings in the funeral's wake, Hortense decides to go in search of her birth mother. In a five bedroomed Barrat home with knobs on and a toilet suite in every corner (along with Venetian blinds in matching pastel shades), live Maurice and Monica. She, a busy and anally retentive housewife; he, a robust and stalwart photographer, who maybe looks too far down his own lens. Cynthia lives with ...  Read the complete review

As the end of Secrets & Lies arrives, Cynthia speaks the words 'This is the life ain't it'. They sum up exactly what I feel for this exquisite, near-perfect, gem of a movie. I know for a fact that in my family there have been a number of secrets and lies told between family members. And I know for a fact that in the majority of families there are secrets and lies, which when briefly explained might seem trivial to an outsider - but when looked at in minute detail are fundamentally important to the development of people's lives. In Mike Leigh's 'Secrets And Lies', the viewer is thrown into the life of one family and is given that minute detail ...  Read the complete review

'Secrets and Lies', written by Mike Leigh, was one of the most critically successful and original films of the 1990's. In an era of special effects, big budgets and good-looking-but-can't-act-for-toffee 'stars', 'Secrets...' was a breath of fresh air in cinema-land when it was released in 1996. The film itself was co-written by the cast, and relies heavily upon improvisation. It aso includes a number of scenes where the camera is fixed in one place for large periods of time, giving the viewer a 'fly on the wall' type experience. This also gives a film a degree of edginess, and absorbs the audience more closely into the ...  Read the complete review

What is it about Mike Leigh's films that are so special? Is it the wryly observed ideas in his scripts, or perhaps lack of them? He is reknowned for making the actors ad lib and feel their way through the parts rather than giving them structured formats to work to. "Secrets & Lies" is an excellent example of what a Mike Leigh film is usually about. Family tensions. Recriminations. Barely concealed antagonisms. Simmering threats. Mix all that in with identifyable characters and familiar situations and you have compelling drama that seems very real. The story is based around the lives of a sister and brother. She (Brenda Blethyn) is a single ...  Read the complete review

MAIN CAST: CYNTHIA (Brenda Blethyn) HORTENSE (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) MAURICE (Timothy Spall) ROXANNE (Claire Rushbrook) MONICA (Phyllis Logan) JANE (Elizabeth Berrington) SOCIAL WORKER: (Lesley Manville) DEVISED & DIRECTED BY MIKE LEIGH PRODUCED BY SIMON CHANNING-WILLIAMS MUSIC BY ANDREW DICKSON RELEASED: MAY 1996 RUNNING TIME: 142 minutes ============================================= When Mike Leigh's 'Secrets & Lies' was first released on video, I just had to dash out and buy it, being (as some of you may have gathered) an ardent fan of his ...  Read the complete review