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 white woman with a dysfunctional family. Claire Rushbrook co-stars as Cynthia's other daughter Roxanne, while Timothy Spall and Phyllis Logan portray Cynthia's brother and sister-in-law, who have secrets of their own affecting their everyday family life.[3]
Hortense Cumberbatch, a blackoptometrist in London, embarks on a journey to trace her family history following the death of her adoptive mother. Despite warnings about potential challenges, she discovers her birth mother is Cynthia Purley, a white woman working in a cardboard box factory in East London. Cynthia lives with her daughter Roxanne, a street sweeper, and tensions arise in their strained relationship. Cynthia's brother Maurice, a successful photographer, lives in the suburbs with his wife Monica, who struggles with depression over her inability to have children.
Cynthia and Monica share a mutual dislike, with Monica viewing Cynthia as self-pitying and hysterical, while Cynthia sees Monica as greedy and snobbish. Maurice, caught in the middle, rarely visits Cynthia and Roxanne. However, they all anticipate celebrating Roxanne's 21st birthday. Maurice's surprise visit to Cynthia prompts an emotional breakdown, and he gives her money for house repairs, expressing a desire to host a barbecue for Roxanne's birthday.
Roxanne, unknown to Cynthia, has a boyfriend named Paul, leading to a heated argument between mother and daughter. Hortense, determined to connect with her birth mother, contacts Cynthia and eventually persuades her to meet. In a face-to-face meeting, Cynthia, unprepared for Hortense's race, denies her identity until confronted with birth documents. Cynthia, overwhelmed with shame, slowly accepts the truth, and the two begin bonding.
As Cynthia and Hortense develop a friendship, Roxanne notices her mother's newfound secrecy. Cynthia, planning to bring Hortense to Roxanne's birthday party, asks Maurice if she can bring a colleague from work. Despite reservations, Hortense agrees to attend and pose as Cynthia's friend. The party becomes tense, with passive-aggressive exchanges between Cynthia, Monica, and other guests.
In a moment of nervousness, Cynthia reveals to Roxanne that Hortense is her daughter, leading to disbelief and anger. Maurice intervenes, convincing Roxanne to listen, while Cynthia and Monica quarrel. Cynthia, berating Monica, reveals Roxanne's father was an American medical student who disappeared after a vacation encounter. Maurice defends Monica, disclosing her infertility, and urges everyone to share their pain rather than harbour resentments.
Monica breaks down, Cynthia comforts her, and the two women reconcile with a hug. Cynthia then shares Roxanne's father's disappearance, and when asked about Hortense's father, she cryptically replies, "Don't break my heart, darling." After the storm calms, Hortense visits Cynthia and Roxanne, expressing her desire for a sister. Roxanne, despite the complexities, welcomes Hortense as her half-sister.
Principal photography began on 29 May 1995 and completed on 12 August 1995.
Development
Leigh was inspired by "people close to [him] who have had adoption-related experiences" to make a film about adoption.[4] Speaking on the subject, he stated: "I wanted for years to make a film which explored this predicament in a fictitious way. I also wanted to make a film about the new generation of young black people who are moving on and getting away from the ghetto stereotypes. And these were jumping off points for a film which turns out to be an exploration of roots and identity."[4]
Secrets and Lies was partly filmed in Whitehouse Way, Southgate, London. As in all of Leigh's films, the performances were created through months of intensive improvisation: Leigh and the individual actors created the characters at length. The emotional scene in the cafe, in which Cynthia realises that she is indeed Hortense's mother, was filmed in a single uninterrupted take of just over seven minutes. It had been a common misunderstanding that Brenda Blethyn was not told before filming that Hortense was black, making her reaction in the scene more authentic. In a supplement on the Criterion Collection release of the film in March 2021, Leigh, in conversation with Gary Yershon, clarified the method of improvisation and realisation of the scene.
The film was released to critical acclaim; on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 96% based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10; the site's critical consensus is: "Secrets & Lies delves into social issues with delicate aplomb and across-the-board incredible acting, and stands as one of writer-director Mike Leigh's most powerful works".[5] On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 91 out of 100 based on 27 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[6]
Film critic Roger Ebert, writing for the Chicago Sun-Times gave Secrets & Lies four out of four stars. He wrote that "moment after moment, scene after scene, Secrets & Lies unfolds with the fascination of eavesdropping", and added: "[Leigh] 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 called the film "a flowering of his technique. 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".[7] In 2009, he added the film to his Great Movies collection.[8]
Edward Guthmann of the San Francisco Chronicle called the film Leigh's "best and most accessible work to date" and remarked that "everyone's had these family skirmishes and confrontations in their lives, and it's remarkable to see them recorded so accurately and painfully on film. Leigh's marvelous achievement is not only in capturing emotional clarity on film, but also in illustrating the ways in which families start to heal and find a certain bravery in their efforts".[9] Similarly, Kenneth Turan from the Los Angeles Times ranked the film among the best of the 14 features Leigh had written and directed by then. He found that Secrets & Lies was "a piercingly honest, completely accessible piece of work that will go directly to the hearts of audiences who have never heard of him. If film means anything to you, if emotional truth is a quality you care about, this is an event that ought not be missed [...] Unforced, confident and completely involving, with exceptional acting aided by Dick Pope's unobtrusive camera work and John Gregory's telling editing, Secrets & Lies is filmmaking to savor".[10]
The Washington Post author Desson Howe felt that the film incorporated all the "elements of humor, sweetness, cruelty and directness" of Leigh's previous films but dubbed Secrets & Lies "more emotional, tear-inducing and compassionate than its predecessors". He declared it "an extended, multilayered revelation, and you don't get the full, complex picture until the final scene".[11] His colleague, Rita Kempley, called the film "a magnificent melodrama that draws both tears and laughter from the everyday give-and-take of seemingly ordinary souls". She noted that "Blethyn and Jean-Baptiste are a joy to behold in tandem, but Blethyn's endearing portrait is transcendent".[12]
It is listed as the 40th best British film by the BFI.[13]
The film grossed £1.7 million ($2.8 million) in the United Kingdom.[14] It grossed $8.9 million in France[15] and $13.4 million in the United States and Canada.[2] It grossed $29 million in other international markets[15][16] for a worldwide gross of over $54 million.
This film was the subject of "positive pickets" by the adult adoptee rights organisation Bastard Nation, which used it as a vehicle to raise awareness of sealed birth records in the United States and Canada.[35]
Director Leigh and actress Blethyn met with Bastard Nation activists at a positive picket in Beverly Hills on 10 March 1997, where they were presented with Bastard Nation T-shirts.[36]
Psycho is a 1960 American horror film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The screenplay, written by Joseph Stefano, was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The film stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin and Martin Balsam. The plot centers on an encounter between on-the-run embezzler Marion Crane (Leigh) and shy motel proprietor Norman Bates (Perkins) and its aftermath, in which a private investigator (Balsam), Marion's lover Sam Loomis (Gavin), and her sister Lila (Miles) investigate her disappearance.
Jennifer Jason Leigh is an American actress. She began her career on television during the 1970s before making her film breakthrough in the teen film Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). She received critical praise for her performances in Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), Miami Blues (1990), Backdraft (1991), Single White Female (1992), and Short Cuts (1993), and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Dorothy Parker in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994).
Mike Leigh is an English writer-director with a career spanning film, theatre and television. He has received numerous accolades, including prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, the Venice International Film Festival, three BAFTA Awards, and nominations for seven Academy Awards. He also received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2014, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1993 Birthday Honours for services to the film industry.
Brenda Blethyn is an English actress. Known for her character work and versatility, she is the recipient of various accolades, including a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and a Cannes Film Festival Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two Primetime Emmys. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to drama in 2003.
She's All That is a 1999 American teen romantic comedy film directed by Robert Iscove. It stars Freddie Prinze Jr., Rachael Leigh Cook, Matthew Lillard, and Paul Walker. After being dumped by his girlfriend, Zack Siler boasts he could make any girl at his high school popular. It is a modern adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion and George Cukor's 1964 film My Fair Lady.
Vera Drake is a 2004 British period drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh and starring Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Daniel Mays and Eddie Marsan. It tells the story of a working-class woman in London in 1950 who performs illegal abortions. It won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and it was nominated for three Academy Awards and won three BAFTAs.
Marianne Raigipcien Jean-Baptiste is an English actress. She is known for her role in the 1996 film Secrets & Lies, for which she received acclaim and earned nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and the Golden Globe and BAFTA Award in the same category. Baptiste is also known for her role as Vivian Johnson on the television series Without a Trace from 2002 to 2009, and has since starred in television shows such as Blindspot (2015–2016) and Homecoming (2018).
The Anniversary Party is a 2001 American comedy-drama film co-written, co-directed, co-produced by, and co-starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming, both making their respective feature directorial debuts. It is Phoebe Cates's final film appearance before her retirement.
The 22nd Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, honoring the best in film for 1996, were given in December 1996.
The 50th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, took place on 29 April 1997 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 1996. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, accolades were handed out for the best feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality that were screened at British cinemas in 1998.
The 17th Boston Society of Film Critics Awards honored the best filmmaking of 1996. The awards were given on 13 December 1996.
Lee Ross is an English actor known for his roles as nice guy Kenny Phillips in the classic CITV dramedy Press Gang and as the violent and sadistic Owen Turner in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. He is also known for his work in the drama series Dodger, Bonzo and the Rest, Secrets & Lies, The Catherine Tate Show and BBC sitcom White Gold.
Sally Cecilia Hawkins is an English actress who began her career on stage and then moved into film. She has received several awards including a Golden Globe Award in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards.
Elizabeth Berrington is an English actress and graduate of the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art; she is best known for her roles as Ruby Fry in Waterloo Road, Paula Kosh in Stella, Mel Debrou in Moving Wallpaper, and Dawn Stevenson in The Syndicate. She has also featured in British television series such as The Bill, Doctor Who, The Office, Casualty, The Lakes, The Grimleys, and Rose and Maloney.
The 1st Golden Satellite Awards, given by the International Press Academy, were awarded on January 15, 1997. The ceremony was hosted by Stacy Keach.
The 31st National Society of Film Critics Awards, given by the National Society of Film Critics on January 5, 1997, honored the best in film for 1996.
The 49th Cannes Film Festival was held from 9 to 20 May 1996. The Palme d'Or went to Secrets & Lies by Mike Leigh.
The 17th London Film Critics Circle Awards, honouring the best in film for 1996, were announced by the London Film Critics Circle on 2 March 1997.
Claire Louise Rushbrook is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Roxanne in Secrets & Lies (1996), and for playing Linda Earl-Bouchtat in My Mad Fat Diary (2013–15), for which she received a 2014 nomination for BAFTA Best Supporting Actress.
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