Secrets & Lies (1996)

Director:

Mike Leigh

Writer:

Mike Leigh (writer)

Release Date:

25 October 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

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

Plot:

Successful black woman traces her birth mother to a lower-class white woman, who denies it; emotions run high as everyone's secrets are exposed.

Plot Keywords:

Bathroom | Photography | Kissing | Social Worker | Biracial

Awards:

Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 29 wins & 20 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Timothy Spall	...	Maurice Purley
Phyllis Logan	...	Monica Purley
Brenda Blethyn	...	Cynthia Rose Purley
Claire Rushbrook	...	Roxanne Purley
Marianne Jean-Baptiste	...	Hortense Cumberbatch
Elizabeth Berrington	...	Jane
Michele Austin	...	Dionne
Lee Ross	...	Paul
Lesley Manville	...	Social Worker
Ron Cook	...	Stuart
Emma Amos	...	Girl with Scar
Brian Bovell	...	Hortense's Brother
Trevor Laird	...	Hortense's Brother
Claire Perkins	...	Hortense's Sister-in-Law (as Clare Perkins)
Elias Perkins McCook	...	Hortense's Nephew

Also Known As:

Secrets et mensonges (France)

MPAA:

Rated R for language.

Runtime:

142 min | USA:136 min

Country:

France | UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Belgium:KT | Chile:14 | Finland:S | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:AL | Peru:14 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | Sweden:7 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Holborn Underground Station, Holborn, London, England, UK

Company:

Channel Four Films

Trivia:

To add a spontaneous effect to the performances, Mike Leigh met with each actor individually and only told them what their character would know at the beginning of the film. As filming progressed the actors were hearing the secrets for the very first time. Brenda Blethyn, for instance, didn't know that Marianne Jean-Baptiste was black.

Quotes:

Cynthia Purley: Where's this food, then? I'm ravishin'.
[Hortense laughs]
Cynthia Purley: What?
[Hortense chuckles]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Gilmore Girls: Secrets and Loans (#2.11)" (2002)

Soundtrack:

Happy Birthday to You

superb comedy/drama

Mike Leigh's superb comedy-drama of family relationships. Heart-rending, bitter and delightful by turn

Leigh's modern classic captured a brace of Oscar nominations but went home empty handed in the face of The English Patient's near clean sweep. Even Blethyn's Cannes-winning performance lost out to Frances McDormand's Fargo turn (hard to challenge this decision, although in any other year the brilliant Blethyn would have deserved to win). The film eventually racked up a considerable number of awards, its Oscar success aside.

The story, every bit as believable and real as the rest of Leigh's work, centres on a woman, Cynthia Purley (Blethyn ), whose mid-life crisis is further exacerbated by the appearance on the scene of the daughter she gave away at birth, the wonderfully named Hortense Cumberbatch (Baptiste) - a young, beautiful, professional black woman who causes a few eyebrows to be raised in the family, and forces Cynthia to come to terms with her past.

Alternating between high comedy, scathing one-liners (Blethyn telling daughter Rushbrook she has a face like a "slapped arse" is a moment to treasure) and tear-jerking poignancy, with Spall, Rushbrook and Baptiste all offering strong support, this is nothing short of superb.



Verdict A genuine hit for Mike Leigh, Secrets And Lies has the coarse grain of real life, sympathetically and affirmingly fashioned.