A Secret [DVD]

The tragic aftermath of a love triangle set against the backdrop of the Holocaust
'A Secret' is a multi-layered movie that deals with myriad themes. The central character is Francois Grimbert who has always had a rather distant relationship with his father Maxime [Patrick Bruel]. As a young boy, Francois is not keen on sports and appears rather frail [he was a four lb baby] and very unlike his athletic father and swim champion mother Tania [Cecile de france]. His young mind conjures a phantom brother that is very athletic and strong, driving his parents to distraction. When Francois discovers a toy in the family attic, secrets long hidden begin to unravel, thanks mostly to a long-time family friend, Louise [Julie Depardieu] who reveals all that she knows.

Told via a series of flashbacks, the story unfolds. Ironically, the flashbacks to the past are portrayed in color, and the present [where the now mature Francois goes to meet his old dad] is in black and white. This is ideal as in this story, the past is of the most significance. As the 15-year-old...

A Frail, Imaginative Boy Finds Discovers Himself in a Sad Family Secret.
"A Secret" (Un Secret) is a World War II drama based on the novel of the same name by Phillipe Grimbert, which has also been published under the title "Memory". It has a complex time structure, shifting between 4 different time periods in the life of Francois Grimbert and the earlier lives of his parents during the War. Seven-year-old Francois (Valentin Vigourt) is frail, reclusive boy living in the shadow of his athletic father Maxime (Patrick Bruel) and beautiful mother Tania (Cecile De France) in 1955 Paris. He finds a stuffed animal in the attic one day that elicits strong and inexplicable reactions from his parents. Seven years later, his neighbor and longtime family friend Louise (Julie Depardieu) tells him the long-suppressed story of his parents' past that puts his life in a new context.

A lot of films have been made about the struggles of French Jews during World War II. Every time I see one, I think it's going to be like all the others. But I'm usually wrong. For...

Longing and Loving and the Precipice of War
Claude Miller has created one of the more challenging and intensely human dramas about World War II in his film UN SECRET (A SECRET). Though one of many stories about the plight of Jews during the events that led up to and exploded into WW II, Miller's story is less about the cruel destiny of the Jews in Hitler's plundering of Europe than it is a study of a few individuals who struggled with their identity in the face of probable extermination.

Based on a true story in Phillippe Grimbert's novel by the same name, UN SECRET gracefully and artistically draws the viewer into the psyche of the narrator Fran