User reviews

The rude nature of the South West of France alongside the plot of the movie where three well known french actors give the best of themselves in a story that is taken of reality of those years of the 70's. Sublime shots and dialogues, good acting work, a movie that has no need to any Hollywood action and big budgets in order to entertain. If you like France and its mentality, then this movie is for you.

Low key but very well written drama, about a strange man (Trintignant) who is pretending to be pursued by the police and the army, because he knows a very dangerous secret. He met a couple (Jobert and always wonderful Noiret) and hide at their home. Noiret thinks that the man is very kind and decides to help him to go to Spain, where he will be safe. But the press tells that this man is a very dangerous psycho killer. The woman begins to have doubts about the man. This is a very seventies movie, with sometimes a lack of direction, but it's sure an intelligent movie. Spectators will know the famous secret at the very end of the movie. And it's a very surprising finale. By the way, whatever happen to the lovely Marlene Jobert?

"Le secret" was overshadowed by Robert Enrico's blockbuster "Le Vieux Fusil" released the following year.I have always thought that that movie -also featuring Noiret-was largely overrated.

"Le Secret" is a different matter:it's a return to mystery,irrational,and madness ,tendencies Enrico had displayed in his first(and best)work "Au Coeur de La Vie" (1963).It is far from being as stunning though.It's too long.In its first part,the story drags on and on.Fifteen minutes could have been easily edited out,the story would not have suffered for it.

It was the time of paranoia in political movies.In the wake of "Conversation" and "The parallax view" lots of FRench directors jumped on the bandwagon.There was Jacques Deray and "Un Papillon sur l'Epaule" ;Yves Boisset and "Espion Lève-toi" ;Jean-Claude Tramont and "Le Point de Mire" ;and Robert Enrico and "Le Secret" .All those films deal with a huge conspiracy which may or may not exist.

Enrico 's movies has good assets :his three leads are adequate ;a disturbing prologue (and a symmetrical epilogue);and characters who change : in the last third,we are not sure that Trintignant's paranoia or would be mythomania has not corrupted his "normal" companions.

The military intervention complete with paratroopers and tanks is a bit too much but it adds to the offbeat atmosphere of the film and it reminds us of Enrico's anti-militarism (already obvious in "La Belle Vie" (1964)).

"Le Secret" is a flawed but interesting work.

Abolish the machine!

The classic slogan that still works.

A Deleuezian concept on machine and its surveillance emerges at final seconds. We've upgraded it to a so called matrix. This slow paced drama is about nothing and everything. Timeless and placeless story. Still works. Great performances and a heart catching score by maestro Morricone.

A melancholic journey to deep desperation.

Want to see a movie that leaves you uneasy, paranoid, makes you question the reality you're presented with? Scared to go out and scared to stay in? But at all cost, distracts you from mundane reality? This is one film that does that. Forget movies that rely on lavish helpings of gore and blood, gratuitous violence, habitual screaming and endless repetition of expletives. That's not scary any more. It was only ever shocking, really, and nowadays people seem to have become used to that. No, this is a French film. No clichéd devices such as explosions of discordant noise to startle you when you least expect it. Instead, something excruciatingly sinister somehow manages to silently creep out from this film, like a miasma. A chilling, clammy, atmosphere that's reinforced by subtle but compelling acting and directing. Did you hear a noise just then . . .?

I've seen this film only a few times over the years as an adult, but I was still left disturbed by it each time. I didn't exactly 'have to leave the light on' when I went to bed afterwards. But, let's say, it left a permanent impression on me. It's the way it's executed, you see. I'm too macho to admit to anything more. For connoisseurs of effective films of this genre, this is a must for the collection. You'll end up looking over your shoulder after seeing this film. Unless, of course, they come for you too . . . .

What a delightfully simple suspense film! From the opening scene in a "prison hospital" to a ride up an elevator to a small home in the country this Kafka-esqe story will grip you. I'm surprised this film has not been released on DVD considering it stars Jean-Louis Trintignant.

I saw this film on TV over 20 years ago. CBS offered a--sadly short-lived--cable channel that offered truly quality films. When I happened to catch Le Secret (probably 1982) I was stunned that I had never heard of it and had no memory of its release in the U.S. eight years earlier. Like Hitchock? Yes, but not completely.

I am amazed Le Secret only gets very good reviews here. I personally lost 94 minutes watching this, although I was already aware that Enrico was a mediocre director who happened to get fine scripts he could not really mess with.

The big failure in the secret is that it's definitely not a tense psychological thriller. Enrico has clearly no idea about how to create the appropriate atmosphere. David, the fugitive (Trintignant) doesn't really know what he wants to do, where he wants to go. That's already a bad start. Speaking of action, he happens to stay with Thomas and Julia (Noiret and Jobert): more passivity leading us further into a would-be story. To cap it all this passive fugitive with no inner will, no goal, is not presented as particularly ambiguous or manipulative. So much for the story.

Enrico doesn't direct, he just let the three leads perform their roles. Morricone's score hardly nears those de Roubaix composed for his friend Enrico, but well, this is far from an inspiring story.

Actually the opening credits sequence was very good, but right from the evasion there is simply no style or tension, nor whatever angle you are supposed to chose to tell a specific story. The last image is good too, but frankly, having some cheap political statement at the end of a bad overlong exposé is just painfully ridiculous.

Fabulous little film involving just three main characters all of whom do very well but Jean Louis Trintignant and Philippe Noiret excel. Great start, great finish and all along the way this curious film has the main protagonists and us guessing. Only Trintignant's character is really sure what is going on and we have seen him make an escape at the beginning but whether his interpretation of events is accurate is always uncertain. As well as this there is a curious relationship between the man and wife Trintignant befriends. Is he offering his wife to him, daring her, testing her?

At times quite chilling, always challenging and intriguing and if this slips or pauses for a second there is the fantastic Morricone score holding everything firmly in its grip. Sweet, menacing and assured, this has to one of the composer's very best. Great find!

A mysterious prisoner goes on the run, claiming to hold a State secret putting his life in dangers. An innocent couple get caught up in his flight, and the series of adventures which follows. The tension builds to a crescendo and the sense of mystery prevails throughout this paranoiac thriller, in which the reason of State takes an implacable turn.

Under mysterious circumstances a strange guy (well played by Trintignant) escapes from some underground asylum. He finds refuge with a couple of fringe people of 68 who seemed to have retired to a tranquil life somwhere in the south of France. The strange visitor revives old dreams and memories and represents new opportunities to make something more out of life. The couple, superbly played by Philippe Noiret and Marlène Jobert, have each their own reasons to be interested and intrigued by the visitor. After a series of sometimes menacing, sometimes hylarious events, always impregnated with a subdued tension, the movie ends somewhere in the emptiness of some isolated beach.

This is a very good movie. The images and the playing show a lot but also leave a lot to be guessed by the watcher. It makes a point (about Big Brother who is watching you) and is mysterious enough to remain full of tension.

The presence in the cast of Jean-Louis Trintignant, Philippe Noiret and Marlene Jobert should be enough to make 'Le secret', Roberto Enrico's 1974 film a memorable one. And yet this is an almost completely forgotten film. This seems completely incomprehensible to me, especially since besides the name and the acting of the three famous actors this is a film with many qualities, a psychological thriller of the best quality reminiscent of Hitchcock's films - compact, well written, with solidly built characters that cannot be easily forgotten. In addition, it is a very actual film. If it had been made today, it would undoubtedly have been characterised as a political thriller.

This film also finds me in a very rare moment of disagreement with the opinions of my favorite film critic, Roger Ebert, who saw the film and wrote about it shortly after its release. Come on, Roger, one star out of four? Too predictable? The story of the film revolves around the mystery of the identity of David, the hero played by Trintignant, who escaped from an nightmarish institution that can be a psychiatric asylum for dangerous lunatics but can also be a prison where those who oppose the political regime are deprived of liberty and tortured or perhaps those who unintentionally found out a secret dangerous for state security are harshly interrogated to find out how much they know. Is David a dangerous psychotic killer, a paranoiac conspiracy theorist, or an innocent man trapped in a Kafkaesque situation? There is a solution to this dilemma and an explanation of the situation of the hero, which we learn practically in the last scene and the upheavals of situations and perceptions happen permanently. The relationship between the fugitive and the couple of intellectuals (he is a writer, she is an artist) could be a classic triangle consisting of an escapee and a hostage pair, but it is much more, because the characters are nuanced, the man and the woman each have their reasons for acting the way they do, and the interpretations of Philippe Noiret and Marlene Jobert are profound and create empathy. The pace at which the plot unfolds is perhaps slower than fans of action movies would expect, but there are enough moments of tension, both events-wise and psychological.

I recommend the viewing to those who have the opportunity to watch or re-watch 'Le secret'. The pleasure of seeing together the trio of formidable actors will be combined with the encounter with a well-written film, with a remarkable soundtrack signed by Ennio Morricone, which finds a perfect place among the good achievements of French cinema of the '70s.

Robert Enrico was a damn good director, very cary concerning the adaptation from novels. Here it is question of a Francis Ryck's book, a story about people living more or less in seclusion in the deep countryside, away from the world and all its tragedies. Special atmosphere books and also characters studies. Philippe Noiret, Marlène Jobert and Jean Louis Trintignant are perfect in the roles, very close to the book characters. It is gloomy, dark, without any moral at all. It is disturbing, not for all audiences. Francis Ryck was against the government's unseen power to monitor everyone.

I saw "Le Secret" back in time in theater. It was a shock. Amazing actors. You can't find better than late Jean-Louis Trintignant and Philippe Noiret and the incredibly beautiful and talented Marlène Jobert (who is the mother of Eva Green). The story is charged with questions and paranoia, and yet you know the truth only in the last second. Beautiful picture, colors, and great work of light and shadows. What I find strange is that this movie didn't get much credit. Also, you can see here that people seem to love it or hate it. No midway. That's usually a sign of something powerful that can't leave viewers indifferent. I saw it again some days ago and feel exactly the same fascination for it fifty years later. A touching, scary, and fascinating thriller.