"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.
"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.