A Secret (Un Secret)

It has been awhile since I have watched a good foreign film. The other night I selected A Secret, a French film that had won a few awards. I found A Secret to be an enjoyable, well-acted movie. It stars  Cécile De France, Patrick Bruel, and Ludivine Sagnier.

A Secret, I learned, is based on a true story. It opens in France, a few years after World War II, where a little boy, Francois (Valentin Vigourt), lives with his emotionally distant father (Bruel) and his beautiful mother (De France), a champion swimmer. The family is Jewish, but not observant, and their surname was changed to disguise their heritage.

Quickly we discover that Francois' family has an important secret about their past. It is not until Francois is 14 that he is told of his family saga by his aunt (Julie Depardieu). This takes the movie back to the prewar years and brings about the movie's first of many twists. When the story goes back in time, the sight of the boy's father with a previous wife feels as strange to the viewer as it is surprising to the boy. The world turns inside out.

As previously mentioned A Secret is a good movie that I recommend.