Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10014 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-09-26
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 112 minutes

Synopsis
Two women, one innocent and one a stripper, use their feminine charms and bodies to improve their lives and prospects when they enter the world of banking. But their mission is interrupted when they both fall in love with their employer's son.

Customer Reviews

Amazing film that bridges porn and the art house
This is one of the greatest movies I've ever seen. This is the reason why I trawl through dreadful pretentious French movies, because they have an annoying habit of making the occasional great film.

That bit in Mulholland Drive two hours in when the two female characters have sex was an interesting scene. Well imagine a film that has scenes like that (both in content and power) every five or so minutes. This film makes so-called erotic films like Eyes Wide Shut and Basic Instinct look laughable. It's brief shot of the orgy at the end alone makes Eyes Wide Shut look pathetic.

If you're searching for the world's best porn film then you've found it. It's very graphic and if you were to say to me that the BBFC are a bunch of prudes then I would laugh at you. How this has an 18 certificate amazes me.

It has well drawn characters, has a real plot of substance and is also a fast paced movie. The film is almost without pretensions, which is almost unheard of from a French film. Whatever few pretentious bits there are, I found to be completely acceptable. Some people might balk at the direction the film takes in the last forty or so minutes, but I think it made complete sense. I got it. I was on the film's wavelength so I accepted every odd curve the film threw at me.

It also has a very striking opening when a private moment turns out to be not so private when the camera pans. I knew she was in a theatre, but I was shocked at how public a performance it was.

If you like the great surrealist film Belle De Jour (about a bored housewife who joins a brothel) then this is a must see. Also I would recommend the excellent Death In A French Garden, an explicit thriller from the 80's.

Better than expected
This is quite an interesting film....sort of a cross between In the Company of Men and Eyes Wide Shut. Two women (one confident, one less so) meet up and decide to use their sexuality to boost their careers. Some of the dialogue, particuarly in the earlier scenes, is quite perceptive and honest.

As the women embark on their conquests, the film inevitably take a dark turn as they come across the outright predator at the top of the organisation. The plot does border a little on the ridiculous at time but it is served up with a no end of style. Well worth a view....sexy, very French, perceptive and edgy.

Count the sociopaths! A film of sex and manipulation.
Some films contain sex just for the sake of it, but in Chose Secretes it feels right. Sex is central to the films story of two women using their bodies to advance up the career ladder.

Nathalie is an outgoing woman comfortable with using her body, the initial scene is one of her performing solo on stage (and this isn't karaoke). She and the younger, less extrovert Sandrine find themselves out of a job (and in the case of Sandrine, unable to return to her flat) and so they plan to use men to develop their careers.

It might seem shallow, but the two main characters aren't boring two dimensional ones - they are doing what they do because they feel let down by life and feel they have assets they can use. The first two thirds of the film are very good, it leads up to, and includes Sandrine's enticing of senior manager Delacroix, and this part of the film is the strongest. The relationship with Delacroix develops slowly at first as Sandrine makes subtle amounts of physical contact and leans in over his shoulder at work - but it gathers momentum. It's gripping stuff too - you begin to wonder if Sandrine might start to fall in love with Delacroix.

Christophe however is the main target of the girls - he is the son of the chairman and heir to the company. He is known for his womanising and lack of emotion. He will prove a challenge. The mystery surrounding Nathalie's activities is revealed and the film comes to dramatic climax.

The film is excellently acted, the performances all seem natural apart from that of Christophe, but his character is meant to be `un-natural', he doesn't possess the same emotions or ethics of a `normal' man. I would have rated this film quite highly but I feel that the story around Christophe at the end of the film let it down. The incest and `Roman Emperor' image of the man in the last few scenes seemed massively out of kilter with the rest of the film. His devotees and their reactions seemed nonchalantly whimsical and jarred the realism of the film to this point. The back story of his mothers death was designed to give him some depth - but it didn't work. Fabrice Deville acted the part well, but the character of Christophe was just two shallow to enjoy.

So, in a nutshell: A film which isn't scared to use sex in the same way the two main protagonists do. Interesting from the start and tense in the middle - but and end which let itself down, apart from the very final scene which was a touching way to put closure on Nathalie and Sandrine's relationship. Showed promise, but fell flat.