听 Realising that "without money or connections we'll always stay losers", two Parisian twentysomething females (Coralie Revel and Sabrine Seyvecou) decide to use their powers of seduction to ascend the corporate ladder. Written and directed by veteran Gallic filmmaker Jean-Claude Brisseau, the graphically explicit Secret Things might sound like yet another French skin flick. But this enjoyably overblown erotic melodrama has both carnal and intellectual ambitions, and manages to be both subversive and reactionary in its treatment of sexual politics.
"We women lack confidence and daring. We're like the working class - we don't dare move up", says erotic dancer Natalie (Revel) to her shy friend Sandrine (Sevyecou, the film's melancholic narrator). And Secret Things charts how these marginalised individuals take their revenge on a class-bound society. By flaunting their sexual attractiveness and by faking their orgasms, they enslave wealthy men in positions of power, such as the hapless company director Delacroix (Roger Mirmont). Can they however tame the boss' son Christophe (Fabrice Deville), a notorious libertine who's driven former lovers to suicide?
"A TALE OF FEMALE EMPOWERMENT"
If the stylised Secret Things can be seen as both a tale of female empowerment and a class allegory, it still resembles a voyeuristic male fantasy in its depictions of lesbian sex, threesomes, stripteases and public masturbation. Certainly the climactic orgy scenes at the chateau, all billowing curtains and deafening blasts of Vivaldi on the soundtrack, appear preposterous. But there's an underlying seriousness to Brisseau's eccentric vision of sex as a transgressive force, and he elicits compelling performances from Revel and Seyvecou in the lead roles.
In French with English subtitles.
Very interesting but sorrowful
