Secret défense (1998)
A Film by Jacques Rivette
DVD9 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 4:3 | 02:46:20 | 6,74 Gb
Audio: French AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Crime, Drama | France
A Film by Jacques Rivette
DVD9 | ISO+MDS | NTSC 4:3 | 02:46:20 | 6,74 Gb
Audio: French AC3 2.0 @ 224 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Crime, Drama | France
Sylvie, a young biologist, receives an impromptu visit from her brother who claims to have proof that their father was murdered by Walser, his right-hand man. Shaken, Sylvie pays a visit to Walser, now head of the company formerly belonging to her father, but he refuses to discuss the matter. Aware that her brother his planning to have his revenge, Sylvie acquires a gun and goes to Walser’s country house one evening. In a heated confrontation, the gun goes off accidentally, killing a young woman who was Walser’s secretary and lover. Walser’s reaction to the death appears inexplicable, until Sylvia finally discovers Walser’s motivation for killing her father…
IMDB
I would complain that I figured out the ending of Jacques Rivette’s Secret Defense about two hours before it unspooled, but it was pointed out to me after I saw it that the film is an updating of the Elektra myth (though this eluded me initially, I clearly see it in retrospect), so I doubt the film’s goal was really unpredictability. Its roots probably deserve a lot of credit for the sturdiness of the plot, but what is exceptional about the film has little to do with its narrative. Within ten minutes the entire setup is laid bare, and it’s only a matter of time (a lot of time – the film is almost three hours long) before the inevitable happens. It’s probably no spoiler to mention that this is a revenge thriller, and Rivette uses this time to flesh out his characters and their actions to the point where the movie feels closer to a novel than cinema. The subject matter seems closer to Chabrol than typical Rivette, but the spotlight is as focused on the actor’s performances as it is in any of Rivette’s work.
Sandrine Bonnaire, who plays Sylvie, the main character is especially good here. She plays her retribution-seeking research scientist with enough fierce intelligence that you can actually believe that she is working on a cure for cancer. Her character evokes Ingrid Bergman in Notorious or Spellbound, since she has the same mixture of smarts, beauty, and grace under pressure. Everything that she does seems to be an extension of her frustration with the situation that the film puts her in. As she goes about her daily routine or rides on a train, we get a sense of her sense of determination. Her behavior seems consistently thought through and befitting of a scientist’s analytical mind, and the matter of fact way Rivette presents it makes even the relatively free from directorial scheming and unsentimental In the Bedroom feel like Hitchcock or Speilberg directed it.
The title Secret Defense ultimately has less to do with espionage than it does with more intimate secrets. The arms dealer in the film is misleadingly named Pax Industries, letting the viewer know that outward appearances aren’t always honest ones, and while the film’s tone is one that feels ill at ease with anything that it presents. There’s a lovely moment where the camera stops to linger at a group of workers in a plant, who work in a restricted area. The camera wants to get to the bottom of things as much as we do, and rewards our inquisitiveness. The tension arrives not out of chase scenes, but instead out of the dour interactions between characters. The film’s premise has been done a million times, and things always seem to unfold in unexpected ways, but Rivette resists shocking us with the twists. As they are presented, they seem the natural progression of the chain of events, and our focus stays on the complexities of character. If every thriller were as intelligent and thorough as Secret Defense, which eschews the nervous pace of most entries in the genre, they might be seen as less “fun” and more “good for you”, but I doubt we have to worry about that happening.
Secret défense is a clever psychological thriller that plays unceasingly on the subjectivity of good and evil – the notion that the same act can be seen from two diametrically opposing perpectives, with our own prejudice tilting the scales so that we are led to the wrong conclusion.
A suspicion of guilt becomes magnified very quickly into an unshakable certainty in Sylvie’s mind when she witnesses Welser’s reaction when she accidentally kills his lover. Thereafter, an act of apparent kindness is interpreted as deriving from very sinister motives and Welser is immediately transformed into a dangerous, callous villain.
This is a film that succeeds because it manages so well to get into the minds of its protagonists, particularly the troubled Sylvie, played brilliantly and with great sensitivity by Sandrine Bonnaire.
The most striking aspect of the film is the constant sense of motion – by train, bike, bus, on foot. This conveys an impression of paths converging and diverging, mirroring the twists and turns in the plot and reinforcing Sylvie’s disturbed state of mind. The camera work and lighting, and particularly the use of so many night scenes, create a palpable sense of menace, making incidental music superfluous.
It is pretty rare that one comes across a genuinely impressive film in the série noire genre, but in this film veteran film-maker Jacques Rivette comes very close to achieving just that.James Travers, Films de France
Extras: None on source
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