Choses secrètes (2002) - film review

When two young women lose their jobs in an erotic night club, they decide to get even with the male sex.  By flaunting their obvious assets, they manage to get office jobs in a prestigious company, where they set about their cruel vendetta without a moment’s hesitation.  As the more experienced of the two girls, Nathalie, is away digging for incriminating information on the personnel database, the other, Sandrine, begins by seducing her fifty-year old boss.  Their ultimate objective is Christophe, the handsome but ruthless son of the company’s managing director.  His reputation as a sadistic Don Juan who drives women to suicide does not deter Sandrine from pursuing her game, which soon begins to take a very dangerous turn...

Director Jean-Claude Brisseau presents an uncompromisingly modern and deeply cynical view of love and romance in this bizarre erotic drama which will doubtless ruffle a few feathers.   Choses secrètes is daring both in its choice of subject – the explicit portrayal of attractive young women heartlessly using their sexuality to destroy male egos – and in its explicit content (which includes simulated female orgasms aplenty and an orgy scene which appears to have been inspired by a Hieronymous Bosch painting).  Where the film falls down is in its lack of realism and its weak characterisation, which rob the story of any real credibility and renders much of the film almost unbearably ridiculous.  It’s virtually impossible to watch the cliché-riddled last ten minutes of the film without laughing – it looks stylish and is well acted, but it just provokes the wrong kind of reaction.

The two female leads, Sabrina Seyvecou and Coralie Revel, are impressive and give a near-convincing portrayal of the darker side of female sexuality that is as disturbing as it is provocative. With its numerous full-on sex scenes, pretentious dialogue and some way over-the-top artistic excesses, Choses secrètes risks being categorised as just another tatty piece of softcore porn of the Emmanuelle variety, which is unfair because there is more to it than that.  This is a film which paints some unpalatable truths about the extent to which our society is devaluing sex, and how male-female relationships are becoming dangerous emotional war games, with women finally learning to get the upper hand.

© James Travers 2006

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