Part of Staff Picks and programmed by Allison, who says “No gimmicks, no glamour, no spectacle behind the scenes – simply masters at work. One of the greatest films of all time.”
Mike Leigh’s Palme d’Or–winning masterpiece charts the shockwaves that ripple through an already-fractured London family when Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a successful, adopted black optometrist, makes contact with Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn, winner of the best actress prize at Cannes), her desperately dysfunctional white birth mother, who is woefully unprepared to deal with the situation. With unexpected humor and gripping emotional realism, Leigh crafts an intricate, richly human exploration of the buried tensions and heartaches that run beneath the surface of family life. (Synopsis courtesy of Criterion Collection)
“If film means anything to you, if emotional truth is a quality you care about, this is an event that ought not be missed.” —Stanley Kauffmann, Los Angeles Times "SECRETS & LIES, which won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year, reveals itself detail by searing detail. The movie is an extended, multilayered revelation, and you don’t get the full, complex picture until the final scene.” —Desson Howe, Washington Post (Oct 11, 1996) “Leigh is an artist not at all blind to the world's darkness and pain. But the generosity and togetherness he and his company show in Secrets and Lies is something the movies — and the world — truly need. —Mike Clark, Chicago Tribune (Oct 25, 1996)
