Rest Assured, It's Not THAT bad.
I've just watched this movie, and am kind of surprised to see so many bashing comments on it.
Ok ok so this film is just typically french [we've got a protagonist going through an existential crisis comme d'hab] AND even worse it's a woman [so the trend of the Romance-type movies continues]. But honestly it's not THAT bad. I disliked Romance because it didn't really give us any insight into the protagonist's struggle, and I felt disconnected from her, so it was basically graphic sex scenes [which got blown WAY out of proportion for the sake of selling more] but in Le Secret, Marie's affair was shown in such a way, that we could perfectly understand her inner predicaments.
She says towards the end of the movie (this is a summary not a direct quote) "I dont know whether to sacrifice myself or you (her husband) for the sake of our couple" and I think that this is a problem that many women can relate to.
I also liked the character of François. Although he was devoted to his wife, there was an evident lack of passion in their relationship, which he never picked up on. I don't know whether it's because I personally relate to Marie, or whether this is also a problem for many women in relationships, especially if you've been married to the person for quite some time, but I find that the movie depicted a married couple very well.
The scene I particularely liked [umm SPOILER] is when Marie comes home with love bites all over her neck, and François freaks, tears off her clothes, finding her in her red sexy underwear. The look of disgust in his face, and his later constant efforts to make her feel uncomfortable and guilty for her actions, exemplify the white male in a non-chauvenistic society [french men are very subjugated] who then is cuckolded. It also shows the french quite realistically, couples wearing white cotton underwear and having a nice [somewhat passionless] relationship and how sex is so casual and "not special" as opposed to American commercial movies' way of tabboo-ing it as if it were some secret of life.
The movie also helps show how men react to being "trompE" ; when a man does it, a woman feels humiliated and belittled but it's quite almost "normal." When a woman does it, she is labelled a whore [hence François' look of disgust and later comments on how he can't even look at her in the face cause she's a monster for him, although you could say that's because she left the theatre to go jump Bill's bones.]
Which shows us that it doesn't matter which culture you're dealing with, either way, a woman still has little right to do what she wants to do, or find herself. I am not praising adultery, obviously that should be avoided, else we should change the definition of marriage, but women still haven't found their place in society and life, and aren't really allowed to [stumped by men AND other women e.g her mother].
I don't know what to make of the ending, but Marie clearly states she loves François and wants to stay married to him, the only problem being, she has to discover herself and feed her desires also.
ANOTHER intersting theme is the idea of the black man and white woman. That whole folk tale that black men have bigger ones. Right so we don't know whether he does or not in this movie, but he is huge in comparisson to her, and she tells her mother that she likes the fact that he "invades" her, because of his muscular frame. Bill clearly represents woman's secret wish to be completely overtaken by a man, a real man, a HUGE one [and let's take a step higher, a black one, the epitomy of beastial sex], as opposed to her wimpy husband who offers her meek love making in comparisson. Bill also tends to her needs [the oral sex scene, something we don't see her husband do]
The movie is written and directed by a woman, so I don't really expect men to "get" what this movie is about. I'm not saying it's the BEST movie ever because it is pretty mediocre, but it DOES have some intersting points, and isn't a waste of 2 hours or whatever another poster said.
it's a dirty world Reich, say what you want