Nathalie teaches Sandrine that sexual transgression can cause violent pleasure and give those who use it a powerful weapon to climb the social hierarchy. They decide to get a job in a bank, ... Read allNathalie teaches Sandrine that sexual transgression can cause violent pleasure and give those who use it a powerful weapon to climb the social hierarchy. They decide to get a job in a bank, a place where victims abound.Nathalie teaches Sandrine that sexual transgression can cause violent pleasure and give those who use it a powerful weapon to climb the social hierarchy. They decide to get a job in a bank, a place where victims abound.
- Awards
- 2 wins
- Delacroix
- (as Roger Mirmont)
- Sandrine's Mother
- (as Lisa Hérédia)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaChosen by "Les Cahiers du cinéma" (France) as one of the 10 best pictures of 2002 (#01, with "Ten")
- GoofsThe level of champagne in Sandrine's glass varies from shot to shot on the first night in Nathalie's apartment.
- Quotes
Nathalie: Next chapter: Men, a user's manual. First pick a good one. But don't fall all over him. Play the good, innocent little girl. Let him play protector.
Sandrine: We can all do that. Guys just want to get laid and move on.
Nathalie: That's why you don't fuck 'em. At least not just like that. Without letting on, study them, get them talking. Discover their weak spots and passions: money, cars, I dunno... success, work. When you find out, you flatter them. Then, once you've chosen your man, you yield to him. Never on the first date. He'll think you're easy. Don't wait too long, either. After 3 or 4 dinners, then give him the works. Give him pleasure, make him think only he can make you climax, play the happy, docile woman, but not for too long. Soon in bed, you stop faking. Not seeing you climax will get him all worked up. Then without warning, drop him and start fooling around. Overtly. One night stands. If possible, with another woman. It'll humiliate him, drive him nuts. He'll come crawling back.
Sandrine: It works every time?
Nathalie: Just about. That's the mystery of human nature... we want what resists or escapes us.
Sandrine: Who taught you that?
Nathalie: Life. My mother. But she and I were poor. I also read a lot. I had schooling like you. It didn't keep us from enduing in the same strip club. We women lack confidence and daring. Someone always has to be behind us, egging us on. We're a bit like the working class. My mother said they'd stay that way for one reason: they didn't dare move up. "Dare!" That's what she'd always say. She knew about human nature.
Sandrine: Meanwhile, no guy ever made me come.
Nathalie: I know. And that's just fine!
Sandrine: If you say so.
Nathalie: You'll soon understand. What'd you do with your guy?
Sandrine: I faked it.
Nathalie: Why?
Sandrine: I wanted to make him happy.
Nathalie: No, you felt guilty, thinking it was your fault. You were wrong. Lesson 3: femmes fatales are usually narcissists or lesbians. They're frigid with men. They come when they want to, which isn't often. It's their strength. With famous courtesans...
Sandrine: Want to make me a call girl?
Nathalie: No, I'm teaching you about life. Now, with famous courtesans each guy wanted to succeed where others had failed. Pride will make a man spend a fortune to be seen with them. Frigidity helps with men. Sex enslaves you. The slave must be the other. Now you can come on your own, you're free. Get it?
Sandrine: What about love?
Nathalie: Our Enemy Number One. The real risk. In war, if you stop to think, you die. If we fall in love, we're done for. Has your life been such a thrill until now? Be realistic: no one'll help you change your life. True love can wait. Now show me how you fake it.
- ConnectionsReferenced in Cinema According to Brisseau (2007)
Two French hotties, Sandrine and Nathalie, are booted from the bar where they both work for refusing to have sex with a patron and defending that decision, respectively. Soon, they're moving in together and engaging in an endless series of sexual exploits themselves to prove they aren't like everyone else. If they can screw in public and get away with it, what _don't_ they have the nerve for? Both women are unemployed, and both have healthy sexual appetites. Why not use what they have to get what they want -- in this case, climb the corporate ladder? It's a logical step, I guess. But, then Sandrine seems perfectly competent in her new job without the sex stuff. Sure, all the men want her, and without having to so much as flash a smile their direction, she's on her way to being promoted. So, why the insistence on manipulating men, too? I mean, aside from the bar incident, have they been wronged in some way? What makes these women tick?
The film doesn't quite know, and it _has_ to. Otherwise, it's just sex scenes strung together in no discernible order for no apparent reason other than to be titillating on top of intellectual. Only, it isn't either, really. It's far too talky, for one thing, and it doesn't make a great deal of sense; someone please explain to me why there's a wedding in this film. If not for the occasional display of the female form in all its glory, SECRET THINGS would be unendurable. The overheated episodes between Sandrine and Nathalie (mostly the masturbatory variety) are energetic but redundant, and there's an EYES WIDE SHUT-esque orgy scene that comes out of left field, for no apparent reason other than two minutes have gone by without a sex scene. Then again, this movie hits narrative bankruptcy long before. And the ending, if you can stay awake long enough, is absurd.
SECRET THINGS is not nearly as brazen or interesting or complex as it thinks it is. I don't have the energy to hate it, nor would I waste it if I did. The projector stopped about three times throughout an interminable hour and fifty-minute running time; I wish it had stopped more.
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Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $105,090
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $9,421
- Jan 4, 2004
- Gross worldwide
- $234,255