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76
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60
9
17
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37
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53
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66
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45
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61
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55
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43
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66
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29
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23
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80
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61
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39
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xx
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30
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34
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60
Funny People
32
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27
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41
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39
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46
Halloween II
73
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78
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55
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66
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69
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58
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47
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66
Julie & Julia
34
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33
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54
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67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
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42
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28
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63
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86
Ponyo![]()
35
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48
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30
Saw VI
53
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24
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83
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33
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45
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55
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47
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96
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35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
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88
Up![]()
71
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67
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28
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73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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58
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96
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56
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72
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39
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78
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61
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66
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xx
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58
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72
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48
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73
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62
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55
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76
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86
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13
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70
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35
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71
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66
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51
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xx
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76
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26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
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45
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81
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70
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45
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xx
Carriers
55
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57
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62
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65
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69
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59
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44
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82
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75
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82
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67
Departures
xx
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71
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70
Earth Days
24
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85
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55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
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52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
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xx
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63
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73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
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29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
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41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
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xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
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89
Still Walking![]()
50
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55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
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61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
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66
Unmade Beds
66
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70
Visual Acoustics
55
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67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
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xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Secret, A

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 15 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | War
Written by:
Philippe Grimbert (novel)
Claude Miller
Directed by: Claude Miller
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 5, 2008
DVD: March 10, 2009
Running Time: 105 minutes, Color
Origin: France
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Cecile De France, Patrick Bruel, Ludivine Sagnier, Julie Depardieu, and Mathieu Amalric
A Secret follows the saga of a Jewish family in post-World War II Paris. François, a solitary, imaginative child, invents for himself a brother as well as the story of his parents` past. But on his fifteenth birthday, he discovers a dark family secret that ties his family`s history to the Holocaust and shatters his illusions forever. Adapted from Philippe Grimbert`s celebrated truth-inspired novel, Memory. (Strand Releasing)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Alias Betty La Petite Lili
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
A complicated family story that takes place in three distinct time periods, and that's handled with astonishing ease and fluidity by director Claude Miller.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
A gripping mystery and an ever-timely reminder of the terrible power of repression and silence.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray
A Secret is suitably tense, sad, and deeply poignant as it moves toward an epilogue exploring the idea that everything rots and decays, no mater how well-maintained.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Nearly every melodramatic impulse has been suppressed in favor of a calm precision that serves both to intensify and delay the emotional impact of the film’s climactic disclosures.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
A clanking, old-fashioned period drama infused with almost unbearable grief, Claude Miller's film A Secret has an enormous significance in France that it can never possess elsewhere.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The filmmaker's decision to shoot the past in color and the present in murky black and white is an inspired visual translation of psychological truth.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The acting is exceptional. If parts of A Secret veer toward soap opera, the ensemble work reduces the suds to a minimum.
Read Full Review >NPR Bob Mondello
Claude Miller's ravishingly shot drama A Secret gives up its titular mystery early, so it may seem odd to speak of the suspense it generates.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
A fine drama that stands as Gallic vet Claude Miller's best in at least a decade.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
Deepened by its complex back-and-forth chronology, deft shifts in perspective, and a significantly counterintuitive color-coding of past and present, A Secret suggests that it's not illicit passion, but rather the crime of denial, that has screwed up this family down the generations.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Beautifully acted and exquisitely photographed, director Claude Miller's superb drama, from Philippe Grimbert's autobiographical novel, is awash with the ripples created by unlived lives.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
The fractured timeline covers five decades, which Miller weaves together, with the past shot in color and the present in black and white. Still, the soapy climax is unnecessary.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
A structural mess that turns contrived just when it should be hitting home.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.8 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Ken G gave it a2:
I suppose there is an interesting story to tell here, but this movie tells it in such a tedious and (unnecessarily) round-about way, that it sucks all the poignancy, pathos, and power right out of this story.
Susan C. gave it a1:
Please, don't waste two hours of your lifetime watching this movie.
