The presence in the cast of Jean-Louis Trintignant, Philippe Noiret and Marlene Jobert should be enough to make ‘Le secret‘, Roberto Enrico’s 1974 film a memorable one. And yet this is an almost completely forgotten film. This seems completely incomprehensible to me, especially since besides the name and the acting of the three famous actors this is a film with many qualities, a psychological thriller of the best quality reminiscent of Hitchcock’s films – compact, well written, with solidly built characters that cannot be easily forgotten. In addition, it is a very actual film. If it had been made today, it would undoubtedly have been characterised as a political thriller.
This film also finds me in a very rare moment of disagreement with the opinions of my favorite film critic, Roger Ebert, who saw the film and wrote about it shortly after its release. Come on, Roger, one star out of four? Too predictable? The story of the film revolves around the mystery of the identity of David, the hero played by Trintignant, who escaped from an nightmarish institution that can be a psychiatric asylum for dangerous lunatics but can also be a prison where those who oppose the political regime are deprived of liberty and tortured or perhaps those who unintentionally found out a secret dangerous for state security are harshly interrogated to find out how much they know. Is David a dangerous psychotic killer, a paranoiac conspiracy theorist, or an innocent man trapped in a Kafkaesque situation? There is a solution to this dilemma and an explanation of the situation of the hero, which we learn practically in the last scene and the upheavals of situations and perceptions happen permanently. The relationship between the fugitive and the couple of intellectuals (he is a writer, she is an artist) could be a classic triangle consisting of an escapee and a hostage pair, but it is much more, because the characters are nuanced, the man and the woman each have their reasons for acting the way they do, and the interpretations of Philippe Noiret and Marlene Jobert are profound and create empathy. The pace at which the plot unfolds is perhaps slower than fans of action movies would expect, but there are enough moments of tension, both events-wise and psychological.
I recommend the viewing to those who have the opportunity to watch or re-watch ‘Le secret‘. The pleasure of seeing together the trio of formidable actors will be combined with the encounter with a well-written film, with a remarkable soundtrack signed by Ennio Morricone, which finds a perfect place among the good achievements of French cinema of the ’70s.