This film was horribly disappointing. I can't believe I actually sat through the full film. What bothered me the most about this film was that it was so clearly written by a man, for men. The director tried to push the idea that these two female characters were lovers through sexual scenes, but denied them any substantial character development or even dialog between each other. Their relationship was almost entirely for the male gaze. It is made known that the main character Sandrine had always been unhappy with her male partners and that she was quite obviously lesbian, but halfway through the film she was gushing over her sadistic boss. Just a few conversations with this creepy man and they were both LITERALLY ready to kill themselves, take a disgusting amount of abuse, and even forgive rape. At the beginning of the film, you get the impression of two strong female characters taking control of their lives and finding empowerment through their own sexuality, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. I am willing to forgive the horrible lines, unnecessary incest, and blatantly obvious foreshadowing, but the inconsistencies were unforgivable.

First of all I think something should be clarified, namely the explicitness of this film. If you are familiar with French films, there is a relatively little amount of full frontal nudity. And the sex scenes are on par with those of many a British film. Though that being said whilst the nudity of french cinema might be there to merely add a simple level of realism or aesthetic to the film, and the sex of British cinema be there again to add realism and a bit of British bravado. Les Choses Secretes uses sex merely as a plot device, and since the plot is pretty awful, so is the sex and by extension, the film.The film starts with a woman masturbating in front of a big crowd of people at a bar. The bar tender is a young twenty something who seems to have formidable maths skills yet is working at a sleazy bar(?). She befriends the masturbating lady and from then the two girls seem intent on playing a game of manipulating men for no apparent reason other than to assert their female dominance on them.What has the potential of being an interesting treatise on feminism, ends up essentially being a misogynistic bore. Whilst the first two acts keep you mildly interested with suspense to see how things unfold, it is the third act which ruins the film. Too much is given too late, we are suddenly confronted with a character, and a whole other plot dimension within the last 10 minutes. We are left asking many questions and none of them are answered. This coupled with a bizarrely surprising orgy scene and a curiously operatic score, shows how confused the film is. It sits on the fine line between potentially an arty shoot and a soft core porn shoot.It would have been a lot better if it chose to be one or the other.

Two women who work at a bar decide to use sex to get what they want from life. While they become very successful, things also end up taking a turn or two that they didn't expect. I liked this very adult movie very much. This is a very sexy movie with some very likable women as the leads. The prospect of using sex as a means to an end is of course a way of life for many people, both male and female, and here we see it in action. Watching it I was surprised by how the film didn't go in the directions I thought it would and was pleased that it wasn't this dark noirish tale that cover art seemed to imply.Actually as I was watching the film I was struck by how much this film reminded me of Exterminating Angels, another off beat, but in a good way, French film about a director trying to get the right women to perform sexually for a film he was doing. When I checked IMDb after watching Secret Things I found that the director for both films was the same and that the process of making Secret Things was the inspiration for Exterminating Angels. I can't wait to have a double feature. A great deal of nudity and sexual activity, so keep this away from the kids. Recommended.

A stripper and a barmaid walk into a bar...um no (although that would have made a more interesting film)...they move in together, carry on with each other, and find employment at a bank so that they can seduce men and move up in the world. There is also an orgy scene that seems to be borrowed from another movie. In the end it tries to become an art movie with something important to say. The fact is this film does not know what it wants to be when it grows up. The direction is pretentious and the acting is lame. Even the extended opening strip scene becomes tedious. Somehow this drivel was given the Best Film award by the famous French periodical Cashiers du Cinema.