neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Secret Things
	Jean-Claude Brisseau Coralie Revel, Sabrina Seyvecou, Roger Mirmont, Fabrice Deville, Blandine Bury 2002		"Secret Things" — or "Choses Secrètes," if you want to get all Euro about it — is a steamy mix of melodrama, sexual politics and high-gloss erotic frenzy from France. Think fetish-y soap opera with full frontal nudity. Cunning, omnisexual Nathalie (Coralie Revel) and the comparatively inexperienced Sandrine (Sabrina Seyvecou) meet at a Parisian strip club where the former dances on stage and the latter works behind the bar. When these beauties reject the unseemly advances of their boorish boss, they're fired. Nathalie then suggests that she and Sandrine use their obvious charms to manipulate prosperous businessmen for boudoir kicks and financial gain. Finding employment at a bank office and targeting a couple of their superiors, the girls go wild. Handsome, obscenely wealthy Christophe (Fabrice Deville), the bank director's son, is the ultimate prize to Nathalie and Sandrine, but he may be more perverse and cold-hearted than they are. He's also an invitation to jealousy and betrayal. Although writer/director Jean-Claude Brisseau rolls out orgy scenes evoking Kubrick's thoughtful erotic odyssey "Eyes Wide Shut," "Secret Things" isn't intellectually stimulating. And who cares, when it's so easy to peep at those lovely, entangled bodies? Soft-core sexploitation with highbrow pretensions has seldom been more entertaining that it is here.