Secrets And Lies (1995) (Blu-ray) (UK Import)

An expert observer of unembellished humanity, writer-director Mike Leigh reached new levels of expressive power and intricacy with this exploration of the deceptions, small and large, that shape our relationships. When Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), a Black optometrist who was adopted as a child, begins the search for her birth mother, she doesn’t expect that it will lead her to Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn, winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s best actress award), a lonely white factory worker whose tentative embrace of her long-lost daughter sends shock waves through the rest of her already fragile family. Born from a painstaking process of rehearsal and improvisation with a powerhouse ensemble cast, Secrets & Lies is a Palme d’Or–winning tour de force of sustained tension and catharsis that lays bare the emotional fault lines running beneath everyday lives.

Specials

New 2K digital restoration, approved by director Mike Leigh and director of photography Dick Pope, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
New conversation between Leigh and composer Gary Yershon
New conversation between actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste and film critic Corrina Antrobus
Audio interview with Leigh, conducted by film critic Michel Ciment in 1996
Trailer
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by film programmer and critic Ashley Clark

Rezensionen

film-dienst 10/96: "Ein künstlerisch herausragender, emotional anrührender und zutiefst warmherziger Film über Menschen, die sich vom Leben betrogen fühlen und ihren Schutz hinter einem Gespinst von Lügen und Geheimnissen suchen, am Ende jedoch die befreiende Kraft der Wahrheit erfahren und zu vertiefter Zuneigung und Liebe befähigt werden.​ Sehenswert.​"