Directed by:
Mike LeighScreenplay:
Mike LeighCinematography:
Dick PopeComposer:
Andrew DicksonCast:
Timothy Spall, Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Phyllis Logan, Claire Rushbrook, Elizabeth Berrington, Michele Austin, Lesley Manville, Ron Cook (more)Plots(1)
Writer-director Mike Leigh reached new levels of expressive power and intricacy in his ongoing contemplation of unembellished humanity with this resonant exploration of the deceptions, small and large, that shape our relationships to those we love. 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 desperately 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 the surface of everyday lives. (Criterion)
(more)Cast
Timothy Spall
UK
Best movies:
The King's Speech (2010)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
The Last Samurai (2003)
Brenda Blethyn
UK
Best movies:
Anne Frank: The Whole Story (2001) (TV movie)
Atonement (2007)
Between the Sheets (2003) (series)
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
UK
Best movies:
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Secrets & Lies (1996)
New Year's Day (2000)
Phyllis Logan
UK
Best movies:
Wallander (2008) (series)
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989) (series)
Claire Rushbrook
UK
Best movies:
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Inspector George Gently (2007) (series)
Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)
Elizabeth Berrington
UK
Best movies:
Secrets & Lies (1996)
In Bruges (2008)
Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989) (series)
Michele Austin
Best movies:
NT Live: Cyrano de Bergerac (2020) (theatrical recording)
Secrets & Lies (1996)
All or Nothing (2002)
Lesley Manville
UK
Best movies:
An Adventure in Space and Time (2013) (TV movie)
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Cranford (2007) (series)
Ron Cook
UK
Best movies:
Chernobyl (2019) (series)
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Chocolat (2000)
Clare Perkins
Best movies:
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Ladybird Ladybird (1994)
Clapham Junction (2007) (TV movie)
Joe Tucker
UK
Best movies:
Chernobyl (2019) (series)
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Wire in the Blood (2002) (series)
Peter Wight
UK
Best movies:
Atonement (2007)
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Phil Davis
UK
Best movies:
Sherlock (2010) (series)
Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982)
In the Name of the Father (1993)
Ruth Sheen
UK
Best movies:
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989) (series)
A Street Cat Named Bob (2016)
Nitin Ganatra
Kenya
Best movies:
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Truly Madly Deeply (1990)
Alison Steadman
UK
Best movies:
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Shirley Valentine (1989)
Dalziel and Pascoe (1996) (series)
Mia Soteriou
Best movies:
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Eastern Promises (2007)
Daniel Deronda (2002) (TV movie)
Gary McDonald
UK
Best movies:
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Wire in the Blood (2002) (series)
All or Nothing (2002)
Richard Syms
UK
Best movies:
Sherlock (2010) (series)
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Hornblower: Duty (2003) (TV movie)
Anthony O'Donnell
UK
Best movies:
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Skyfall (2012)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1998) (TV movie)