Mike Leigh

Secrets & Lies

Secrets & Lies

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.

Film Info

  • United Kingdom
  • 1996
  • 142 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.85:1
  • English, Greek
  • Spine #1070

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • 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

    New cover by Eric Skillman

Purchase Options

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • 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

    New cover by Eric Skillman
Secrets & Lies
Cast
Timothy Spall
Maurice
Phyllis Logan
Monica
Brenda Blethyn
Cynthia
Claire Rushbrook
Roxanne
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Hortense
Elizabeth Berrington
Jane
Michele Austin
Dionne
Lee Ross
Paul
Lesley Manville
Social worker
Ron Cook
Stuart
Emma Amos
Girl with scar
Hannah Davis
First bride
Credits
Director
Mike Leigh
Written by
Mike Leigh
Produced by
Simon Channing-Williams
Director of photography
Dick Pope
Editing by
Jon Gregory
Music by
Andrew Dickson
Production designer
Alison Chitty
Sound recordist
George Richards
Costume designer
Maria Price
Makeup
Christine Blundell
Production supervisor
Georgina Lowe

Current

Secrets & Lies: Seen and Not Seen
Secrets & Lies: Seen and Not Seen

Mike Leigh’s midcareer masterpiece is one of the finest examples of his ability to construct riveting drama from ordinary life.

By Ashley Clark