By: debbie lynn elias
One of the beauteous elements of Emile Zola’s work is that, when done properly, story adaptations can be transported from one era to another, and in some cases, as with IN SECRET, even blur the genre line to meld temporal lines. IN SECRET does just that. Timeless in story, classic in its telling, shift the setting from 1867 France and England to 20th century 1940’s New York or Los Angeles, toss in Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray instead of Elizabeth Olsen and Oscar Isaac, and you have a perfect noir film. Charlie Bratton’s adaptation would be as easily at home with a 20th/21st century setting as 19th century. After all, aren’t crimes of passion always in fashion?
A sea traveler by trade, Therese’s father has left her in the care of his sister/her aunt, Madame Raquin. The arrangement is perfect as Therese’s father is sending money to care for his daughter and Madame has a young son of her own, Camille, who will be a perfect playmate for Therese. Serving as Camille’s playmate and essentially a servant to Madame, Therese has a lonely existence, dreaming of the day when her father will return and take her away. But such is not to be as she gets word her has passed away, leaving her alone and now penniless. An orphan, Therese is unfit for any “proper” husband, but Madame has a plan. Therese will marry Camille and the three of them will live together. Camille will earn the money but Therese will still be in servitude.
No longer content to live in the French countryside, the trio move to the City where Camille has taken a job. Money from the sale of their country home is used for Madame to buy a dress shop where Therese will, of course, toil and slave for her mother-in-law. One Thursday night (as this was get together game night), Camille brings home a childhood friend now working at the same company with Camille. Laurent is everything Camille is not. Laurent is strong, sexy, dark haired with piercing dark eyes. He smolders with every look, every movement, every unspoken word. Camille is a foppish, greasy-haired wimpy mama’s boy oozing Oedipal tendencies. And he has never sexually satisfied the long repressed Therese. Laurent and Therese have an immediate connection. You can feel the heat rising from the screen it is so intense. It doesn’t take long for the two to become embroiled in a passionate affair, ultimately plotting to get rid of Camille so they can leave Madame and run away together.
Needless to say, there is killing, but also remorse, guilt and, aha, no money for Therese and by extension Laurent, as Camille’s will left all his holdings to his mother. Where does that leave the young lovers? Under the thumb of Madame Raquin and IN SECRET ensconcing itself in noir driven elements and tone.
Written and directed by Charlie Stratton, IN SECRET embodies the 19th century world while capturing the forward-thinking contemporary mores and emotions of Emile Zola’s original novel in what I would describe as one of his most intensely evocative and sexually driven works. As difficult as it is to put down the book, it is equally so to not look at the screen. Characters are rich, full bodied, ready to burst forth with emotional color and depth at every moment. Story engages, intrigues and fascinates. But then there’s performance.
Most took note of Oscar Isaac for the first time with Inside Llewyn Davis. I can’t urge you strongly enough to see him here as Laurent. Ladies, his smoldering sexiness will have you drooling and lusting for more. Dark, mysterious, hotter than the hottest sex. Isaac is made for period pieces and seduction.
As Therese, Elizabeth Olsen runs the emotional gamut, drawing you ever deeper into the web of lies and intrigue. A magnificent descent into emotional darkness and guilt that is transformative. seductive controlled emotion explodes. With IN SECRET, Olsen delivers an accomplished level of emotional maturity. And together, she and Isaac are scintillating.
Tom Felton is a buffoon and fop, and perfect at it. As mama’s boy Camille, Felton capitalizes on the braggadocios nature and weaknesses of his well known Draco Malfoy character from “Harry Potter” and then pushes it further with a suppressed intentional maliciousness. Brilliantly done.
What can one say about Jessica Lange. Deliciously Oedipal with a malevolent edge. A crowning glory of manipulation. Captivating subtle nuance and texture that sizzles. Lange is rapier, walking the fine line of obsession and a mother’s love. Without a doubt, as Madame, Lange delivers one of the best performances of her career.
The meld of production elements with IN SECRET is flawless with each reliant upon and enhancing the other starting with Florian Hoffmeister’s cinematography. The first half of the film is as if we are looking at masterpiece paintings celebrating the beauty and light of nature. Capturing the careful apportionment of set pieces as if that in a Vermeer, there is a deliberate beauty to Uli Hanisch’s production design that is showcased by Hoffmeister. On moving location to Paris, this is not the beautiful Paris. This is a Paris that is grimy, gritty, dirty. Smoke from coal stoves, oil lamps and candles permeate the air and cover the world with a thin sooty film and is lensed so as to be palpable. Again thanks to Hanisch, the Parisian alley where the Raquins live looks like Harry Potter’s Diagon Alley gone bad! (Which is perfect for Felton, not to mention his “Potter” co-star Shirley Henderson who appears here as family friend and busybody Suzanne.) Costumes by Pierre-Yves Gayraud are beautiful with Hoffmeister’s lighting and lensing capturing the texture of the fabrications from the watery weave of a moire silk to the heaviness of a mourning broadcloth.
Visual tone is fueled with light and shadow, particularly when making use of negative space, never more effective than after Camille’s death as does as much to tell the story as the performances. The editing team of Paul Tothill, Celia Haining and Leslie Jones work in tandem with Hoffmeister’s eye, using pacing and cutting to capture the lust and emotion of Therese and Laurent. Sunlight warmth with half shadow just fuels the naughty nature of the deed. Metaphor plays heavy with visual tonal bandwidth as life gets darker and grimmer once murder is done while some underwent lensing is magical. A perfect contrast to the underlying darkness of multiple sins.
One shortcoming, however, is a story disconnect, a missing piece. How do we jump so quickly in such a repressed world to the infidelity and hot lust. That’s never really sufficiently fleshed out.
There’s nothing secret about IN SECRET. It sizzles and satiates.
Directed by Charlie Stratton
Written by Charlie Stratton based on the play by Neal and the novel “Therese Racquin” by Emile Zola
Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Oscar Isaac, Tom Felton, Jessica Lange, Shirley Henderson
