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Secrets & Lies is a British film of genre Drama directed by Mike Leigh released in USA on 24 may 1996 with Timothy Spall
Secrets & Lies (1996)
Secrets and Lies
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Add to a movie listSecrets & Lies is a 1996 British drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh. Led by an ensemble cast consisting of many Leigh regulars, it stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Hortense, a well-educated black middle class London optometrist, who was adopted as a baby and has chosen to trace her family history – only to discover that her birth mother, Cynthia, played by Brenda Blethyn, is a working class white woman with a dysfunctional family. Claire Rushbrook co-stars as Cynthia's other daughter Roxanne, while Timothy Spall and Phyllis Logan portray Cynthia's brother and sister-in-law, who have secrets of their own affecting their everyday family life.
Secrets & Lies was one of the films competing for the Palme d'Or at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. It eventually won three awards, including the Best Actress award for Blethyn and the Palme d'Or. Critically acclaimed, the film won numerous other awards, including the Goya Award for Best European Film and the LFCC Award for Film of the Year. At the 50th British Academy Film Awards, the film received seven nods, winning both Best British Film and Best Original Screenplay. It also received five Academy Award nominations, while Blethyn also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama for her portrayal.
Synopsis
The film tells the story of Hortense Cumberbatch, a successful black middle class optometrist in London, who is adopted and has chosen to trace her family history after the death of her adoptive mother. After being warned by public officials about the troubles she could face by tracking her birth mother down, she continues her investigation and is baffled to learn that her birth mother is white but does not resent her and wants to know more about her past. Her birth mother, Cynthia Purley, is working class and downwardly mobile. Hortense meets her and later meets Cynthia's brother, Maurice Purley, a photographer, his wife Monica, and Cynthia's daughter Roxanne, a street cleaner.Actors
Timothy Spall
(Maurice Purley)
Brenda Blethyn
(Cynthia Rose Purley)
Phyllis Logan
(Monica Purley)
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
(Hortense Cumberbatch)
Claire Rushbrook
(Roxanne Purley)
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Suggestions of similar film to Secrets & Lies
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