Secrets & Lies Newspaper Article
THE TRUTH BEHIND SECRETS & LIES
A class about class in Mike Leigh's Palme D'or winning 1996 film
Social realism in cinema has always been about the nature of
identity from Ozu’s aging grandparents in Tokyo Story¸ to Ray’s
coming-of-age protagonist in his Apu trilogy, to the Italian Neorealism
of De Sica and Rossellini, all of whom inspired Mike Leigh directly, and whose
influences can be seen across Secrets & Lies. Part of this sense of
identity is through the character/s’s relationship with their surrounding, and
that is most often expressed through issues of class, gender, and race.
Within the UK in the 1990s; class, gender, and race, were all being re-evaluated within society in Britain’s post-war, post-Thatcher, pre-Labour phase where
anything could happen politically and socially. Within Secrets & Lies,
Leigh explores how these ideas started to be explored as separate entities, despite being of
equal importance and in equal need of attention. Feminism was led by the white
middle-class through Riot Girrl, or the more manufactured Spice Girls, and,
issues with what causes more inequality – race or class? – led to a society
that said that a middle-class black man was less disadvantaged than a
lower-class white man, ignoring issues of race and only focusing on class, even
though racism was, and still is, systematic within the UK.
Not that the class system wasn’t a huge issue, and Leigh explores this through
the binary opposition of Cynthia’s family and Maurice’s family. Despite being
siblings, Maurice has ended up in the upper middle-class in a large, North
London house, whilst Cynthia still has to use an outdoor toilet down South, whilst
working in a factory. Within this, Maurice’s wife Monica resents Cynthia due to
her lower class status and chastises her for disadvantaging her daughter
Roxanne who now picks up litter for the council instead of going to university.
Even amongst siblings, the class divide is sorely felt.
Leigh then adds Cynthia’s adopted daughter Hortense into the mix, a middle-class
black woman, contrasting Cynthia’s lower-class, single-mother-based, white
family (before Hortense arrives, both Cynthia and Maurice live in families of two,
so class isn’t everything) and we watch as Cynthia, admittedly grappling with
the arrival of a daughter she gave away twenty-eight years ago being in her
life again, struggle to see past Hortense’s race within conversation, something
that hints at much bigger race issues if a non-racist, well-intentioned person is
doing this. And yet, Hortense is presented as being better off than her own
mother, and in regards to money that clearly is true, but when it comes to
social standing in the UK in the 1990s, well, Leigh leaves that ambiguous.
In the end, Cynthia’s quality-of-life is seriously diminished due to her lower-class
status, not least because of her teenage pregnancy with a black daughter
(adding gender and race “taboos” into the mix to show just how poor a run of
life Cynthia has). The irony is, of course, that none of these things would be
issues if it wasn’t for how society treats them as issues… but if that changed, then Mike Leigh
would be out of a job.
Within the UK in the 1990s; class, gender, and race, were all being re-evaluated within society in Britain’s post-war, post-Thatcher, pre-Labour phase where anything could happen politically and socially. Within Secrets & Lies, Leigh explores how these ideas started to be explored as separate entities, despite being of equal importance and in equal need of attention. Feminism was led by the white middle-class through Riot Girrl, or the more manufactured Spice Girls, and, issues with what causes more inequality – race or class? – led to a society that said that a middle-class black man was less disadvantaged than a lower-class white man, ignoring issues of race and only focusing on class, even though racism was, and still is, systematic within the UK.
Not that the class system wasn’t a huge issue, and Leigh explores this through the binary opposition of Cynthia’s family and Maurice’s family. Despite being siblings, Maurice has ended up in the upper middle-class in a large, North London house, whilst Cynthia still has to use an outdoor toilet down South, whilst working in a factory. Within this, Maurice’s wife Monica resents Cynthia due to her lower class status and chastises her for disadvantaging her daughter Roxanne who now picks up litter for the council instead of going to university. Even amongst siblings, the class divide is sorely felt.
Leigh then adds Cynthia’s adopted daughter Hortense into the mix, a middle-class black woman, contrasting Cynthia’s lower-class, single-mother-based, white family (before Hortense arrives, both Cynthia and Maurice live in families of two, so class isn’t everything) and we watch as Cynthia, admittedly grappling with the arrival of a daughter she gave away twenty-eight years ago being in her life again, struggle to see past Hortense’s race within conversation, something that hints at much bigger race issues if a non-racist, well-intentioned person is doing this. And yet, Hortense is presented as being better off than her own mother, and in regards to money that clearly is true, but when it comes to social standing in the UK in the 1990s, well, Leigh leaves that ambiguous.
In the end, Cynthia’s quality-of-life is seriously diminished due to her lower-class status, not least because of her teenage pregnancy with a black daughter (adding gender and race “taboos” into the mix to show just how poor a run of life Cynthia has). The irony is, of course, that none of these things would be issues if it wasn’t for how society treats them as issues… but if that changed, then Mike Leigh would be out of a job.
Daniel, this is weighty, engaging and lively. You take the reader through your ideas and sequence them to bring out their impact. Your material is handled effectively, demonstrating your knowledge of both Leigh and the film. What ultimately makes this piece an excellent read are the wider contextual details without which of course, the film would not quite work. Thank you Daniel for this sophisticated rendering, worthy of being posted to a film magazine website. A grade/ Band 5
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