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Secret Defense (Jacques Rivette) 1998
* * * 1/2 01-23-02 Jeremy Heilman
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I would complain that I figured out the ending of Jacques
Rivette’s Secret Defense about two
hours before it unspooled, but it was pointed out to me after I saw it that the
film is an updating of the Elektra myth (though this eluded me initially, I
clearly see it in retrospect), so I doubt the film’s goal was really
unpredictability. Its roots probably deserve a lot of credit for the sturdiness
of the plot, but what is exceptional about the film has little to do with its
narrative. Within ten minutes the entire setup is laid bare, and it’s only a
matter of time (a lot of time – the film is almost three hours long) before
the inevitable happens. It’s probably no spoiler to mention that this is a
revenge thriller, and Rivette uses this time to flesh out his characters and
their actions to the point where the movie feels closer to a novel than cinema.
The subject matter seems closer to Chabrol than typical Rivette, but the
spotlight is as focused on the actor’s performances as it is in any of
Rivette’s work. 
Sandrine Bonnaire, who plays Sylvie, the main character is
especially good here. She plays her retribution-seeking research scientist with
enough fierce intelligence that you can actually believe that she is working on
a cure for cancer. Her character evokes Ingrid Bergman in Notorious or Spellbound,
since she has the same mixture of smarts, beauty, and grace under
pressure. Everything that she does seems to be an extension of her
frustration with the situation that the film puts her in. As she goes about her
daily routine or rides on a train, we get a sense of her sense of determination.
Her behavior seems consistently thought through and befitting of a scientist’s
analytical mind, and the matter of fact way Rivette presents it makes even the
relatively free from directorial scheming and unsentimental In
the Bedroom feel like Hitchcock or Speilberg directed it.
The title Secret
Defense ultimately has less to do with espionage than it does with more
intimate secrets. The arms dealer in the film is misleadingly named Pax
Industries, letting the viewer know that outward appearances aren’t always
honest ones, and while the film’s tone is one that feels ill at ease with
anything that it presents. There’s a lovely moment where the camera stops to
linger at a group of workers in a plant, who work in a restricted area. The
camera wants to get to the bottom of things as much as we do, and rewards our
inquisitiveness. The tension arrives not out of chase scenes, but instead out of
the dour interactions between characters. The film’s premise has been done a
million times, and things always seem to unfold in unexpected ways, but Rivette
resists shocking us with the twists. As they are presented, they seem the
natural progression of the chain of events, and our focus stays on the
complexities of character. If every thriller were as intelligent and thorough as
Secret Defense, which eschews the
nervous pace of most entries in the genre, they might be seen as less “fun”
and more “good for you”, but I doubt we have to worry about that happening.