Secrets and Lies sequence analysis

 Secrets and Lies sequence analysis

Roxanne and Cynthia in the living room

This scene in the film gives you a really strong idea of what British realism in film is all about. From the actions and dialogue and also mise-en-scene. The elements of film form also connect with Mike Leigh as an auteur. For starters, the conversation between Cynthia and Roxanne is never interrupted by any jump cuts as it is all captured in one long shot. This is very common throughout the movie as the director Mike Leigh is known for using very long shots in order to really put you in the scene without any jump cuts to break your concentration. However, you know this long shot won’t last very long as throughout the movie, Cynthia and Roxanne have quite a dysfunctional relationship and never really have any long conversations before Roxanne runs off or breaks the conversation. This dysfunctional relationship between the two can be associated with the aspects of British realism in film. This scene has more very strong links with aspects of British realism, firstly, the dialogue. Cynthia and Roxanne have very cockney like accents which can be seen as unprofessional and linked with the lower class which is the main focus of many British realism films. Secondly, the mise-en-scene. At first the living room doesn’t seem to reflect their social class too much, but then if you compare it to Maurice and Monicas living room that we saw earlier on, you can kind of tell that there is a bit of a financial divide between the two as Cynthias living room seems a lot more aged and dull compared to Maurice's, and in addition, when Roxanne goes to open the door you can see the their hallway seems to be in quite bad shape with a cracked front door, and discoloured wallpaper.

Maurice visiting Cynthia

Whilst in this scene the shot types are quite different to those in the scene mentioned above, it still captures the elements of British realism quite well. Whilst there was a long shot at the beginning of the scene when Maurice was walking into the kitchen, that was cut off by Maurice going to the toilet which happened to be outside. This is quite unusual today but older houses used to have the toilets outside rather than inside. This once again captures the difference in social standing with Maurice and Cynthia which one again is a huge aspect of British realism. Once Maurice comes inside and they sit down and talk, instead of having them both in the same shot and having another long shot like they did with the conversations between Cynthia and Roxanne, there were jump cuts between the characters when they spoke and they weren’t in the same shot. This use of editing and camera work further divides the two siblings and represents the social and financial gap between them. Additionally you can see the difference in the dialogue between the two as Cynthia has her cockney accent and way of talking whilst Maurice has a more Northern accent which could be seen as more ‘proper’. Over all this scene really strengthens the idea of British realism through the representation of the lower class through Cynthia and then the working/middle class through Maurice through the use of the Jump cuts, mise-en-scene and dialogue.