Secrets and Lies article

 Secrets and Lies article

Secrets and Lies is a film thats based around a successful black woman who manages to get into contact with her biological mother, who happens to be a white factory worker who lives in poverty is East London. This film is part of British cinema, as it takes a more realistic and relatable approach to storytelling, and uses real locations with lesser known actors. Secrets and Lies includes themes of class, race and gender throughout the film, and is largely based around just that. 

We can see the theme of class, and money is a big part of this film. We have Cynthia who is part of the lower class, living in a rented terraced house in east London, whilst her brother, a house owner who lives in North London in a nicely decorated house. She even has a daughter who is more successful than her, and owns a flat in North London. We can clearly see this divide in class and financial standing when Maurice comes to visit Cynthia, and uses the outside toilet. This comes as a shock to us as most houses have toilets that are indoors, so this really highlights the difference between the middle class and the lower-class, as they don't have things as common as indoor toilets. There is also the scene of when Maurice leaves Cynthias house and giver her money. This is like a flip of roles, as Maurice, the younger sibling is having to give his older sibling money. This could be due to the fact that there is no ‘man’ of the house figure in Cynthias life. It’s simply her and her daughter and there’s no main ‘bread winner’ which would typically be the husband. It’s almost as if Maurice if having to fill that role for her by giving her almost an allowance.

Secondly, there are quite a few scenes based around race. For starters, when Cynthia and Hortense meet. Cynthia and even Hortense are very confused when they find out the others race. Cynthia is very stubborn to not believe it as Hortense is black and according to her she’s “Never been with a black man before” and how she “Would of remembered it”. This shows how during the time, race was still a huge stigma and interracial couples were really really uncommon. Another major highlight of this theme of race, is when Monica goes to open the door and Roxannes party, and immediately tells Hortense that she’s “got the wrong door”. Monica was so quick to shut down the idea that any other race could even be involved with them which just enhances the racial stigma in the film.