catapult magazine

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discussion

The Secretary

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grant
Oct 01 2003
07:24 am

Who has seen this movie? I thought it was very unrealistic. I know a few secretaries and the job isn’t really like how the movie portrays it.

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dan
Oct 01 2003
03:22 pm

Yeah I saw it. I wasn’t impressed.

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Dave
Oct 01 2003
03:51 pm

Well I’m glad that’s settled.

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mrsanniep
Dec 21 2003
07:46 pm

I just saw this movie. You’re being facetious.

I liked its absurdity until the hunger strike. Then it went “Forrest Gump” on me and started to feel like overkill.

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Adam
Jan 07 2004
01:03 am

Are you sure, Grant? I was getting all excited to become a lawyer . . .

Dumb thing is, in order to get a Best Actress Oscar nowadays (like Maggie Gyllenhall deserved), apparently you have to make at least 15 schlock films first (Julia, Halle, etc.)

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Adam
Jan 07 2004
01:11 am

By the way, how do you really spell schlock? Is it shlock? The Secretary was not tszlock. Come on. The acting was phenomenal, the story was engaging and unpredictable, and it made different parts of your brain laugh than the ones that usually get to laugh. And don’t tell me it wasn’t funny. Or beautifully shot. Or kinky. Definitely kinky.

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dan
Jan 07 2004
06:58 am

The ending sucked. After an exciting and kinky office relationship, the two get married. The film’s final shot shows her waving good-bye to him as he goes off to work. How very disappointing and unimaginative. Any schlock will know that she won’t be happy sitting at home and that there is a new pretty secretary waiting for him at the office. Baaaaaaaah.

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mrsanniep
Jan 07 2004
10:24 am

I thought they should’ve ended the movie with her putting the cockroach on the bed.

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Adam
Jan 07 2004
08:04 pm

I was kind of hoping he was going to take out a really big red pen and circle her.

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grant
Jan 08 2004
09:34 am

Apparently, according to the DVD’s commentary, the director of the film intended us to think that she does put the cockroach in the bed, thus showing that they have found a way to have their cake and eat it too, a way to have a domesticated life together while still remaining kinky. It’s a heaven for sado-masochistic couples. And I will not deny that the film was funny. I love the shot where she’s sitting at the big desk, waiting for the boss to come back from lunch. The sign in the middle of the desk says in big letters “RECEPTION” and she’s just sitting there waiting for him. But there wasn’t enough of that kind of thing. There was also some interesting ideas about our relationship to a punishing God but that didn’t seem to pan out in the end, or did it?

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mrsanniep
Jan 08 2004
10:26 am

I saw the DVD commentary also and I don’t think the director INTENDED for us to THINK she put the cockroach on the bed … in the movie she actually DID put the roach on the bed and they showed a shot of it sitting on the bedspread.

Also, I recall one of the actors/actresses saying it was a movie about an ordinary sadomasochistic relationship, much like we’ve seen more and more gay relationships portrayed (whether accurately or inaccurately is another discussion) in film and television.