Un Secret

Un Secret or A Secret as it's billed in an exclusive engagement at the Angelika Film Center weaves a moody tale that revolves around a Jewish family during and after WWII. Directed by Claude Miller and featuring a tony French cast A Secret gives you thematic reason to like it even though the story uses a disconcerting flashback narrative structure that makes its characters a cypher.
The story unfolds from the point of view of a character played by Matthieu Amalric (François) as an adult, and two younger actors as a youngster and a teen. Some scenes are told in black and white while other sequences from a past time period are nuanced color. This scheme doesn't really compel your attention.
The head of the family, Maxime (Patrick Bruel) is torn between two women during the war. Both Cecile de France (High Tension) and Ludivine Sagnier (current French It Girl) vie for his attention. The disjointed remembrance by young François clouds the audience's ability, at first anyway, to know what parts of the story are real and what parts young François makes up to fill his imagination.
At some point the family's Jewishness comes into question and Maxime, a non religious type anyway, disavows his heritage. Miller adds ghastly real footage of concentration camp victims during a couple of montages to make sure we're on the same page.
A Secret never overwhelms the viewer by trying to be strictly a mystery, and once the boy's story comes full circle the story plays more as a domestic drama. The actors are the main reason to see the film, especially de France's turn as an athletic swimmer.