Blake’s choice this week is Secretary (2002), a film you probably wouldn’t have rented for a quiet evening with your parents. Directed by Steven Shainberg and written by Erin Cressida Wilson, it stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader. This independent production had a reported $4 million budget and was filmed in Los Angeles, with carefully designed interiors giving it that slightly strange, almost dreamlike look.

Secretary won Sundance’s Special Jury Prize for Originality and helped put Gyllenhaal firmly on the map. Roger Ebert praised the lead performances and its handling of difficult subject matter. Its mix of awkward humour, tenderness and discomfort has kept people talking ever since, earning it a cult following well beyond its original release.

TRAILER GUY PLOT SYNOPSIS

In a world… where a fresh start comes with a typing test… Lee Holloway is looking for a job and a little independence. What she finds is a lawyer with exacting standards—and an approach to staff development that really should have been mentioned in the interview.

As the paperwork piles up, an unusual attraction takes hold. She wants direction. He likes giving orders. Neither is quite prepared for where this working relationship might lead.

This time… taking dictation is only the beginning. Secretary. A story of longing, control… and an HR department conspicuous by its absence.

FUN FACTS

  • Secretary began as a short story in Mary Gaitskill’s 1988 collection Bad Behavior.

  • On the page, the main character is called Debby Roe. Her boss is never named beyond “the lawyer”.

  • Angelo Badalamenti, a regular David Lynch collaborator, composed the score. That might explain why this office never feels entirely ordinary.

  • Listen out for Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man” and Lizzie West’s “Chariots Rise” on the soundtrack.

  • Shainberg and production designer Amy Danger spent two years planning the office spaces. Quite a commitment to getting the workplace right.

  • My Beautiful Laundrette inspired Shainberg’s approach to presenting an unconventional relationship as something natural.

  • The bent-over figure on the famous theatrical poster is a model, not Gyllenhaal.

  • Wilson picked up the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay for her work on Secretary.

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