Hidden (cache) [DVD]

Georges and Anne Laurent have a great life: Georges is a successful television host of a book discussion and review program and Ann does book and author p.r. They have a beautiful home and a smart and caring, 12 year old son, Pierrot. Then one day a package arrives containing a vhs tape wrapped in a drawing of a blood spattered man. The tape is of Georges and Ann's house, taken from across the street: they are being watched. But by whom and why? The packages continue to arrive, the tapes become more confrontational and the drawings more graphic.Director and Screenwriter, Michael Haneke (the controversial and blatantly sexual "The Piano Teacher") is operating on several levels and his motives are almost entirely implicit though "Cache'" on a very basic level is very tightly wound, suspenseful and operates on the very highest level of intelligence: as in the very best films, Haneke shows rather than tells us.As the movie progresses and the tapes become more personal, Georges is forced to confront the sins of his past and that of his family towards an Algerian orphan, Majid who once lived with Georges family.Haneke is on a first name basis with Obsession and the obsessive personality: the wheres, the whys and the hows. "The Piano Teacher" is nothing if not a treatise on the big "O." Deeply hidden in the bowels of his psyche, Georges guilt also becomes an obsession: is he a participant in his own victimization? Is he sending himself the tapes and the gruesome pictures as a way of expiating his guilt?"Cache'" addresses the French Algerians ongoing conflict with the French government both socially and morally, issues of personal and collective Guilt as well as the complicated morass of wife/husband relationships... particularly those dealing with communication or lack thereof.The films ambiguous final scene shot at Pierrot's school at the end of the school day with students mingling, talking, joking with each other,just being young...is troubling and infuriating in its dense obtuseness; particularly when Majid's son shows up: there are at least four ways of interpreting this scene and each one can be supported by what is up on the screen: masterful."Cache'" is a refined, intelligent and difficult film. Haneke does not offer any easy answers and absolutely no solutions nor does he allow his characters any absolution. The road here is jammed with moral pot holes and danger signs. Proceed with caution: "Cache's" journey may be difficult but the destination is rife with relevant and well observed lives in turmoil.

"Caché", or "Hidden", is about a Parisian married couple for whom life appears ideal. They are professionally successful, he as the producer and host of a TV arts programme, and she in publishing. They have one son about 13 years old, a nice house and a close circle of interesting friends. Life is more or less perfect. Then one day they receive a video tape from an anonymous source. It shows the street where they live, with their front door as the focus. The tape runs for about two hours. In it they see themselves leave their own house on their way to work, their son leaving for school. They see cars pass, pedestrians pass, and a lot of nothing happening at all. A few days later another similar tape arrives. Then another. There is nothing overtly threatening in the tapes, but someone is obviously watching them. Their life has suddenly and eerily changed.I saw "Caché" on TV about a year ago and found it utterly intriguing, so much so that I recently I bought the DVD so that I could watch it again. The film is written and directed by the Austrian director, Michael Haneke and anyone who is familiar with his work ("Funny Games", "Amour", "The Piano Teacher") will know not to expect the usual formulaic movie style. Haneke deals in harsh realities and non sugar-coated pills. He presents us with life-like complexities and outcomes. Life is full of loose ends and unresolved questions, as are the films of Michael Haneke. But they are so much more powerful for it. The husband and wife are superbly played by Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche. The film is in French so I required the English subtitles which did not take from it in any way.As is the case with all his work (that I have seen) everyone and everything looks normal. There is no Hollywood gloss - these people might be our neighbours, the places might be our neighbourhoods. The dialogue is as we might speak ourselves - no super-smart bull. The film is shot with a lot of fixed-frame, long-take shots. Everything is beautifully done. It is totally superb.And what it is about? Well, the scene is set as I mention above. The rest you must watch yourself. There are two excellent "extra features" on the DVD including an interview with Haneke in which he states that the film is about guilt, about accepting or rejecting the blame for bad things that happen because of something that we have done (even unwittingly, or innocently) and how one deals with that acceptance or rejection.I would really like to tell you more about the film because I loved it so much, but anything I tell you will not do it justice and may even spoil it for you somewhat. Just watch it - it is cinema as it should be.But, if I may, one thing..well, two things.1> Watch out towards the end (ok, how will you know it's towards the end?..well it's almost 2 hours in) for a scene of a farmyard, empty except for the presence of a few chickens, and with the sound of a car engine fading into the distance. It is more powerful in its few minutes than most mainstream films are in their entirety.2> The final scene. Very mysterious...what is it about? I had really no idea but it still moved me powerfully. Then I watched the Haneke Interview and I knew a little more, and also found myself amongst the approx 50% of viewers who had missed something that is relevant in that scene. After the interview I watched the scene again and then I pointed out what we had missed to my wife and she said "OnmyGodddd!!!"Actually, it doesn't matter if you miss the thing in that scene, but if you do happen to notice, well...my wife put it perfectly..."onmyGodddd!!!"Oh, and finally, the film's name "Caché", or "Hidden". What exactly is it that is hidden? "The truth". Haneke tells us, "The truth is always hidden. There are a thousand versions of the truth. It depends on your point of view."Stunningly good cinema.

The film sometimes, unforgivably to some, plods along snails pace but the relationships and diaglogue is far from redundant. They are instead, rich with meaning and intrigue and hugely relevant to the conclusion. You have to look for the clues rather than have them provided on a platter, but the answers to the entire film - what it is really about and why things happen the way they do and why the film is named 'Hidden' really lay in the final two scenes. This is a whodunit of a more complex kind (it is no Miss Marple) whereby you get to choose the guilty party, with merely a subtle pointer of two to help you get started, because the one provided for you from shot one is really a giant red herring. Well worth a watch, provided you are up for something a bit deeper than your usual Agatha Christie Potboiler. There are a couple of scenes in the movie which could be distressing, which is why it is rated 18. Not a night to tuck into KFC and large fries.

A stunning and engrossing slow-burner, with a very open-ended development and denouement. The director plays with the topic of guilt and lies (and their ramifications) on different levels. Pay careful attention to the closing scene, on the steps of the school, just before the credits roll, as it will probably colour your interpretation. In the interview with the director (Haneke), the latter remarks that about half the viewers miss that "something" which is crucial, and with it, the point(or one of them). I (shame on me) fell into the unwitting miss-the-scene half, but luckily my wife didn't, so I rewound.

Obscure plot,worth reading Wikipedia explanation first.Excellent acting main characters.Atmospheric,if there is a book suggest read it first!

This has to be the most intriguing and interesting film I have seen in a long time. As the hours and days pass since I first watched it, I continue to see new angles and dimensions to this film. It operates on many levels. Everything is not what it seems. It is a film of the unconscious.The viewer gets a clue to what the film is about in the form of what seems an amusing little anecdote told over a smart dinner party.On the face of it, all is comfortable, intriguing, successful, attractive, even enviable, from a bourgeoise perspective. But scratch the surface of anything and something uncomfortable lurks beneath. The film is often considered frustrating because, like our own shadow, all is not knowable. The unconscious is not available for scrutiny, analysis and clear-cut answers. Hidden takes the viewer unwittingly down a scenic route of their own selfish assumptions.Haneke very cleverly uses the viewers own 'greed' to know, to unravel, to make sense and have tidy answers of the obvious story line. He also plays with our fears and opinions to test our self-honesty in terms of where we deny our own shadow self.The viewer is taken through a series of value systems that scream out man's inhumanity to man. We skim along the edges of our dark sides. Where we truly dare to dip in and allow the experience of dischord, there is, at least, some honesty and integration of self.In our quest to quickly find solutions, we must make snap judgements, entertain suspicions, all without really seeing much more than the facade. We have hints and clues that something incongruous pulses through each dynamic but we are consistently frustrated to discover the full 'that which is hidden'.How quickly did we sweep away all that was uncomfortable? Majid's removal from the family home was so shocking by virtue of its starkness. And, yet, it symbolised how the psyche treats its own troubled thoughts. Instead of nurturing them into wellness, they are swept away to suffer, abandoned and neglected. The more their presence is denied, the more empowered they become to haunt and disturb, even the innocence.How long, one must ask, did we dare to really feel and investigate the darkness? Or did we prefer to grasp at a neat get-out and pretend all was not so bad. However, in the quest to have our own mind satisfied and made tidy again, the viewer makes judgements and treats the instances of other people's suffering as fodder for our own selfish quest of knowledge and answers.It is a film that is essentially self-reflective of our own darkness. It gives huge scope to ponder where, in each scene, the psyche dared to look beneath, at what point that became too uncomfortable to stay with, which issues did we drop and reassure ourselves that it was not so bad and what values we were willing to slide along with to assuage ambiguity.The thriller aspect was a very clever vehicle with which to deliver the hidden film beneath.