I really want to start off this review by suggesting my readers to, if you haven't already, to really watch some international cinema. You would find some awesome stories, great direction, and exciting, thrilling characters. I used to be bias and not enjoy international cinema but recently I have realized that they are sometimes better than half the movies that come out here in America. I highly suggest to explore international cinema because you will enjoy it more than you may believe. So for this week's taste of international cinema I decided to check out Haneke's Caché (Hidden). Haneke caught my eye with Funny Games and I was always interested in seeing what else he had to offer for cinema. So what is Caché (Hidden) and will it be another great piece of international cinema? Read on and find out...
Caché (Hidden) is about a regular family the Laurents including Georges (Daniel Auteuil), Anne (Juilette Binoche), and their son Pierrot. Their normal life is shaken when they start receiving video tapes of his family and his life. The tapes are outside of his house, following him, or even taping his conversations. Since the police won't help, Georges must dig into his past to try to discover who is doing this and Anne must dig the truth out of her husband all while trying to keep her family from falling apart. Who is sending the tapes? What in Georges' past is the key to the mysterious camera man? Watch Caché (Hidden) or read my review to find out...
Caché (Hidden) is really a movie about how you act when you know someone is watching you. Some people like to use the phrase "you know the feeling when you think someone is watching you" but what if you actually knew someone was watching you. Not only are they watching you, but they send you tapes to taunt you about watching you. In this film it explores three different reactions to this change of events and I will explore each one.
The main protagonist, Georges, has the most important and interesting reaction to the tapes. From the beginning and throughout the film he seems uneasy and withholding information. We the audience sympathize with his wife because we too want him to just come out and say what happen. As we explore his past we realize that what Georges has been hiding is guilt and he decide that instead to get over it he ignored it. That guilt is finally coming back to haunt him. I do not want to say what it is that haunts him because its a nice slow revelation and it leaves you even questioning what happened so I will leave that for you to find out. The most interesting part of Georges' character is that he never actually gets hurt or threatened but the thing that terrorizes him is his own guilt. It builds up and up and it tears him up on the inside. It does get sad at the end because he never learns his lessons and continues to ignore his guilt so closure is out of reach. So this movie really plays with guilt and shows you how guilt will eventually come back. This role is thanks to Daniel Auteuil who really captured Georges perfectly. He seemed uneasy and withholding throughout the film along with a slight edge of obsession.
Georges' wife, Anne, represents us the audience. While there are more personal battles like trust and relationship issues, we side with Anne because we stand outside of Georges and must work with him to find out what really is going on. She is trying to be helpful and be part of solving this problem but Georges just holding back information to help. Anne is played by the awesome Juliette Binoche, who you have probably seen in Dan in Real Life or The English Patient. She is emotional and realistic but at the same time seems to have some hidden issues as well. Overall she was strong but unfortunately Georges overshadows her.
The last exploration is that of the cameraman himself. The cameraman is a scary character because throughout the film he knows just way too much about Georges life, even if he lies to Anne he sends tapes to prove his lies (which plays in themes much later in the film). Still, much debate has been done over who the cameraman is but from what I saw I have a good theory. It must been a combination of Pierrot and Majid's son. Majid, to help you understand, is an adopted brother of Georges and seems to have issues with Georges and their past. His son is seen to be aware of their history and is passionate at the end to make sure Georges feel guilty for his actions. At the same time, Pierrot knows too much about his mom and her get together with some friends. To explain, Anne spends a little too much time with a friend's husband and Pierrot suspects adultery. The weird thing is that the only way he would know of their get togethers is if he was following them or if he had seen the tapes. There is also a weird scene with Majid's son who mentions that Georges is good at making threats, which is a clear sign that Majid's son must have been watching the tapes to know about those threats. The revealing scene that supports this point is at the end when Majid's son meets Pierrot at his school and has a mysterious, inaudible conversation with him. What is interesting is that it is obvious that this is not the first time they have met or talked to each other. So by the time you get to the end, it seems too obvious that both parties are involved in the tapes. There are also several hints that Haneke plants throughout the film that alludes to Pierrot so it becomes obvious after reflection.
Now to talk about Haneke a little bit. I must say that he was phenomenal as director for this flick. He did a great job of distinguishing the tape footage from the film footage. Some people online have tried to saw they are the same camera but those idiots need to shut up because it is pretty obvious which is the tape and which is Haneke. He does a great job building up the tension even though there is nothing to make us feel unsafe for the characters. I must admit this too, that this movie has the most shocking moment for me at least. After this "moment" happened I couldn't move for like 5 minutes. Go see it for the moment alone which I will not ruin for readers, just go see it for yourself. Overall the direction was incredible. I loved the cinematography and the camera work is great. Haneke does great by keeping audiences on their toes while playing with great themes of guilt and morality. There was also a great underlying political message dealing with the Algerian War and the Paris Massacre of 1961. Haneke is not only asking the audience, but the government how we can just ignore these travesties that we have committed and not deal with the guilt.
Overall I just loved this film. It was beautiful, deep, thought provoking, tense, thrilling, subtle, strong, character driven, shocking, the list goes on. I would highly suggest this movie to anyone and make sure that you pay attention throughout. It is an awesome film, an even better one to analyze and discuss with friends. Check out Caché (Hidden) and enjoy every second of it. 5/5 stars.
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