NYFF Review: Caché (Hidden)

With Caché, Austrian director Michael Haneke once again offers a critique (while at the same time shattering the illusion) of the contemporary bourgeois European nuclear family. The dynamic is the same as in several of his earlier films (i.e., The Seventh Continent, Benny's Video, Funny Games) -- namely an intellectual, successful, wealthy married couple with just one child, a marriage that appears loving, healthy, and strong, but is in fact crumbling, and the unimaginable situation that will tear them apart. Daniel Auteuil plays Georges Laurent, a Bernard Pivot-esque host of a TV literary talk show. With wife Anne (Juliette Binoche), son Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky), and a beautiful house in the middle of Paris, he lives the dream life of intellectuals, where everything can be solved with a good dinner party. That is, until he and Anne start receiving strange surveillance videotapes of their house. . . The seemingly perfect family thrust headfirst into a nightmarish situation -- one in which their money, power, or social standing can offer them no assistance -- this is echt-Haneke. Yet unlike the aforementioned films, Caché concerns itself not only with the personal, but with the political, particularly the issue of European attitudes towards les autres. And though Caché finds Haneke working in a far less visceral mode, the situation is every bit as disturbing as Funny Games. In past films, Haneke has placed a great deal of emphasis on the relationship between the child and the parents, and the role (s)he plays in bringing about the family's "downfall". Caché is no different, though to say more would be revealing too much. The film's title is extremely apropos, for there is much here that is indeed hidden -- both within the context of the story, as well as the filmmaking itself. Like the mysterious apocalypse in Time of the Wolf, there are elements to the story that are left unexplained, though this time around Haneke seems to invite speculation by the inclusion of details that might go unnoticed. In fact, many of the film's smaller, seemingly insignificant moments -- an angry encounter on the street, a news report on a television, two people having coffee together, the way in which a scene is shot -- are in a way all hiding something, and only after the film is over will their secrets be exposed. Caché is a difficult film to write about without giving much away. (A review as abstract as the film itself?) It is a challenging, nuanced, powerful film, and one that lends itself to multiple interpretations (Filmbrain saw it as a metaphor for Bush's war on Iraq.) Regardless of what you think, it's guaranteed to linger on the brain for days on end. See it with a group of friends and let the discussions/arguments fly. . . Caché opens in New York and Los Angeles on 23 December.

Comments

[Aaron Hillis]

Although only hilarious to me, I just realized that I had to refresh your site because my browser still had the Tristram Shandy page cached.

[Mikko Pihkoluoma]

(some spoilers here)
I was rather disappointed with Time of the Wolf, but Caché is definitely one of Haneke's best films. Extremely powerful and intelligent depiction of guilt (in an abstract form that hints at a more symbolical interpretation). With very simple moves Haneke plays card games with the audience, and ultimately makes you think what it tells about yourself and your prejudice if you choose to believe one thing over the other.

What I love about the film (and Haneke's best films in general) is that they work equally well on a more concrete psychological level and on a symbolical level. To many the film obviously appears to touch the guilt of colonialism, and fear of terrorism, but one can also enjoy the film on a more literal fashion.

Caché is one of the year's best films with Innocence and L'Enfant.

[phyrephox]

Damn, I hadn't realized the film opened so late...at least it's a 2005 release (for NYC and LA only I guess)

[Toto]

Saw it. Very good. I can't say I agree with everything Filmbrain or Mikko say, but to explain why, I'd have to give the story away. Sorry!