Caché (2005)
In an interview with the director that accompanies the DVD version of the film, Michael Haneke says, “This story can be told in many countries…in any country one can find a secret hidden by the ‘common sense’ of that country.” Nonetheless, Haneke chose France with the backdrop of the Paris massacre of 1961, during which, 70 to 200 (no one knows exactly, as the real figures were obscured by authorities and the media) Algerians were killed by the Parisian police during a peaceful demonstration.
Haneke says Caché (Hidden) is primarily a film about guilt. However, I think it is a film about history and its various mediations. What history? Where is it located? Or, more importantly, whose history? The word is being redefined in the modern era. Ultimately, the film portrays history is an intensely personal event.
In the film, a series of videotapes and child-like drawings terrorize a bourgeois family (Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, and Lester Makedonsky). Although there are multiple ways to interpret the film, one take puts Haneke behind the tapes, a postmodern deus ex machina, consciously manipulating history instead of just relying on it as common sense. Haneke himself admits he only heard of the massacre two years prior in a documentary.
Many of the shots and sequences are taken at a distance. It can be deceptive. There is an added depth that requires a closer look or subsequent viewing. On this note, pay particular attention to the final scene of the film. The warning on a rearview mirror comes to mind. Objects are closer than they appear.
My only critique of the film is that the portrayal of Majid (Georges’ childhood companion played by Maurice Bénichou) and his son (Walid Afkir) seemed a bit flat. The acting was great, but I would have liked a bit more insight into their cultural heritage.
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Grading
- Story A
- Acting A-
- Visuals A
- Originality/Innovation A
- Enjoyability A
- Overall A-
- DVD Extras A-
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