Hidden [Cache]

Michael Haneke, France / Austria, 2005, 117 minutes

Michael Haneke is arguably one of the best European film directors of the moment and one of the few who remains devoted to his own style. His films are original, and frequently attack the contented middle classes. Haneke doesn't want them (or his viewers) to be content, he wants them to be scared and involved in other people's lives. This was the case with Haneke's previous films: Funny Games and Code Unknown. Hidden (Cache) could be seen as a culmination of the themes explored in his two previous films.

Georges runs a popular tv-show about books. He lives with his family in a nice, upper middle-class house in Paris, which is covered in ivy and grape-vine to protect them from the curious stares of strangers. The film starts with an extremely long shot of their house, which then is replayed on Georges' tv from a videotape. From that moment, the audience questions their role as spectators. Haneke manages to get our full attention and makes us play a triple role: we are simultaneaously victim, terrorist and detective, trying to solve the riddle of who is sending the mysterious surveillance tapes and unsettling drawings. The problem is that we don't know which role we were given. We suddenly start asking ourselves questions: Are we watching the film or are we filming it? Are we peeping through the bushes? Or maybe we are being watched? Am I a terrorist? Why? What has this man done to me that I'm so cruel to him and his family? How does it feel to hurt other people once you've been hurt yourself? Haneke addresses these questions to the post-colonial French society, self-excluded intelligentsia and lastly to all of us: cinematic perverts, who go to the movies because subconsciously, we too like to invade other people's lives.

Review by Jan Naszewski
Written for EUFS Programme Autumn 2006