Review: Cache (Hidden) [light spoilers further down, maybe]

[RunDownHouse]

First, spoiler free: see this film. Really. Its good.

Cache is a French film that won some awards at Cannes in 2005. The synopsis according to Netflix:

Michael Haneke's psychological thriller centers on wealthy French couple Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche), who begin receiving threatening videotapes and phone calls. Eventually, Georges realizes who the perpetrator is but refuses to tell Anne, causing a rift. Flashbacks of Georges' childhood reveal the mystery, a story that illuminates France's damaged relations with Algeria.

First, I'll just say that this film vaulted right to the top of my list of foreign flicks, up there with City of God and Goodbye Lenin. It opens with a steady, unmoving shot of a quiet French residential street. The shot holds for at least a minute, and eventually we hear two voices over the shot (Georges and Anne). Only as we listen to the voices and then see the picture waver do we realize we are watching a videotape. The director uses this technique several times: holding a steady shot and only after an extended time revealing it to be a videotape. There are also several shots in the film that are framed in the same way, but are apparently not videotapes being watched by characters in the film. The confusion this creates really adds to the tense, taut tone of the entire film. Contrary to Netflix's description, we never learn who sends the videotapes, and this furthers the mystery and deepens the psychological impact of the film. Georges is convinced he knows who it is, but its never confirmed in any way, hard or soft.

As Georges and Anne receive more tapes, and things like notes and phone calls, the director uses the tension of the ordeal to explore the relationships between Georges and Anne, Anne and a close (male) friend, Georges and an old Algerian acquiantance, and George, Anne, and their son, Pierrot. Georges and Anne quarrel, Pierrot disappears for a night and then comes to the brink of accusing his mother of adultery with her close friend, and Georges confronts his Algerian acquaintance, accusing him of terrorizing his family. All of this conflict stems from the anonymous videotapes, and Georges' conviction that they're being sent by the Algerian seems to be the director's way of pointing out the damage caused by the West's fear of being terrorized by the Middle East - whether that fear is founded or not (which we never know). There's definitely a strong argument to be made that the film is an allegory for East-West relationships on several levels, including responsibility, denial, and (Western) media bias.

This movie also contained one of the most shocking moments I've ever seen. This scene literally caused my jaw to unhinge and drop to my chest, where it remained for several minutes. To top it off, the shot was framed in the same way as one of the videotape scenes from earlier in the film, but the director never lets us know if this was indeed another videotape or merely another shot in the movie.

Overall, I thought this movie was great. I think it definitely requires multiple viewings to get the most out of it, but I just finished it for the first time around, and wanted to write a review while it was fresh. Sorry if the review is a bit scatterbrained.