On the surface it appears that Georges and Anne live quite
comfortable, happy lives: they both have strong careers, a working marriage,
and a good relationship with their son. But this all takes a turn when they
begin receiving anonymous tapes that depict the outside of their house. At
first, they don’t read much into the caper, but soon strange drawings begin to
accompany the tapes: depicting images that resonate with events from Georges’
past that he’s long-since repressed. Soon the paranoia takes hold of both Anne
and Georges, turning them prisoners of their own home and forcing them to look
at the cracks in their lives.
This is a pretty intense and disturbing movie.
Although in a technical sense, it doesn’t really seem that anything happens,
the film’s power comes from its ability to lead us down one path and then
suddenly thrust us down another. This movie is filled to the brim with plot
misdirection, metaphors, and mystery: it really isn’t called Hidden for nothing!
On the surface it
appears that Georges and Anne live quite comfortable, happy lives: they both
have strong careers, a working marriage, and a good relationship with their
son. But this all takes a turn when they begin receiving anonymous tapes that
depict the outside of their house. At first, they don’t read much into the
caper, but soon strange drawings begin to accompany the tapes: depicting images
that resonate with events from Georges’ past that he’s long-since repressed.
Soon the paranoia takes hold of both Anne and Georges, turning them prisoners
of their own home and forcing them to look at the cracks in their lives.
In
order to really appreciate what this movie is and what it does, you have to
look at it in a very critical way and ask questions at every turn: the primary
one being ‘who’s perspective am I seeing this from?’ Right from the off, you
know there is going to be something different and unsettling about it: the
opening scene is an extended 2-3 minute shot of the outside of a house. Just as
you’re about to scream for something to happen, the image freezes and is then
rewound and you hear voices external to the image. It’s then that you realise
that this shot is actually a close up of Anne and Georges TV and they’re
watching the tape. Do you get it? At every step of the way you’ve got to ask is
this the tape, is this the film, is it Georges point of view, is it his
memories etc? Initially this movie is set up as a generic thriller: anonymous
tapes, suburban couple, strange drawings tra la la. What’s really clever about
the movie is that it sets you up to expect violence or expect something in a
generic thriller and then it doesn’t deliver it. After continuing in this vein
for ages, there is a violent scene that really
catches you off guard! It’s pretty intense.
Juliette Binoche and Daniel Auteuil
both deliver great performances as the film’s central protagonists, quite
successfully depicting married life, but in a very beige kind of way. They work
together quite well.
I should note at this point that there are some very
strong political and historical themes and question presented in this movie and
the character of Georges can successfully be seen as a personification of
France’s relationship with Algeria after colonisation and that whole bloody
story. If you know stuff about that chapter in French history, then you will
actually get a bit more out of the movie, but it is possible to piece the story
together without it.
Starring Maurice Benichou, Annie Giardot, Walid Afkir,
Lester Makedonsky, Daniel Duval, Nathalie Richard, Bernard Le Coq, and Aissa
Maiga, Cache (Hidden) is a very
creative and well-constructed film, but it is rather intense and I don’t think
that I could go through another viewing. Filled with suspense, mystery,
politics, and drama, it’s a very good movie in terms of how it affects its
audiences. It’s a great one to look back over and ponder.
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