Bettina_Hamilton-Irv writes:

It all starts, quite ordinarily it seems, with a residential street somewhere in Paris, an average middle-class house, a couple of cars driving past, a pedestrian crossing the street. But if you think the opening scene of Caché (Hidden) is just a conventional establishing shot, you will be proven horribly wrong. And not for the last time.

The shot is held and held and held, for a very long time. Until you start to wonder whether there might be something hidden that you can’t see. And that’s exactly the kind of effect director Michael Haneke is trying to achieve. Just when you start to get uncomfortable, looking around at other people in the cinema to find out whether they can see what’s going on, the scene starts to rewind and you find out that you have been looking at a surveillance film of a house. The residents of the house, Anne (Juliette Binoche) and Georges’ (Daniel Auteuil), have found the tape on their doorsteps with no further explanation.

In Hidden, nothing is as it seems. Questions are being posed and no real answers given; explanations are only hinted at and then withdrawn again, keeping you in a constant state of suspense. It is all very cleverly done, but just how cleverly, you will only find out much later.

Anne and Georges are a decent, upper-middle-class couple with a tastefully-decorated apartment and a well-organised life, complete with respectable jobs, 12-year old son Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky) and sophisticated friends. George is the host of a popular television literary talk show and Anne works in publishing. This perfect idyll seems almost made to be shattered. Not long after the arrival of the first tape, another one is left at their front door, this time accompanied by a disturbing drawing of a child throwing up blood. Similar drawings start to arrive at Georges’ work and at Pierrot’s school and an anonymous caller brings more distress.

Noz unsettled and agitated, the couple struggle to keep up appearances. But the tension strains the relationship, and the creepiness of the situation unbalances everything from security to trust. The viewer is skilfully placed in a similar position to the stalked couple, as variations of the video surveillance opening shot appear now and then, prompting the observer to question everything and believe nothing. Reality begins to fade into uncertainty, bringing with it a sense that nobody can be trusted.

The story takes an unexpected turn when Georges starts his own investigation into the eerie stalking. As he lets the events take their course and scratches deeper under the surface, Georges' path soon leads to Majid (Maurice Benichou), the son of Algerians who used to work on Georges’ parents’ farm. The encounter releases long-suppressed demons out of their holes, forcing Georges to confront his past and face painful misjudgements and an almost unbearable feeling of guilt.

But it’s a case of “the more you see, the less you know”, as every answer comes accompanied by two more questions. Once again, nothing is as it seems. In the end, you might not only find your original questions unanswered, but you will probably also wonder if you asked the wrong questions altogether.

While Hidden is laden with the suspense of the best thrillers and tempts you to treat it like one, you need to look far beyond the “whodunit”. Hidden might be disguised as a thriller, but it really is a film about guilt, conscience and about how to make peace with ourselves. It is also about the subjectivity of experiences and about the multiple layers of truth. In an interview with UK newspaper, The Guardian, director, Michael Haneke says, “There is never just one truth, there is only personal truth.”

It works similarly with explanations for the storyline’s many mysteries. There are numerous possiblities and most likely no right or wrong ones. Haneke, who won a well deserved best director award in Cannes last year for Hidden, refuses to provide bite-sized answers on a silver platter and subsequently forces the audience to think further. “If you come out wanting to know who sent the tapes, you didn't understand the film,” Haneke says. “To ask this question is to avoid asking the real question the film raises.”

For those who perceive Hidden as not much more than a mystery film, Haneke’s insistence to keep things ambiguous might lead to some long debates about keys and clues in the best case, to frustration in the worst. But those who are prepared to bear the uncertainty and think in terms of possibilities rather than solutions will be rewarded with a rich movie experience that will resonate long after the credits have rolled over. As much as Hidden is full of hints that can be perceived or not, it is also full of socio-cultural issues that can be taken seriously or not. As often in Haneke’s films, there is criticism of the smugness of the self-centred middle-class as well as obvious references to the Arab-Frenchmen conflicts and more than we might think, there are parent-child issues.

Hidden can be understood on countless different levels as Haneke offers those who can handle it freedom of interpretation and a world of opportunities. If you allow yourself to think outside the box, you will discover an unlikely masterpiece of a movie, whose full implications you might not become aware of until much later.


Caché (Hidden)
2005

Director: Michael Haneke
Screenplay: Michael Haneke
Producers: Margaret Menegoz and Veit Heiduschka
Cinematographer: Christian Berger
Sound: Jean-Paul Mugel and Jean-Pierre Laforce
Editors: Michael Hudecek and Nadine Muse
Cast: Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Maurice Benichou, Lester Makedonsky, Walid Afkir, Annie Girardot
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