Cache (2005)

Frustrating and fascinating

The comfortable lives of Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche), an upper-class French couple, are disrupted by the appearance of mysterious videotapes which show that their home is under surveillance. This becomes the trigger for Georges's guilty flashbacks concerning a boy who lived with his family when he was growing up, with tremendous consequences for his married life.

Director/screenwriter Michael Haneke's film frustrates many viewers with its inconclusive narrative. I was fascinated by the theme of guilt: how it can bubble just under the surface of our lives, its destructive power, and the influence it can have on others, including the next generation. I have come up with an explanation for events that satisfies me, and other viewers are invited to put together their own interpretations. It is a tribute to the richness of the film that it can support varying analyses. However, a film needs more than interesting themes to be a complete success; even when I was most disoriented by the narrative, I was riveted by the mystery at the heart of "Cache."
October 1, 2008

Subtly excellent

This is a brilliant film--many of the scenes allude to a larger metaphor regarding French colonialism and colonialist attitudes, including the more obvious current western/non-western tensions. The director does not let the minority position off the hook either: the Arab son appears to deny what it seems he must have done; and in a movie where nothing is insignificant, a brief altercation between lead character Georges and a black cyclist reveal that both were fantastically out of line. Another time the film makes a subtle highlight of Georges, serious topical-intellectual talk show host, in a film studio editing his own live interviews--he is literally re-writing history and applying power by manipulating information for his own purposes. Scenes like this are throughout "Cache": nothing can be taken for granted. The director has studied his Kubrick and Bunuel and come up with a very timely classic. July 5, 2008

MICHAEL HANEKE, OPUS 9

***** 2005. Written and directed by Michael Haneke. Three prizes at Cannes. Georges is receiving videotapes of himself with his family. Soon he suspects Majid to be the man responsible for this situation. Like Jean-Luc Godard, Steven Soderbergh, David Lynch or Atom Egoyan, the Austrian director Michael Haneke likes to play with the images. Not the simple images found 24 times in a second on the screen but rather with the recorded images and the way to manipulate them. I found HIDDEN fascinating because, during each scene, I had to discover whether the point of view of the camera was objective or subjective. Highly recommended. May 6, 2008

subtle and thought-provoking

Far from being "pretentious," this film was very true to life in its pacing, its unadorned visuality, and its reluctance to give clear-cut answers. It would have been very easy for the director to turn this plot into an overblown thriller of the kind some reviewers seem to have wanted, but I'm glad he didn't.

My criticism is that the film remains something of an intellectual exercise, failing to delve into the characters' psyches as far as it could have done. The dynamics of the husband-and-wife relationship could have helped to supply this psychological depth, but it remains underdeveloped - and I was VERY disappointed to see Juliette Binoche so underused when she was one of the reasons I wanted to see the movie in the first place. (What were they thinking?)

Even so, "Cache" left me thinking, and I can't say that of very many films - hence the 4 stars. April 2, 2008

No plot, disguised as intelligent

I eagerly awaited this film, after all the rave reviews I read. After I watched it, I felt glad that the first 20 to 30 minutes were intriguing and promising. But the intrigue went nowhere and the promise was broken. Maybe in France it's considered good for a movie to be all build-up, very little plot development, and then end stupidly and abruptly with nothing explained. Not on this side of the Atlantic. I think this got good reviews because American critics want to appear broad-minded and intellectual, and it looks impressive for them to rave about a European film that Europeans are already raving about. But quite simply, it's a stupid movie. March 14, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...