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Hidden (cache) [2005]
from Artificial Eye
starring Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Maurice Benichou, Annie Girardot, Bernard Le Coq
directed by Michael Haneke

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

A tense, taut and unsettling thriller, Hidden is a film that expertly follows television presenter Georges, whose seemingly perfect life is shattered when he receives a videotape. On it is a lengthy stream of surveillance footage of his home, shot from just across the street. And it’s just the first of many. Further tapes, accompanied by strange and disturbing drawings, start to arrive, leaving Georges, his wife and his teenage son unsettled.

The film slowly builds from there, as Georges starts looking to his past to try and find the answer to who is sending the tapes, only to find himself increasingly disturbed by the memories he recalls.

Grounded by excellent performances from Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche, Hidden is a masterclass in slow-burning cinema. It has no easy answers, boasts some quite superb direction, and it’s also distinctly unconventional in how it goes about its business (right from the opening titles). Director Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher) cleverly works his story across several levels, and while, come the end credits, some may initially find themselves underwhelmed, here’s a film that stays in the brain long after the stop button has been pressed. Granted, it won’t be to all tastes, but those that do find themselves engrossed are likely to agree that this is one of the finest French films in many years.--Jon Foster

Writer/director Michael Haneke delivers a masterpiece of unsettlement. Life seems perfect for Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche), a bourgeois Parisian couple who live in a comfortable home with their adolescent son, Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky). But when an anonymous videotape turns up on their doorstep, showing their house under surveillance from across the street, their calm life begins to spiral out of control. Subsequent videotapes arrive, accompanied by mysterious drawings, and gradually Georges becomes convinced that he's being tormented by a figure from his past. But when he confronts him, the man assures Georges he is innocent. A growing sense of guilt begins to rise in Georges as he recalls his less-than-angelic childhood, yet for some reason he's unable to be completely honest with Anne. Soon, their happy home is an emotional battleground, leading to a climax that is breathtaking in its ferocity and ambiguousness.

Suburban couple Georges (Daniel Auteuil, JEAN DE FLORETTE) and Anne Laurent (Juliette Binoche, THE ENGLISH PATIENT) become the unwitting victims of an elaborate blackmail plot in this taught psychological thriller from master of suspense Michael Haneke (FUNNY GAMES). Georges, a television presenter, starts receiving anonymous packages containing videotapes of himself and his family secretly filmed from across the street. As the content of the packages becomes ever more threatening and personal, he begins to suspect that the perpetrator is someone he knows from his childhood. However as no crime has actually been committed, the police refuse to get involved, leaving Georges to take matters into his own hands. In doing so, he is forced to confront the ghosts from his past.

"...unnervingly well realised"

Awards : Winner, Best Director 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0

• BOOOORRRRING .... zzzzzz
  After reading a lot of positive reviews about this film I had been dying to see it for months so when I finally got my hands on a reasonably priced DVD of it I was thrilled and couldn't wait to watch it. To my major disappointment, however, I found that it was one of the most tedious, dull and lazy films I've ever seen. There's almost no storyline to speak of, the scenes are long and drawn out and the ending fizzled out into absolutely nothing so there were no answers to any questions a viewer might have.... more info

• the hidden crimes of humanity
  papon ,a nazi collaborator ordered the massacre of at least 200-1000 peaceful demonstrators during the algerian war,drowned or shot in the heart of paris.
  this movie is a socio-political hidden innuendo in the form of a refined and re-invented revisitation of the event and its reverbrating consequences,its victims are actually the guilt-ridden french conscience that tolerated a state sponsored concentration camp and brutal police killings intentionally,the satire or observation works in the form of a... more info

• Not an American thriller
  Many of the reviewers of this film do not appreciate the difference between the "European" approach to film-making and the American. Why do people want a closed, resolved ending to everything? Why do they have to have everything spelled out to them? What is wrong with the film-maker leaving explanations ambiguous?
  This film isn't just about guilt, but also about the denial of guilt, about the denial of responsibility, about the need to shift responsibility onto someone else. This film asks questions... more info

• Compelled
  As in, I feel compelled to write a five star review for this film just to help up it's utterly unjust three star rating (as it stands today).
  This is one of my favourite films that I have only seen once. I watched it a couple of years ago and some of the imagery and ideas are still clear as day in my mind. I still think about this film and I think that is amazing, considering it took up a couple of hours back in 2006.
  It is a very good portrayal of the complexities of guilt and all it's associated... more info

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