Three times Cannes winner, HIDDEN (Caché) is Michael Haneke’s best work to date, a powerful, provocative look at guilt, trust, responsibility and paranoia, played with unnerving suspense by its stellar cast. Winner of numerous European and worldwide film awards, HIDDEN is set to become the talking point of 2006.
Georges (Daniel Auteuil) is outstanding as a Parisian who cannot face his demons. The well-known host of a literary TV talk show, Georges finds himself the target of
an anonymous stalker who sends video tapes of his house as seen from across the street, in stationary shots that run as long as two hours. There's no commentary, but the message is clear: You're being watched. Accompanying the videos are child's drawings full of obscure, crude, bloody images. Georges' wife, Anne (Juliette Binoche), who works in the publishing business, is understandably rattled. At first, Georges has no idea who may be sending them. Gradually, the footage on the tapes becomes more personal, suggesting that the sender has known Georges for some time and Georges too comes to believe that he knows the perpetrator. Curiously and tellingly he refuses to share this knowledge with his wife, indeed he even tries to hide it. As the film progresses, the family’s personal drama begins almost imperceptibly to turn. However, the source of the vaguely accusatory videos ultimately matters less than the guilt they manifest. Michael Haneke, director of Award winning film The Piano Teacher has a special interest in the anonymity, conflicts, loneliness and the disorder of city life. In Code Unknown he dealt with a group of people in Paris trying to cope with the exigencies of modern life, where predators and victims of hate abound. In Hidden, Haneke probes the pride, class consciousness, and racial enmity of a man whose happy, comfortable, middle class family life is turned upside down by a series of intrusive and upsetting events that undermine his life.
