CACHE' (HIDDEN) ****Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke specializes in films that tear apart standard perceptions of family, class, sexuality, and society in general. His films (including "Funny Games" and "The Piano Teacher") are violent and shocking, but the violence always serves a purpose, calling for thought instead of just visceral reaction. "Cache'" (which means "Hidden" in French) is about a well-to-do French family who suddenly find themselves being watched by some malevolent observer. They start receiving videotapes on their front porch in which their lives are being taped from a distance. The tapes are often accompanied by disturbing, bloody drawings and strange phone calls. Eventually the tapes get more complicated, and when the family's patriarch, Georges (Daniel Auteuil), tracks down the apartment door shown in one of them, it leads him back into a nearly forgotten and unsavory secret in his past that he doesn't want exposed.
And that's truly just scratching the surface of this extraordinarily complicated, unsettling and powerful film. I could talk about Georges' secret, I could talk about the flawless performances by Auteuil and Juliette Binoche (as his put-upon wife, Anne), I could talk about the vital importance of the cinematography, I could talk about the symbolism and allegorical elements, I could talk about the political undercurrents, I could talk about the shocking moment that made the entire audience gasp (and gives the creepy poster its significance)... Most of all, I could talk about those maddening and fascinating final two shots, that sent me out of the theater with my mind literally reeling, contemplating the hundreds of different ways this movie could be interpreted. But obviously I'm not going to. I'm just gonna say that if you consider yourself an adventurous and open-minded filmgoer who doesn't mind it when a movie challenges you and doesn't give you exactly what you expect, go see it.
