Cache (Hidden) (2005) – Michael Haneke

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I saw Caché, a 2005 French language film by one of my favourite directors Michael Haneke. In the extras Haneke explains why he made this film. He wanted to work with Daniel Auteuil (Sade), who he hadn’t worked with before. He wanted to write a film where an adult was confronted with something he had done when a child and he wanted to write about the Paris massacre of 1961, when 200 peaceful Algerian demonstrators were killed by the police by being driven into the river Seine.

The level of psychological realism is very high which does not give a very optimistic film, but as Haneke explains: “it is far more enjoyable to work with me than to view a film by me.” That’s why the film has a feelgood factor of about 0/10.

The film does not give any answers, we never know who sent the tapes. Haneke: “I like the audience to finish the film; novels evoke images, cinema steals them, I am constantly looking for ways to give that power back to the spectator.” (transcription mine).

Some films, says Haneke, have had “a profound influence on my mental health and stability.” He mentions Paolini’s Salò (1975) as one such film and explains that some people even speak of cinema in terms of pre- and post-Salò.

He quotes Robert Bresson and Tarkovsky as two directors who have destabilized him in the same way.

What I found most satisfying in the film is the realism and especially the pacing, the film is slow but the rhythm is excellent.

Haneke in the blogosphere:

Girish as quality qualifier: (method used: Google: Girish+Haneke): Girish on Code Unknown, CultureSpace on Code Unknown, LongPauses on Code Unknown, The Evening Class on Code Unknown, Jim Emerson on the opening sequence of Caché.

It would seem that Girish works well as a quality qualifier 😉

One more quote by Jim Emerson:

“It may be a recent film, but I don’t think it’s too early to canonize Michael Haneke’s “Caché” opening shot as one of the greats. Haneke’s first image prepares the viewer for his film’s astounding distortion of the cinematic lens.

A static shot of a house at the end of a Parisian street during early morning seems perfectly banal, as Daniel Auteuil’s character walks over to his car. But then, in voice-over, Binoche and Auteuil begin to discuss the workings of the shot — they didn’t see the camera, so how was this footage created? One of them comments that the shot is too clear to be shot through glass (i.e. hidden in someone’s car).” —Jim Emerson

Using “K-punk” as quality qualifier (method used: Google: Girish+Haneke): gives the following results: Steven Shaviro on Caché

Steven somehow contradicts Haneke’s intention of leaving interpretation up to the viewer saying:

“What’s great about the film is that it produces affective blockage on every level. It doesn’t offer the viewer (or the characters) any way out. The protagonists, Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche), are intellectual yuppies just like the target audience of the film, just like me.”

Steven’s review leads a political analysis by Armond White, who curiously forgets to add the é in Caché:

” Besides, Caché isn’t exciting anyway. When critics praise it, they’re congratulating their own bland sense of titillation; going along with Haneke’s thesis that mere recognition of the West’s guilt (in this film’s case, France’s lingering self-reproach over the Algerian Occupation from the ‘50s to the ‘60s) is tantamount to intellectual and moral progress.” —Armond White

Update [Aug 21 2006]

On my first viewing I had missed the final scene and somebody at notcoming.org describes it as:

Pierrot and Majid’s son (I don’t believe the film provides him an actual first name) do meet up on the front steps of the school in the final shot. Their inaudible discussion [for which Haneke had provided a dialog, but refused to reveal it in the extras on my version of the DVD] appears to be fairly amicable.

Conclusion:

The question of who sent the tapes is open to interpretation. Majid and his son both deny involvement. There is a cryptic last scene (as the credits roll) of Pierrot and Majid’s son interacting in front of Pierrot’s school. Haneke has said in interviews that he wrote a dialogue for that scene but he will never reveal the contents of that dialogue.