Films Everyone Ought To Watch - Caché (Hidden)

Yes, I may be more than a little infatuated with Juliette Binoche, and yes, her collaboration with Krzysztof Kieslowski in Three Colors: Blue is one of my absolute favorite films, but those facts are minimally relevant at the moment. I recently watched this film on the recommendation of a friend and frequent collaborator of mine, Ian Buck. He and I share a passion for both watching and creating film, and as is so happens, we share a similar taste in films we take in as well. Anyhow, he told me that Caché was rather captivating and had a slow contemplative take, on what would undoubtedly be treated as a fast-paced action thriller had it been made in Hollywood.

The film opens with a long still shot of a small Parisian home from an alley across the street. People come and go as the credits slowly appear on the screen and more of the frame is obscured as those who were responsible for the film's creation are revealed. The mood this unique credit sequence sets continues throughout the film not only technically, but thematically as well. The films title reveals what is clearly the film's point, to study the forgotten, the obscured, and what is hidden in the character's lives.

Daniel Atueil stars along with Juliette Binoche as Georges and Anne Laurent, a young married couple with a son, Pierrot, on the verge of adolescence. The family also has a stalker of sorts. The parents first suspect that perhaps one of their son's friends could be responsible when a video cassette wrapped in a piece of paper with bizarre crudely drawn stick figure on it is found at their doorstep. The film is what we, the viewers, saw when we watched the credits, nothing more. Perhaps it was an obsessed fan of Georges Laurent's public television book review show? Perhaps a friend is playing a prank? The family is at a loss and the local police have interest in their travails.

More video tapes with unusual footage wrapped in disturbing drawings arrive at the Laurent home as the film continues. Georges' sub-conscious reminds him of troublesome memories from his boyhood which lead him to take the investigation into his own hands. He refuses to share his thoughts with his wife, and when he confronts the individual from his past and makes grievous accusations of an unlikely suspect. His exploits return to haunt him in an all too familiar form. Anne is the recipient of the video however, and Georges' actions and apparent lack of trust in his wife create bitter conflict between the two.

Things go amiss, a climax is reached, and an ambiguous ending leaves the audience wondering what has really transpired in the film they just watched. Caché leaves one asking questions and prompting a re-watch or at least a discussion with others who have viewed and been left mystified by the story (though not in a bad way).

The paranoia that lingers in every frame of the film and is brilliantly portrayed in all of the few actor's wonderful performances makes the inevitable confrontations and all of their consequences chilling and utterly realistic. This is a thriller done right. This is a Film Everyone Ought To Watch.