Review of Caché (2005) by S.fondue — 05 May 2006

Hmmmm.... I liked the slow pace of the film, a nice change from the usually Hollywood fare. Lots of people probably got bored by the slow scenes but I found it quite hypnotic and I enjoy slow-paced films generally, I'm used to Jim Jarmusch and stuff like that so it's no big deal for me to wait a while for a scene to unfold.

I can wait. The violence was great, one scene had the whole theater in audible shock. Yay for violence in films. Acting was excellent all-round, Juliete Binoche in particular was amazing. Some annoying things though: I don't need a film to tell me that racism is bad, and that white people in Europe have done bad stuff to minorities.

I already knew all that stuff. Believe it or not. So when the film started getting 'political' I felt a bit cheated because I was expecting a more traditional thriller. I guess the director's trying to subvert our expectations, which is all very well and good, but I can't pretend to be thrilled by biting into an apple and tasting a pear if I don't like pears.

Plus - when the ending came I missed what it was I was supposed to be looking at because there's so much detail in the scene, it's hard to know where to look. I mean, yay for not spoonfeeding us Mr.

Haneke, but I wish I had the freedom of the actors in the film did to 'rewind' things so I could rewind that last scene and play it again.... I'd go see it a second time just to see that bit but it costs money to go to the cinema.

.. at least for me... fortunately enough people posted spoilers in this website thingy here so I kinda know what I missed now.... but I still would've liked to have seen it with my own eyes... I guess there's a certain irony in a bunch of rich people whining about how they didn't understand a movie when people in other parts of the world have real problems, and that's probably part of what the director's point is.

Okay, so you didn't understand the film, not a big deal really. You could be in some foreign country getting blown up or something, hey, so be happy that you're in a westernised country and you have the internet and you can read this text right now and some soldier isn't trying to shoot your feet off.

The key scene in the filmat least in my opinion is not the ending, but the bit in the middle where the two parents think their kid is missing and they're... doing something or other on some room, I can't remember, and in the background the TV is showing images of the Middle East and all the violence over there.

And that's exactly what the world's problems are to the two main characters - background. They don't even notice the TV. It was at that point where I understood the true aims of the movie.

And then I started to feel a bit cheated because if I knew it had a political subtext I wouldn't have bothered going.... Smug, maybe. I guess the director's using smugness to wake us up to our own smugness.

But I already knew I was smug before this movie came along, it's telling me nothing new. But I tell you what, during that aforementioned scene I was mesmerised by the TV and didn't even pay attention to the main characters.

I'm fascinated by people in other countries getting shot at, I find it very scary. I'm lucky to live where I do. Maybe I'm not so smug after all... This film is good, you should see it.

And if you didn't like it, well... the film probably doesn't like you, either. I can see why the critics liked it while the public remain very polarised about it. You're not really supposed to 'enjoy' this film, just like you're not supposed to enjoy getting beaten up by some guy down at the pub, but if you think carefully about why you got beaten up, you might learn something.

"Hidden" (Cache) isn't a film for everyone, but it makes you think, (especially after the film is over) and in a world of chumps, that can't be all bad. Unless you don't like thinking.