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February 1, 2006
Cache
Michael Haneke's Cache (US website/IMDB) opens with a static image of suburban house, with a steady, unblinking gaze not unlike that of a surveillance camera. The camera doesn't move as scenes of daily life are displayed leaving the viewer to contemplate why this house is the object of such intense scrutiny. Suddenly our gaze is disrupted when the image begins to fast-forward and we realize that we are watching a videotape along with the owners of the house, Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche). Throughout the film, Georges and Anne continue to receive videotapes from the unidentified source, though as the film's tension escalates, the images become increasingly personal, with one videotape depicting Georges childhood home.
In many ways, the opening scene recalls a similar moment in Haneke's earlier, underrated film, Funny Games, which I won't spoil for people who haven't seen the film, but in both films, video seems to disrupt the temporal "present" of the films in complicated ways. In both films, the status of the viewer is implicated as we become conscious of the camera's gaze. In both films, the camera--or videotape--also serves to intensify tension within an upper-middle class family.
In the case of Cache, this tension maps allegorically onto both the US war on terrorism and, more explicitly, onto the French treatment of Algerians during the 1960s, but given the recent riots, these scnes have a very contemporary feel. It has been a few days since I've seen the film (I've had no time and little energy to write for the blog recently), so my memory on details about the film is a bit thin, but I found it to be a successful, chilling psychological thriller, one that used the genre conventions in order to comment on contemporary issues in a thoughtful way.
But if others have seen Cache, I'd enjoy knowing what you thought of it.
Posted by chuck at February 1, 2006 4:30 PM
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Comments
I thought it very good. (Hesitate to say "liked" or "enjoyed" in connection with a Haneke film.)
Posted by: Laura at February 3, 2006 12:58 AM