By Harry Forbes
Catholic News Service
NEW YORK (CNS) -- The lengthy opening of "Cache" ("Hidden") (Sony Classics), the facade of a two-story residential house viewed from across the street by a stationary camera, may have you scratching your head.
But this seemingly endless and static shot has a point. It is, in fact, a videotape being screened by television talk-show host Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and his wife, Anne (Juliette Binoche), who works in the publishing industry. This tape and others like it have been mysteriously appearing at their home, to impart the disquieting message that they are being watched.
Besides the tapes, the couple is receiving ominous childlike drawings that indicate a threat to them and their young son, Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky), but Georges' efforts to identify the perpetrators come to naught.
They try living their lives normally -- going to work, hosting dinner parties, and so on -- but they are clearly unnerved by the menacing deliveries.
Suddenly an idea occurs to Georges. He recalls an incident from childhood that may have a bearing on these events. The episode had to do with Majid, the young son of his parents' Algerian domestics, and it ended badly for the boy. Could Majid, now an adult (Maurice Benichou), have something to do with this?
Georges decides to look him up, but the portly, sad sack of a man who greets him resolutely denies any involvement in the tapes and pictures.
Georges leaves Majid's apartment complex more troubled than ever, and racked with increasing guilt over the long-ago occurrence.
At the risk of revealing more of a delicate plot, where every nuance counts for much, suffice it to say there is a connection of sorts, and the film turns out to be less a conventional thriller than an allegory about the repercussions of the West's indifference to Third World suffering. A heated exchange between Georges and a black man on a bicycle as he and his wife are crossing the road is another clue that something more profound is at work here.
But none of this highly worthy but ponderous-sounding subtext interferes with a story that, in its essentials, would do Hitchcock proud. Director-writer Michael Haneke eschews melodramatics for understated suspense and psychological tension, though if you're expecting a traditional mystery, the denouement leaves some questions tantalizingly unanswered.
Auteuil gives another flawless performance confirming his stature in the front ranks of French film stars, and Binoche is equally striking as the unhappy wife who may have secrets of her own.
Be warned that there is one particular moment, as shocking as it is unpredictable, that, while brief, is not for the faint of heart.
Subtitles.
The film contains scattered rough and crude language; an instance of profanity; two violent, if dramatically valid, episodes including the beheading of a rooster with blood; a suicide with blood; and brief shadowy nudity. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
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Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
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