Caché (2005)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Michael Haneke

Writer:

Michael Haneke (screenplay)

Release Date:

5 October 2005 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

A married couple is terrorized by a series of videotapes planted on its front porch that may be the direct result from an event from years ago.

Plot Keywords:

Drawing | Paris | Videotape | Algerian | Childhood

Awards:

21 wins & 22 nominations

Cast

Daniel Auteuil	...	Georges Laurent
Juliette Binoche	...	Anne Laurent
Maurice Bénichou	...	Majid
Annie Girardot	...	Georges's Mom
Bernard Le Coq	...	Georges's Editor-In-Chief
Walid Afkir	...	Majid's Son
Lester Makedonsky	...	Pierrot Laurent
Daniel Duval	...	Pierre
Nathalie Richard	...	Mathilde
Denis Podalydès	...	Yvon
Aïssa Maïga	...	Chantal
Caroline Baehr	...	Nurse
Christian Benedetti	...	Georges's Father
Philippe Besson	...	TV Guest
Loic Brabant	...	Police Officer No. 2 (as Loïc Brabant)
Jean-Jacques Brochier	...	TV Guest
Paule Daré	...	The Orphanage Attendant
Louis-Do de Lencquesaing	...	Bookstore Owner
Annette Faure	...	Georges's Mother, Young
Hugo Flamigni	...	Georges as a Child
Peter Stephan Jungk	...	Writer
Dioucounda Koma	...	Cyclist (as Diouc Koma)
Marie Kremer	...	Jeannette
Nicky Marbot	...	The Orphanage Driver
Malik Nait Djoudi	...	Majid as a Child
Marie-Christine Orry	...	Housekeeper
Mazarine Pingeot	...	TV Guest
Julie Recoing	...	Georges's Assistant
Karla Suarez	...	Novelist
Laurent Suire	...	Police Officer No. 1
Jean Teulé	...	TV Guest
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi	...	Himself (archive footage)
Barbara Contini	...	Herself (archive footage)
François Négret	...	Man in elevator (uncredited)

Directed by
Michael Haneke

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Michael Haneke		screenplay

Produced by
Andrew Colton	....	producer
Valerio De Paolis	....	co-producer
Veit Heiduschka	....	producer
Michael Katz	....	executive producer
Margaret Ménégoz	....	executive producer
Michael Weber	....	co-producer

Cinematography by
Christian Berger

Film Editing by
Michael Hudecek
Nadine Muse

Casting by
Kris Portier de Bellair

Production Design by
Emmanuel de Chauvigny
Christoph Kanter

Costume Design by
Lisy Christl

Makeup Department
Laurent Bozzi	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Gregory Bruneau	....	assistant unit manager
Sébastien Delepine	....	unit manager trainee
Brigitte Faure	....	production manager
Emmanuelle Jacobson-Roques	....	unit manager trainee
Grégory Valais	....	unit manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Alain Olivieri	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Carine Demongueres	....	assistant art director
Peter Ecker	....	property master: Austria
Yannick Heuveline	....	assistant decorator
Katrin Huber	....	props: Austria
Christoph Kanter	....	production designer: Austria
Thomas Pitre	....	property master
Teresa Prothmann	....	art department assistant
Arnaud Roth	....	first assistant decorator
Hans Wagner	....	set decorator: Austria

Sound Department
Frank Ceven	....	assistant foley artist (as Franck Ceven)
Pascal Chauvin	....	foley artist
Jean-Pierre Laforce	....	sound editor
Mathias Maydl	....	sound re-recordist
Antoine Mercier	....	daily boom operator
Jean-Paul Mugel	....	production sound mixer
Jean-Paul Mugel	....	sound
Yves-Marie Omnes	....	boom operator

Special Effects by
Philippe Hubin	....	special effects supervisor

Camera and Electrical Department
Emmanuel Aubry	....	lighting grip
Gabriele Buti	....	assistant camera: HDTV camera
Xavier Embry	....	best boy grip
Gerald Helf	....	first assistant camera
Natascha Neulinger	....	lighting technician
Marion Stalens	....	still photographer

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Tess Hammami	....	assistant costume designer

Editorial Department
Alarich Lenz	....	assistant editor
Soazic Veillon	....	assistant editor
Willi Willinger	....	colorist

Other crew
Richard Lormand	....	publicist: international
Lina Martins	....	assistant: Juliette Binoche
Tosé Riesser	....	production assistant
Kristy Ryan	....	promotions manager: Australia

Production Companies

• Les Films du Losange
• Wega Film
• Bavaria Film (co-production)
• BIM Distribuzione (co-production)
• France 3 Cinéma (participation)
• arte France Cinéma (participation)
• Eurimages (participation)
• Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC) (participation)
• Canal+ (participation)
• ORF Film/Fernseh-Abkommen (participation)
• Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) (participation)
• Studio Canal (participation)
• Östereichisches Filminstitut (participation)
• Filmfonds Wien (participation)
• Filmstiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen (participation)
• Uphill Pictures

Distributors

• First Distributors (2005) (Hong Kong) (theatrical)
• 1More Film (2006) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Alfa Films (2006) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Artificial Eye (2005) (UK) (theatrical)
• BIM Distribuzione (2005) (Italy) (theatrical)
• Buenavista Columbia Tri Star Films de Mexico, S. de R.L. de C.V.' (2006) (Mexico) (theatrical)
• Cathay-Keris Films (2006) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Festive Films (2006) (Singapore) (theatrical)
• Frenetic Films (2005-2006) (Switzerland) (theatrical)
• Future Film (2006) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Intersonic (2006) (Czech Republic) (theatrical)
• Les Films du Losange (2005) (France) (theatrical)
• Mongrel Media (2005) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Sony Pictures Classics (2005) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• A-Film Home Entertainment (2006) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Amazonia Films (2005-2012) (Venezuela) (all media)
• California Filmes (2005) (Brazil) (all media)
• Canvas (2009) (Belgium) (TV)
• EuroVideo (2006) (Germany) (DVD)
• Future Film (2006) (Finland) (DVD)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (Australia) (all media)
• Madman Entertainment (2006) (New Zealand) (all media)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2006) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Falco Ink.  publicity
• Listo Video  post-production

Also Known As:

Hidden (International: English title) (UK)
Niente da nascondere (Italy)

MPAA:

Rated R for brief strong violence.

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

France | Austria | Germany | Italy | USA

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | DTS

Certification:

Switzerland:16 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:16 (canton of Vaud) | Sweden:15 | Brazil:16 | UK:15 | Czech Republic:15 | Norway:15 | Ireland:16 | Portugal:M/16 | Finland:K-15 | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Netherlands:16 | Singapore:NC-16 | Germany:12 | Malaysia:(Banned) | Argentina:13 | Japan:PG-12 | Australia:MA | Hungary:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Italy:T | Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 | New Zealand:R16 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Company:

Les Films du Losange

Trivia:

In Pierrot's bedroom there are movie posters for Lost in Space (1998), The Matrix Reloaded (2003), The Chronicles of Riddick (2004), Van Helsing (2004) and In Hell (2003).

Goofs:

Continuity: In the opening scene we see the Laurent residence from a stationary camera. Three roses are visible in a window box on the left. In the same setting late in the film after much passage of time, the roses are unchanged and in the same positions.

Movie Connections:

References Deux frères (2004)

Global Paranoia and Responsibility Made Very Personal

"Caché (Hidden)" uses the visual power of film to create an escalating examination of contemporary paranoia and personal global responsibility the way Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 film "The Conversation" did with sound and fictional criminals.

Writer/director Michael Haneke plays visual tricks on the audience as voyeurs from the opening shot, much as he did with "Code Inconnu," as he coyly plays with technology, building on the pervasive surveillance potential of our times.

The comfortable upper middle class life of married intellectuals Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche is more and more disrupted by spooky video and drawings from some kind of stalker. With a bit heavy-handed constant background TV news coverage about terrorism and other violence in the MidEast, as well as too much irony that Auteuil works on TV (evidently in yet another book discussion show like the central narcissist in "Look At Me (Comme une image)"), race is quickly introduced as a flash point in contemporary Paris from a brief street confrontation and reinforced with Auteuil's flashback dreams of his youth.

While the political angles are obvious, the Hitchcockian tension is very effectively built up (though not narratively resolved even as some secrets are revealed that lead to other inscrutabilities), not just as we see Auteuil repeatedly lie and Binoche practically disintegrate from nerves, but through sudden violence.

While we never understand who all is lying and who isn't, the film further plays on the truth that visual images don't in fact communicate the reality of a situation and can be misleading about relationships, particularly once paranoia has destroyed trust. The film also raises the question if people change their behavior if they know they are being watched and that you can't really hide from your past. Cynically, but perhaps honestly as opposed to in "Crash," here there is no easy resolution of acceptance of guilt and responsibility in personal lives any more than there is in the legacy of colonialism and racism.

Not only is the past never dead, but the film keeps repeating issues of not just am I my brother's keeper, but the sins of the father are revisited on the sons, such that it's important to keep watching even as the credits start to appear at the end (there was much shouting when some folks got up to leave too soon, blocking cryptic clues to those behind them).

The subtitles are very poorly done, with many scenes having them white on white, instead of the much easier to read yellow.