Oh how the critics gushed about Austrian maverick Michael Haneke's thriller.
As well it bagging him the best director gong at Cannes last year, it also lead to TimeOut magazine tearing up it's ratings scheme. Five out of five wasn't enough apparently. They had it give it six.
French cinema heavyweight Daniel Auteuil plays Georges, a successful TV presenter living in a Bourgeoisie area of Paris with his beautiful wife (Binoche) and 12 year old son Pierrot (Makedonsky).
But Georges’ idyllic existence is thrown into confusion when he starts receiving mysterious video tapes showing scenes from his private life that date back to his childhood.
Dismissing the packages as harmless pranks from one of Georges’ fans, the police refuse to take any action. But when Pierrot suddenly disappears it seems that there may be a more malignant force at work.
They say:
Total Film: “A brilliantly tense, provocative tale, which raises issues of both personal and collective responsibility en route to a chillingly ambiguous conclusion.”
Guardian: “Haneke's masterpiece: It is one of the great films of this decade.”
Empire: “Whether viewed as a political allegory or a domestic drama, this is the most accessible film yet from one of Europe’s very finest filmmakers.”
We say:
Part paranoid thriller, part political allegory, Haneke’s latest is likely to leave those viewers - and we certainly include ourselves in this - more used to mainstream cinema slightly bemused.
It isn’t often that a director lets the camera stare at seemingly random objects for minutes on end, declines to use any music whatsoever (intermittent bird song is as close as he gets), and leaves the ending so completely open that no one has a clue what the answer to the mystery actually is.
And yet, despite these oddities, “Hidden” is a taut, foreboding thriller that serves as an entertaining whodunit even if you miss or choose to ignore its clear political undertones.
As well as serving as an examination of France’s guilt over “La nuit noire” in 1961 when 400 Algerian immigrants were massacred across Paris, “Hidden” was also a canny premonition of the recent French riots which occurred only one month after the film’s release.
Georges’ violent response to being terrorised at home by a perceived Muslim threat can also be interpreted as a comment on the United States’ response to 9/11.
“Hidden” certainly won’t be to everyone’s taste but for those of you in search of an alternative, cerebral thriller this would be a decent, if occasionally frustrating, choice.
CAST
Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche, Maurice Benichou, Annie Girardot,
Bernard Le Coq, Walid Afkir, Lester Makedonsky
DIRECTOR
Michael Haneke
TIME
117 mins
POSTED...
Wed 21 Jun 2006 at 10:38pm
