More movie news. I caught Hidden (a.k.a Cache), starring Daniel Auteil and Juliette Binoche this weekend. I liked it very much. Mostly because it made me think. And think. And think. Both during and after. Some of the thinking was in regards to the mystery of who was sending eerie video tapes to a married couple. More thinking was about the most obvious theme, to me, which was how hiding the truth from ourselves is often more dangerous than any outside threat.
Other reviews I've read mention the importance of the political points touched upon in the film (the cover-up of a mass murder of Algerian protestors in 1960s France, which I'd never heard of) and the idea that TV news editing has altered our reality to the point we're not sure of what's truly happening anymore. The director, Mr. Haneke, did a masterful job of weaving all those big ideas into a very small story--a story that has no clear resolution, to the dissatisfaction of at least one audience. (There is supposed to be a "clue" of sorts in the lower left of the last shot. The setting is a stairway full of students, but I apparently completely missed the plot point. I was too busy looking at the reflection of a sign in a car hood, thinking that was the clue, and trying to read French backwards. Oh, well. I've got my own little theory of what happened that I quite like.)
Rather than sewing up the mystery, Haneke prefers to prod the viewer with a needle threaded with provoking questions. He has a lot to say and a very neat stitch. No wonder he got a Best Director nod for this quiet brain teaser.
To quote George Michael Bluth on the subject of the French: "I like the way they think."
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