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On the whole, horror movies don't scare me. Sure, there are the occasional exceptions (i,.e. zombie movies by Danny Boyle) but whenever a movie is starting to get to me, I can remind myself of how, well, movie-esque these movies can be. No, someone will not kill me in my sleep. There isn't a videotape that will kill you in seven days. And, no matter what you think, Jason Voorhees will not find a way to get into space in 2455.
Cache (French for 'Hidden') is a movie that offers no such easy exit. Set in modern Paris, Michael Haneke's film takes place in a world where the P.A.T.R.I.O.T Act is scarier than Freddy and Jason combined. Haneke's protagonist, an upper class television presenter played by Daniel Auteuil, has a damn good life. He has an interesting job, is well off, a budding athlete for a son and Julette Binochet as a wife. But someone is watching him. Well, not him exactly. His house. For hours and hours on end. They're not doing anything except for videotaping the experiance and leaving it on his doorstep. At least, that's what it starts off as. But Auteuil isn't the man he seems to be. There are things even his fame and good fortune cannot cover up.
A film essentially about the fine line of watching someone and voyeurism, Haneke does an amazing job messing with the audience's heads. What you think you're seeing may not be that at all, and even if it is what you want to see, should you be seeing it in the first place? All the sense of impending doom from a good horror movie is found here, but it's punched up by a nail-biting sense of paranoia. Although there's hardly any blood, it doesn't give an inch of breathing room. From the very first hypnotic scene, the tension is already at boiling point, and you're already sucked in. If you're going to get a movie tonight, chances are that most of the mainstream staples are already gone. Take a chance with this French indie. Just be prepared to scream every time a trick-or-treater rings the doorbell.
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Oooooooo.... gonna have to respectfully agree to disagree on this one. Couldn't STAND this film. What you call an hypnotic opening scene I call stagnant endless lifeless shot of the front of a residence in Paris that -- oh how clever: seques to the couple watching the video of a stagnant endless lifeless opening shot of a residence in Paris. And it just went downhill from there. The only tension this "psychological thriller" (which usually means it's neither) was from me cursing Haneke. Sucked in? Nah, just sucked.
It's clear you had a bias against this movie before even watching.
Disregard his comment. This movie is fantastic and ridiculously creepy.
I'm with Will, i usually love foreign thrillers like this one, but although the mood was great and it was shot well, at the end it more or less was just a, "huh?" for me.
A bias before even watching it No. 2? What an odd assumption that is to make (unless you watched me while I was watching it!).
I'd heard good things about it, put it on my Netflix queue and when it arrived went into the film hoping to be entertained and intrigued. Five minutes into it I was neither. Thirty minutes into it I shut it off. You obviously have a different opinion but please make a note of how I'll refrain from dismissing yours as flippantly as you did mine.
Some films need to be experienced in a theater to be fully appreciated, rather than via a Netflix queue. Cache is one of those films.
I saw Cache opening weekend in a theater, which is really the way to judge it. And the opening scene was mesmerizing on the big screen and the entire film was riveting.
I too have been disappointed in some films that I heard good things about while in theaters but end up being lesser experiences when viewed for the first time at home.
It's a good argument for getting out and seeing them in their intended setting.
I won't disagree with you about intended settings Thunder, but the fact is I'm compelled to see films in theaters only a few times a year. Purists might find that pitiable, but tix and popcorn and Pepsi and parking and the bastid text messaging while kicking the back of my seat add up too much to gamble on what most likely will be an inferior entertainment experience.
I can't dispute that "Cache" might've benefited from being experienced on the big screen, but from what I saw of it on my small screen, I would've given up on it about the same time I did at home. Sooner even.
Yeah, I'm picky too about what I'll fork over $$ to see. One thing I've found is that you don't see many idiot texters in foreign films, if any. Or even at reasonably serious, intelligent cinema, which is the only thing I'll pay to see because I'm a film snob. (Haha, can you tell I love feeling so above it all in LA?)
As for the opening sequence in Cache, it's what sucked me into the film. The juxtaposition of cinema setting/surreptitiously shot video and the subtle, ruthless jolt of realization when I realized what I were watching was a disorienting mind fuck; the whole audience (all five of us) kind of shuddered in unison.
Cache is the only Haneke film I've seen. I'm intending to add some of his others to my queue, although I suppose I'll be running the risk of missing the cinema setting.
Did you see The Lives of Others?
I almost hate to say... "The Lives of Others" is in my Netflix queue.
I thin this film was fantastic. I hated it at first. It's a slow-burn, for sure. Very complex... Perhaps people aren't willing to make enough of an effort to get anything out of it?
Well, I almost hate to say I saw The Lives of Others in a theater but it's a different kind of film, more a straightforward narrative that seems to start disparately and then slowly the elements click into place. I can't imagine it being any less powerful on the small screen, but you tell me. Curious to hear what you think, WC.