'CACHE' DEFTLY ATTACKS SMUGNESS, MORAL DECAY.Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic MICHAEL HANEKE'S brilliant thriller ``Cache (Hidden)'' gets under your skin from the opening shot, a street view of the entrance to a gated town house. After three or four minutes of this fixed perspective, we hear the voices of a man and a woman, and then the image on the screen abruptly rewinds. We've been watching a tape made by someone who has been watching the couple who are watching the tape. The cultured Parisian couple, Georges (Daniel Auteuil Daniel Auteuil (born January 24, 1950) is a French actor. He was born in Algiers, Algeria, to French parents who were both opera singers. His starring role in Jean de Florette ) and Anne (Juliette Binoche) live in tasteful, antiseptic comfort with their 12-year-old son, Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky). Then the first of several surveillance tapes arrives in the mail. Often the tapes are accompanied by a crude drawing of blood spilling from a child's mouth. Who's sending the tapes? And why would they want to bother this nice family? Haneke (``Time of the Wolf,'' ``Code Unknown'') slowly peels back Georges' veneer and travels back to his past, creating a psychological thriller Psychological thriller is a specific sub-genre of the wide-ranging thriller genre. However, this genre often incorporates elements from the mystery genre in addition to the typical traits of the thriller genre. that addresses guilt, smugness and the ways that people (and nations) create myths to bury their history and get on with the business at hand. The film has particular political relevance to the recent riots in France, but Haneke is less interested in making a statement about a moment in history (in this case, the French massacre of protesting Algerians in 1961) than he is in examining the moral decay Moral decay may mean:
n. 1. A small compartment or recess, as in a desk, for holding papers; a cubbyhole. 2. A specific, often oversimplified category. 3. The small hole or holes in a pigeon loft for nesting. tr. ``Cache'' to one particular people would limit its implications, and Haneke isn't about to let anyone off that easy. Then again, you could turn a blind eye to the subtext sub·text n. 1. The implicit meaning or theme of a literary text. 2. The underlying personality of a dramatic character as implied or indicated by a script or text and interpreted by an actor in performance. and simply appreciate ``Cache'' as a masterfully crafted whodunit, though this reading may prove frustrating as Haneke offers as many questions as he does answers. You do need to stay through the closing credits, though, and pay careful attention to the bottom left-hand corner of the screen, where yet another person may be implicated im·pli·cate tr.v. im·pli·cat·ed, im·pli·cat·ing, im·pli·cates 1. To involve or connect intimately or incriminatingly: evidence that implicates others in the plot. 2. in the film's urban terrorism. Or it may not. ``Cache'' is one of those movies you could spend hours examining, analyzing and, above all, arguing about with others. (In one sense, you could call it the year's most-talked-about movie and not be far off.) Some of Haneke's mind games may lead down blind alleys, but with a film this smart and sensational, you're more than willing to go wherever he leads you, even if the journey is sometimes exasperating. How many movies can you say that about? Glenn Whipp, (818) 713-3672 glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com CACHE - Four stars (R: brief strong violence) Starring: Daniel Auteuil, Juliette Binoche. Director: Michael Haneke. Running time: 1 hr. 57 min. Playing: Laemmle's Sunset 5 in West Hollywood West Hollywood A community of southern California northeast of Beverly Hills. It is mainly residential. Population: 36,600. ; Landmark's Westside Pavilion The Westside Pavilion is a shopping mall located in West Los Angeles. It is owned and operated by The Macerich Company. It is a three story urban-style shopping mall with 150 shops and is anchored by a Macy's (formerly May Company and later Robinsons-May) and a Nordstrom. in West Los Angeles
In a nutshell: Psychological thriller looks at the moral decay that comes with denial. Provokes so many questions and provides so few answers that you'll be thinking about it for days. In French with English subtitles. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Parisian couple Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche) are targets of an urban terrorist in the masterful and provocative whodunit ``Cache.'' |
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