Slapback Guitar Records

Michael Haneke‘s Caché (aka Hidden) is a film that runs on two levels – a sociological one and a psychological one. I wish it was more of the latter but the former seems to be what it’s mostly about – in this case France’s relationship to Algeria as a result of their occupation of it in the 1960′s. The film runs purposely slowly, building a paranoid intensity of the type where you never fully know what’s going on and that never gets fully resolved – but maybe that’s the point. France’s relationship to Algeria will never by completely resolved and nor will a lot of our own psychological profile.

The psychological angle of the film is about guilt over one’s past and the secrecy involved in hiding it. What do you reveal about yourself to others, even your spouse? There’s no neat ending – it’s more open ended and creepy but the performances are great and the point is understood. I prefer Haneke’s La Pianiste which is more psychological territory and which I’ll be doing a write-up of soon on this blog.