Hidden Movie Review:


Crisply shot and performed with raw intensity, this insinuating French thriller makes us squirm along with its characters as the fragile illusion of upscale bliss is slowly shattered.

Georges and Anne (Auteuil and Binoche) are understandably unnerved when they receive a videotape of their house being watched for several hours. Who would do this and why? More explicit tapes and creepy drawings hint that it's either a schoolmate of their verging-on-pubescent son (Makedonsky) or a fan stalking Georges, a well-known TV presenter. Certainly nothing in their own pasts could spark this. But even if they're terrified, the police won't do anything until it gets violent.

Starting with an extremely cool single-shot credit sequence (which'll be impossible to read on video), Haneke keeps us in his grip. We are both voyeurs and the victims of surveillance, and Haneke maintains then escalates this sensation through his fiercely clever use of long takes, static camera shots, shifting points of view, echoing imagery and a script that dribbles out the information organically, but never before we (or the characters) need it. It's a fascinating puzzle; as we find out details and secrets, we want to know even more.

Auteuil and Binoche are bracingly real in these roles, genuinely shocked with each other over their respective actions and reactions in the face of this subtle but obvious attack on their perfect-looking lives. And as the problems extend into their workplaces and friendships, we watch them deal with the situation in very different ways. Especially as one of them finds it increasingly difficult to deal with a skeleton falling so loudly out of a long-locked closet.

This is strong, clean, assured filmmaking, utterly straightforward but also sneaky and playful, hinting at things we can't imagine, throwing in nightmares and flashbacks to spice up the mix, dragging us into astonishing confrontation scenes--one of which we watch from two very different angles. The mystery is compelling and elusive, and Haneke deepens it with strong comments on race, class and how an individual, a nation and a world can all conspire to forget their history. To their peril.



Rich Cline

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