HIDDEN (CACHE) European Film Showcase

Contemporary world cinema has few more controversial-and eagerly anticipatedfilmmakers than Austrian director Michael Haneke. In films like FUNNY GAMES, CODE UNKNOWN, THE PIANIST and THE TIME OF THE WOLF, Haneke experiments with our preconceptions of fear and doom, and the feelings that foreshadow them.

In typical Haneke style, HIDDEN begins with the comfortable but complacent life of a bourgeois European family. However, someone has been videotaping their home from the street. The unknown voyeur mails the tapes-accompanied by strange, violent drawings-to Georges (Daniel Auteuil), Anne (Juliette Binoche) and their son Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky).

Austria’s official Oscar® submission, HIDDEN is subtle in depicting how Georges and Anne, a couple already having difficulty coming to terms with a disintegrating marriage, nevertheless attempt to maintain normalcy and deal with this bizarre intrusion for the sake of Pierrot. Paradoxically, the mounting tension is relieved only by more questions, interspersed with brief spasms of violence.