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Special Features
- Documentary on director Michael Haneke
- Behind the scenes of Cache
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Hidden throughout Caché is the sense that you should be watching every moment in this film closely, just as the protagonists are themselves being watched by someone unknown. Georges and Anne Laurent’s (Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche) enviable lives are terrorized by the sudden arrival on their doorstep of a videotaped recording of their Parisian townhouse. It’s nothing but a long, unedited shot of the façade of their house, but it’s disturbing nonetheless. Soon another arrives, this time of the farmhouse Georges grew up in, and then another of a car driving down a suburban street, and a walk down a hallway to a low-rent apartment. Again the videos are benign but unsettling. Then the mystery becomes more threatening when they receive gruesome postcards depicting child-like drawings of bloody, dead stick figures. Georges believes he knows who the culprit is, but for reasons all his own refuses to let his wife in on the secret. Clearly more is hidden here than just the identity of their stalker. In Caché, writer and director Michael Haneke skillfully, methodically pulls back multiple layers of deception, like new skin being pulled off an old wound. he masterfully fuses elements of his predecessors to create a film that is haunting and memorable. There is Bergman's fascination with the complexity of relationships, the suspense and lurking danger of Hitchcock, and the unique cinematic sensibility of Antonioni. In fact, the provocative final shot is practically a tribute to The Passenger--a lot of people will want to rewatch it many times to see what they can find in it (if, after watching it, you are still unsatisfied with the resolution, then watch the interview with Haneke in the DVD's special features for his insights). It's a film of great effect and intrigue. There are no easy resolutions, and the answers given in this mystery will only lead to more questions. --Daniel Vancini
Product Description
Academy Award®-winner Juliette Binoche (1997, Best Supporting Actress, The English Patient) stars in CACHÉ, a psychological thriller about a TV talk show host and his wife who are terrorized by surveillance videos of their private life. Delivered by an anonymous stalker, the tapes reveal secret after secret until obsession, denial and deceit take hold of the couple and hurl them to the point of no return. CACHÉ is director Michael Haneke's dark vision of a relationship torn mercilessly apart by the camera's unblinking eye.
Customer Reviews
“ A disturbing film that will annoy those who feel like its unfair of filmmakers to give us clues with no real way of finding any definitive solutions to the "mystery". ”
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By Tintin
Format:DVD
The film opens with a static long shot of a private villa nestled between buildings of lesser standing on a quiet Parisian street, over which the credits appear in a teletypewriter fashion. Nothing is happening except for an occasional passer-by hurrying across the screen. After a while, the image is shown going backward: we then realize that we were watching a video recording that protagonist Georges Laurent (Daniel Auteuil) is rewinding on his VCR, after having viewed it on his television set. We then see, this time from the point of view of the camera, Georges and his wife Anne (Juliette Binoche) watching the video of their own villa on their television. This VHS tape, sent anonymously, had materialized mysteriously at their doorstep.
Georges is a prominent television personality who hosts a literary program, and Anne works for a publishing house. They have an adolescent son, Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky). Together, they form a family of ordinary bourgeois, living a quiet and comfortable life, protected from the outside world by money and culture, surrounded by an homogeneous circle of friends. Soon, another tape appears, wrapped in a childish drawing of a child throwing up blood. Pierrot is also the recipient of the same drawing at his school. Later on, as the Laurents are hosting a dinner, someone rings the front door bell: nobody is at the door but another videotape is left, once more wrapped up in a childish sketch depicting a bird (a chicken?) with its neck cut off and bleeding. This video, shot from inside a car, shows a country road leading to the farm of Georges' parents, where Georges was raised.
Who is filming? What at first was thought to be a prank or some kind of bad joke starts to worry both Georges and Anne. They go to the police, who refuse to do anything, since there has been no overt threat or blackmail of any kind. A climate of tension and paranoia settles in, and Georges decides to solve the mystery himself. Obviously, the author of these videos appears to know a lot about Georges and his past. Little by little, Georges seems to remember some childhood events involving Majid, the son of Algerian farmhands who worked on his parents' farm.
The Algerian couple had been killed on 17 October, 1961, during a peaceful demonstration organized by the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) against a curfew imposed on all Algerian citizens in Paris. France Interior Minister Frey and Police Prefect Papon ordered that this demonstration be handled "properly," an order which resulted in the death of up to two hundred Algerians, most of whom drowned when they were thrown by the police into the Seine. One must also recall that during WWII, the same Papon served under the Vichy Government in the same capacity, and was directly involved in the deportation of the French Jews to the German concentration camps-- if one thing can be said about Papon is that he was not a racist: Moslems, Jews, all the same to him. (Papon was FINALLY sentenced in 1998 for crimes against humanity, but only served three years...)
Following the death of his parents, Georges' parents were ready to adopt young Majid (Walid Afkir). However, the six-year-old Georges strongly resented his new bother-to-be and tried his best to discredit him in the eyes of his parents. First, Georges pushed young Majid to commit a violent act toward a farm animal, a rooster, and then told his parents that Majid was spitting blood and thus was most likely infected with tuberculosis. Confronted with this apparent truth of young Majid's character and his physical condition, Georges' parents did not adopt him, but instead sent him to an orphanage. Georges never saw Majid again, but he becomes more and more convinced that Majid has re-appeared, seeking to revenge the wrong done to him.
The situation created by these disturbing drawings and videos shows how much Georges and Anne, contrary to the appearances, have drifted apart from one another. Georges is not forthcoming about his suspicions, which would also reveal his youthful cruelty. Anne assumes Georges' silence regarding his suspicions indicates his lack of trust, making her question their relationship. Georges seems to have a clear conscience, so much so that he tries to identify the mysterious stalker, but as he stubbornly tries to preserve his social and familial status quo, he only succeeds in getting into deeper trouble.
Suffice to say that if Cache were a Hollywood pabulum production, the rest of the film would be quite predictable. But this is a film by anti-conformist and provocateur Michael Haneke, who is known to play with his viewers, destabilizing them by using non-conventional mise-en-scenes, enjoying putting his viewers in the difficult and uncomfortable position of voyeurs. So, I must stop here my recalling of the film's synopsis, lest I spoil prospective viewers' enjoyment of the film.
Cache is a psychological thriller, clinical and cold, but also fascinating, which invites the viewer to carry on his or her own investigation as the film progresses. It recalls one of the best French thrillers ever made, Le Corbeau (1943), Henri-Georges Clouzot's film about a French village torn apart by a series of poison-pen letters. As with all his other films, the screenplay of Cache is by Haneke. The violence shown here is not physical, as in Haneke's past films, in particular as in Funny Games, except for one flash in a long take toward the middle of the film, which sends the theatre audience gasping in unison. In Cache, the primary violence is psychological, but the result on the viewer is the same as if it was physical. Once more Haneke works with the same material as he did in his trilogy of "emotional glaciation:" a bourgeois family with an adolescent son confronted with an exterior menace, which is materialized by images. From the very first long plan-sequence of an unremarkable scene, an unfathomable, frightening feeling surfaces. As the minutes tick by, it is not the eye of the camera but our own which is alert to the slightest noise, the slightest change. The rewinding of the video tape comes as liberation, but at the same time it confirms our anguish. Haneke mixes up the filmed reality with the reality of the film, depriving us of any point of reference, and we are left with a feeling of anguish, loneliness, and finally distress. Not only are the camera and its operator hidden from view, but the act of filming itself is also hidden from our senses. Nevertheless, everything in the plot follows and develops from the clues left by each drawing and each video tape. The
Georges is a prominent television personality who hosts a literary program, and Anne works for a publishing house. They have an adolescent son, Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky). Together, they form a family of ordinary bourgeois, living a quiet and comfortable life, protected from the outside world by money and culture, surrounded by an homogeneous circle of friends. Soon, another tape appears, wrapped in a childish drawing of a child throwing up blood. Pierrot is also the recipient of the same drawing at his school. Later on, as the Laurents are hosting a dinner, someone rings the front door bell: nobody is at the door but another videotape is left, once more wrapped up in a childish sketch depicting a bird (a chicken?) with its neck cut off and bleeding. This video, shot from inside a car, shows a country road leading to the farm of Georges' parents, where Georges was raised.
Who is filming? What at first was thought to be a prank or some kind of bad joke starts to worry both Georges and Anne. They go to the police, who refuse to do anything, since there has been no overt threat or blackmail of any kind. A climate of tension and paranoia settles in, and Georges decides to solve the mystery himself. Obviously, the author of these videos appears to know a lot about Georges and his past. Little by little, Georges seems to remember some childhood events involving Majid, the son of Algerian farmhands who worked on his parents' farm.
The Algerian couple had been killed on 17 October, 1961, during a peaceful demonstration organized by the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN) against a curfew imposed on all Algerian citizens in Paris. France Interior Minister Frey and Police Prefect Papon ordered that this demonstration be handled "properly," an order which resulted in the death of up to two hundred Algerians, most of whom drowned when they were thrown by the police into the Seine. One must also recall that during WWII, the same Papon served under the Vichy Government in the same capacity, and was directly involved in the deportation of the French Jews to the German concentration camps-- if one thing can be said about Papon is that he was not a racist: Moslems, Jews, all the same to him. (Papon was FINALLY sentenced in 1998 for crimes against humanity, but only served three years...)
Following the death of his parents, Georges' parents were ready to adopt young Majid (Walid Afkir). However, the six-year-old Georges strongly resented his new bother-to-be and tried his best to discredit him in the eyes of his parents. First, Georges pushed young Majid to commit a violent act toward a farm animal, a rooster, and then told his parents that Majid was spitting blood and thus was most likely infected with tuberculosis. Confronted with this apparent truth of young Majid's character and his physical condition, Georges' parents did not adopt him, but instead sent him to an orphanage. Georges never saw Majid again, but he becomes more and more convinced that Majid has re-appeared, seeking to revenge the wrong done to him.
The situation created by these disturbing drawings and videos shows how much Georges and Anne, contrary to the appearances, have drifted apart from one another. Georges is not forthcoming about his suspicions, which would also reveal his youthful cruelty. Anne assumes Georges' silence regarding his suspicions indicates his lack of trust, making her question their relationship. Georges seems to have a clear conscience, so much so that he tries to identify the mysterious stalker, but as he stubbornly tries to preserve his social and familial status quo, he only succeeds in getting into deeper trouble.
Suffice to say that if Cache were a Hollywood pabulum production, the rest of the film would be quite predictable. But this is a film by anti-conformist and provocateur Michael Haneke, who is known to play with his viewers, destabilizing them by using non-conventional mise-en-scenes, enjoying putting his viewers in the difficult and uncomfortable position of voyeurs. So, I must stop here my recalling of the film's synopsis, lest I spoil prospective viewers' enjoyment of the film.
Cache is a psychological thriller, clinical and cold, but also fascinating, which invites the viewer to carry on his or her own investigation as the film progresses. It recalls one of the best French thrillers ever made, Le Corbeau (1943), Henri-Georges Clouzot's film about a French village torn apart by a series of poison-pen letters. As with all his other films, the screenplay of Cache is by Haneke. The violence shown here is not physical, as in Haneke's past films, in particular as in Funny Games, except for one flash in a long take toward the middle of the film, which sends the theatre audience gasping in unison. In Cache, the primary violence is psychological, but the result on the viewer is the same as if it was physical. Once more Haneke works with the same material as he did in his trilogy of "emotional glaciation:" a bourgeois family with an adolescent son confronted with an exterior menace, which is materialized by images. From the very first long plan-sequence of an unremarkable scene, an unfathomable, frightening feeling surfaces. As the minutes tick by, it is not the eye of the camera but our own which is alert to the slightest noise, the slightest change. The rewinding of the video tape comes as liberation, but at the same time it confirms our anguish. Haneke mixes up the filmed reality with the reality of the film, depriving us of any point of reference, and we are left with a feeling of anguish, loneliness, and finally distress. Not only are the camera and its operator hidden from view, but the act of filming itself is also hidden from our senses. Nevertheless, everything in the plot follows and develops from the clues left by each drawing and each video tape. The
29 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
As a boy of 6 Georges Laurent (Daniel Auteil) was responsible for what some might consider to be an atrotious crime: he lied about something and the result was that another boy's life was changed forever. Arguably you cannot hold a six-year-old responsible for the fate of another child and yet what is fascinating is that even when Georges Laurent has reached middle-age he still refuses to acknowledge anything like remorse or regret. His way of dealing with his own demons is to withdrawal into himself, to sleep, but even that is no escape for the past still presses in on him through recurring dreams.
As far as we know Georges has been having these dreams even before the videos start arriving and he may have been having them his entire life. This may explain why as a middle-aged man Georges is bitter and suffers from an inability to connect to others. Instead of connecting to other people he isolates himself behind a wall of books and videos (every wall in his house is lined with books and/ or videos). It would seem Georges prefers the impersonality of books and films to people. Thus it is fitting that he should be a host of a television book chat show for on the show he simply asks a set of formulaic questions, and he can control the content (as well as his own persona) with editing. Georges' wife Anne organizes all of their social functions and really it would seem that the group of friends is really her reponsibility, not his. At social gatherings he seems too preoccupied with his own life to give any attention to others. Georges simply seems frozen and remote. When the mysterious packages start arriving he thinks he knows where they are coming from (even though in truth we never know where they are coming from or why they are being sent) but he refuses to share his thoughts with his wife. This causes extreme marital stress and Anna (Juliette Binoche) is pushed to her breaking point--not so much because she fears the tapes or what they might mean but because she fears that her husband cannot tell her the truth about himself or anything else. Their own son, interestingly named Pierrot (who is approximately the same age as Georges was when the events happened), also suffers because his parents cannot tell him exactly what it is that is causing all of the stress in their lives. This family is not simply dysfunctional, it is in a state of total breakdown.
The film is reminiscent of Haneke's THE PIANO TEACHER because this film is also about a sociopath. What makes this film potentially more disturbing, however, is that while THE PIANO TEACHER did shocking things we could at least attempt to explain these things away by reference to her traumatic childhood. But in CACHE Georges, a young boy of six brought up with every conceivable privilege, does a shocking thing and we have no way of understanding why. How can a six-year old do something so cruel? And then keep that cruel act locked up inside for so long? On that day when he was six he ruined not only the other boys life but his own as well. We might say to ourselves that he could not have possibly known exactly what it was that he was doing and why he was doing it but can we know that for certain?
I think the film asks where does cruelty come from, and where does selfishness come from and where does racism come from? What are the reasons, what are the rationales behind these things? And since we cannot say with any certainty where these things come from we feel helpless to find a cure.
A disturbing film that will annoy those who feel like its unfair of filmmakers to give us clues with no real way of finding any definitive solutions to the "mystery". The film will appeal to those who like psychological case studies.
As far as we know Georges has been having these dreams even before the videos start arriving and he may have been having them his entire life. This may explain why as a middle-aged man Georges is bitter and suffers from an inability to connect to others. Instead of connecting to other people he isolates himself behind a wall of books and videos (every wall in his house is lined with books and/ or videos). It would seem Georges prefers the impersonality of books and films to people. Thus it is fitting that he should be a host of a television book chat show for on the show he simply asks a set of formulaic questions, and he can control the content (as well as his own persona) with editing. Georges' wife Anne organizes all of their social functions and really it would seem that the group of friends is really her reponsibility, not his. At social gatherings he seems too preoccupied with his own life to give any attention to others. Georges simply seems frozen and remote. When the mysterious packages start arriving he thinks he knows where they are coming from (even though in truth we never know where they are coming from or why they are being sent) but he refuses to share his thoughts with his wife. This causes extreme marital stress and Anna (Juliette Binoche) is pushed to her breaking point--not so much because she fears the tapes or what they might mean but because she fears that her husband cannot tell her the truth about himself or anything else. Their own son, interestingly named Pierrot (who is approximately the same age as Georges was when the events happened), also suffers because his parents cannot tell him exactly what it is that is causing all of the stress in their lives. This family is not simply dysfunctional, it is in a state of total breakdown.
The film is reminiscent of Haneke's THE PIANO TEACHER because this film is also about a sociopath. What makes this film potentially more disturbing, however, is that while THE PIANO TEACHER did shocking things we could at least attempt to explain these things away by reference to her traumatic childhood. But in CACHE Georges, a young boy of six brought up with every conceivable privilege, does a shocking thing and we have no way of understanding why. How can a six-year old do something so cruel? And then keep that cruel act locked up inside for so long? On that day when he was six he ruined not only the other boys life but his own as well. We might say to ourselves that he could not have possibly known exactly what it was that he was doing and why he was doing it but can we know that for certain?
I think the film asks where does cruelty come from, and where does selfishness come from and where does racism come from? What are the reasons, what are the rationales behind these things? And since we cannot say with any certainty where these things come from we feel helpless to find a cure.
A disturbing film that will annoy those who feel like its unfair of filmmakers to give us clues with no real way of finding any definitive solutions to the "mystery". The film will appeal to those who like psychological case studies.
33 of 41 people found the following review helpful
By Sylvilagus
Format:DVD
Reviewer reactions to this film seem to say more about the reviewer than they do about the film, especially the negative ones. I too watched the film expecting "merely" a good thriller. I, however, was captivated by the slow long shots and the building tension. Like many, I initally found the ending sudden, unsatisfying, and unsettling. What! It's over now?!? But knowing that the film was highly acclaimed led me to immediately question that reaction. I scanned backwards and watched the final 5 minutes or so several times. I also THOUGHT about what I had seen, carefully. I went to bed convinced that I had seen a very good, possibly great film, but not sure that I had understood it yet. The next morning I couldn't stop thinking about the film. That is one definition of a great film.
Rather than complain about the way the movie was put together, one could decide to investigate why it is done that way, why so many others speak of this as an amazing film. For example, one reviewer below claims that the wife character (Juliette Binoche) is "not guilty of anything". I wouldn'tnecessarily say that. The film suggests very strongly that she is, or at least could be. Why does the son accuse her of having an affair? Where did he get that idea, and does it have anything to do with who he meets in the final shot? There is much much more going on in this film then the negative reviewers have bothered to see. This is the sort of movie that whole books will be written about, the kind of film studied shot by shot in university classes. The film is simultaneously about national/international politics, racism, marriage, and the socio-psychology of trust, guilt, and denial at many levels.
It's true that there are no easy "solutions" to the mystery, and that's part of the point of the film. And of course that is also often the case for Hitchcock (e.g. The Birds). If you are looking for a more conventional mystery with neatly explained "answers" then this is not for you, but if you are looking for an inellectual adventure that will move you subtly, deeply this is a good choice.
And oh yes, you will gasp at one scene. I'm not easily taken by surprise and see the "plot twists" such as they are in most Hollywood movies long before they happen, but this film managed to puzzle me and shock me.
Rather than complain about the way the movie was put together, one could decide to investigate why it is done that way, why so many others speak of this as an amazing film. For example, one reviewer below claims that the wife character (Juliette Binoche) is "not guilty of anything". I wouldn'tnecessarily say that. The film suggests very strongly that she is, or at least could be. Why does the son accuse her of having an affair? Where did he get that idea, and does it have anything to do with who he meets in the final shot? There is much much more going on in this film then the negative reviewers have bothered to see. This is the sort of movie that whole books will be written about, the kind of film studied shot by shot in university classes. The film is simultaneously about national/international politics, racism, marriage, and the socio-psychology of trust, guilt, and denial at many levels.
It's true that there are no easy "solutions" to the mystery, and that's part of the point of the film. And of course that is also often the case for Hitchcock (e.g. The Birds). If you are looking for a more conventional mystery with neatly explained "answers" then this is not for you, but if you are looking for an inellectual adventure that will move you subtly, deeply this is a good choice.
And oh yes, you will gasp at one scene. I'm not easily taken by surprise and see the "plot twists" such as they are in most Hollywood movies long before they happen, but this film managed to puzzle me and shock me.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great film
I took this film out of the library and loved it so much I decided I had to have it to keep. It's a very good film with a puzzling ending
Published 1 month ago by tess of the dubervilles
4.0 out of 5 stars
Disturbing Thriller That Takes a Long Time to Develop
Georges Laurent (Daniel Auteil), a successful arts presenter, and his wife Anne (Juliette Binoche) are terrorized by a mysterious person who keeps filming their lives both inside... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Dr. Laurence Raw
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Suspense
Haneke's Amour won best picture in a foreign language at the Academy Awards in February and for my money was the best movie of 2012 overall. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Richard Mullen
3.0 out of 5 stars
Very Mysterious Movie
Michael Hanake's Cache is a very mysterious movie. Very well acted. Excellent camera work through out. I recommend seeing and judging it for yourself.
Published 3 months ago by Houston-movie-lover
5.0 out of 5 stars
An astounding work of art
Michael Haneke's films aren't for everyone; but if you appreciate film and the entire spectrum of experiences it can give us, then you will likely find 'Cache' as exhilarating as I... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Warputty
4.0 out of 5 stars
my view of stereotypical french fare
Let's start with solid acting. Juliette Binoche is her usual scared wife self. Daniel Auteuil, whom I have never seen before on screen, was quite personal and believable in his... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Susan S. Wang
3.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty slow.
This movie had a decent and somewhat interesting narrative, but it is slow moving, with a lot of still scenes. It's beautifully shot, though. Just not for short attention spans.
Published 5 months ago by Sarah E Jenkins
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, has it missed the mark? SPOILERS
Another thought provoking movie by Haneke, though I would say a little less complex and interesting than the two others I've seen by him so far, the White Ribbon, and The Piano... Read more
Published 8 months ago by K. Doyle
1.0 out of 5 stars
All of the good reviews are obviously by people connected with the...
Isn't it interesting that there are a large number of five star reviews and a large number of one star reviews? Read more
Published 12 months ago by georgewillie
2.0 out of 5 stars
*SNORE*
If there's one movie that captures the essence of snobby Euro "art" films, this is it. From the man who brought us 'Funny Games' I was expecting something very exceptional or... Read more
Published 13 months ago by I'm Right
