Georges and Anne Laurent lead a relatively idyllic existence in an upper middle class neighborhood in Paris. He is a well-known television personality who hosts a popular talk show dedicated to arcane discussions of literature (on the French equivalent of PBS, one assumes). Their 12 year-old son, Pierrot, is, like most 12 year-old boys, moody, taciturn, and only vaguely aware of a world taking place beyond his own circumscribed existence. One day, the peace of the family is shattered when they begin receiving tapes from an anonymous source showing that someone is monitoring their house from a camera hidden across the street. This, coupled with a series of mysterious crank phone calls, makes Georges and Anne aware of the fact that they have become the targets of either an elaborate prankster, a potentially dangerous stalker, or a person seeking revenge for some earlier unaccounted-for grievance.
If this had been an American film, "Cache" would have been stuffed to bursting with over-heated melodramatics, phony heroics, endless car chases, and about a half a dozen surprise plot twists all leading to a neatly tied-up resolution. However, Austrian filmmaker, Michael Haneke (who both wrote and directed the film), takes a far more subdued, realistic and sophisticated approach to the material. He is less concerned with the mechanics of the mystery story than he is with the impact this situation has on the family both emotionally and psychologically. We begin to see how all the tension and stress brought on by this indefinable threat begins to weaken the fabric holding the marriage together, making it clear that that fabric was actually pretty fragile to begin with. The surveillance merely becomes the vehicle through which problems and unresolved issues long simmering beneath the surface are finally allowed to rise to the top. For as Georges goes deeper into unraveling the mystery, Anne senses that she is being more and more left out of her husband's decision making process, forcing her to question his commitment to their marriage and trust in her. "Cache" also effectively dramatizes how tenuous is the "privacy" we foolishly believe we have in a world chock full of technological marvels designed to monitor our every movement and action. The film also has special significance for the French, since it deals with that nation's shameful treatment of the Algerians several decades earlier and the ramifications still being felt all these years later.
There is no doubt that many will find "Cache" to be both painfully slow-moving and frustratingly unsatisfying with its deliberately indecisive and inconclusive ending. But that is exactly what lifts "Cache" above the ordinary and the average - its refusal to cater to audience expectations and to stick to any kind of tried-and-true narrative formula. Add to that excellent performances by Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche in the lead roles and you have the makings of a first-class psychological chiller.
If this had been an American film, "Cache" would have been stuffed to bursting with over-heated melodramatics, phony heroics, endless car chases, and about a half a dozen surprise plot twists all leading to a neatly tied-up resolution. However, Austrian filmmaker, Michael Haneke (who both wrote and directed the film), takes a far more subdued, realistic and sophisticated approach to the material. He is less concerned with the mechanics of the mystery story than he is with the impact this situation has on the family both emotionally and psychologically. We begin to see how all the tension and stress brought on by this indefinable threat begins to weaken the fabric holding the marriage together, making it clear that that fabric was actually pretty fragile to begin with. The surveillance merely becomes the vehicle through which problems and unresolved issues long simmering beneath the surface are finally allowed to rise to the top. For as Georges goes deeper into unraveling the mystery, Anne senses that she is being more and more left out of her husband's decision making process, forcing her to question his commitment to their marriage and trust in her. "Cache" also effectively dramatizes how tenuous is the "privacy" we foolishly believe we have in a world chock full of technological marvels designed to monitor our every movement and action. The film also has special significance for the French, since it deals with that nation's shameful treatment of the Algerians several decades earlier and the ramifications still being felt all these years later.
There is no doubt that many will find "Cache" to be both painfully slow-moving and frustratingly unsatisfying with its deliberately indecisive and inconclusive ending. But that is exactly what lifts "Cache" above the ordinary and the average - its refusal to cater to audience expectations and to stick to any kind of tried-and-true narrative formula. Add to that excellent performances by Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche in the lead roles and you have the makings of a first-class psychological chiller.