Somewhere in the bowels of AppleNova I am on record as having expressed an impatience to see
Michael Haneke's latest film, Caché (Apple trailer
here). I finally did watch it, and it is a powerful film.
Caché is sometimes described as a horror film, but the fact that I watched it to the end proves it is no such thing. It is instead a deeply absorbing character study that demands of the viewer a thoughtful contribution; it is an analysis of the nature of the marital relationship, described through the lives of a haute-bourgeois couple; it is a cry of anguish at unresolved postcolonial guilt, and blame; and it is above all a masterful lesson in cinematic
form, on a par with anything Hitchcock created. For all these reasons it is incredibly interesting to watch.
Like many New Wave films, Caché is laden with symbolism, some of it quite subtle. At one point we are shown, in disturbing detail, the beheading of a rooster by an axe-wielding Algerian child (controversially, a real chicken was beheaded for this scene). The luckless bird flaps around for endless seconds in a chaotic manner which leaves one in no doubt as to the origin of the idiom "running around like a headless chicken". Elsewhere in the film the same cock is described as a "nasty bird, evil, always attacking us". But of course we are not explicitly told that the cock is an unofficial mascot of France: the viewer must know this to gain meaning from these scenes. I noticed several other examples, but undoubtedly missed some too.
Caché is a demanding film, because it raises issues we are usually reluctant to deal with. It is challenging to understand, because so much vital information is imparted by stylistic devices such as cuts and compositions, and, once understood, it becomes challenging on a moral level. There are moments of awful intensity such as the highly charged interracial dispute near the beginning, and moments of poignancy that are left hanging in the air for minutes afterwards, always above the underlying suspense which is never fully dispelled. Caché is a very relevant film that you should watch if you are not averse to art that lingers in your mind for days.