Cache (Hidden)

BFI Film Classics

by Catherine Wheatley

Catherine Wheatley's study of Michael Haneke's 2005 thriller Cache ('Hidden') explores how, in depicting the relationship between an affluent Parisian family and the Algerian outsider Majid, the film raises questions about home and the family, France's 'hidden' post-colonial past, spectatorship and screens.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 3, 2012

Reviews

[Fateme Bahrami · Rating 3 out of 5]

این اولین کتاب در باب موضوع فیلم و‌نقد اون بود که خوندم و از این جهت جمله بندی ها و‌اصطلاحاتش برام جذابیت داشت. مفهوم کلی اون در جواب به سوال اصلی فیلم اشاره به لکه رورشاخ و نسبی بودن دریافت هر شخص از کلیت فیلم بود و برداشت شخصی من از اون بیشتر به جنبه روانشناختی برمیگرده .از نظر من استعداد هانکه در ایجاد حس گناه و ترس در بیننده (هم ذات پنداری )خیلی جالب توجه هست و اینکه هرچقدر از این حس فرار کنی و نخوای به پذیرش برسی بیشتر عذاب میکشی .درواقع اگر به این واقع بینی نرسیم که در زندگی هم ما به اطرافیان و‌هم اطرافیان به ما به صورت متقابل اسیب خواهیم زد چه ناخواسته و چه گاها خواسته، و‌اگر نتونیم بپذیریم که این بخشی از زندگیه و‌باید مسئولیت اون رو‌ بپذیریم،اونوقت دائما در ترس و اضطراب فرار از مسئولیت هامون خواهیم بود که انگار برای انتقام از ما به دنبالمون افتادن،در حالی که این فقط خود ماهستیم که در ذهنمون این تعقیب و‌گریز رو راه انداختیم.

[Jeff Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Republished 15 years after it originally came out, this book is unusual in the BFI series considering how quickly it came out after the release of the actual film. Yes, there was much to discuss, but were they being hasty in giving it the 'classic' tag so soon? Not in the slightest...

Whilst technology may have leaped forward since 2004, the film's mysteries, and indeed the overall 'reason' for the film, are as relevant now as they were then. It is divisive, absolutely, but then that comes down to what viewers expect from their cinema; if you are looking for everything to be neatly tied up and explained to you at the end then maybe this isn't for you. This is cinema that makes you think, reflect and indeed the film itself in many ways doesn't even matter at all...although the skill on display here is of the highest level of filmmaking. As such, it deserves a similar quality in the approach to criticism, and Catherine Wheatley delivers. The book sets out it's intentions, leads you through it's thoughts and approaches and leaves you back where you started...just like the film itself.

Watch it, read this, watch it again...

[Patrick McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catherine Wheatly has written a good analysis, Cache (2012) of Michael Haneke's 2005 film Cache for the British Film Instatute. In introduction, "Beginnings and Endings," Wheatley talks about the distinctive ending and start of the film. From there she discusses some of the ways the film has been addressed: 1) the film as thriller "Whodunnit?" 2) bourgeois guilt "Home and the Family" 3) political accountability "Politics and Memory" 4) reality, the media and its audiences "Screens and Spectators." The Conclusion suggests that this film invites a number of readings and refuses to settle on a definitive reading of the film. It has inspired me to get a copy of the film and give it several more viewings.

[Alfie Woodhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrifically perceptive and incredibly insightful. Wheatley doesn’t miss a thing!

[Jonathan Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5

Great framing of Cache as a film not with a definitive “answer” but one that, as the book puts it,is always “just enough” or one thing or the other. Fascinating perspectives that’ll definitely help guide my final paper on this film.

[Piper Knight · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it has a nuanced look into the history and politics behind Caché, she misses a few things that get under my skin.