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From Amazon.co.uk
A tense, taut and unsettling thriller, Hidden is a film that expertly follows television presenter Georges, whose seemingly perfect life is shattered when he receives a videotape. On it is a lengthy stream of surveillance footage of his home, shot from just across the street. And it’s just the first of many. Further tapes, accompanied by strange and disturbing drawings, start to arrive, leaving Georges, his wife and his teenage son unsettled.
The film slowly builds from there, as Georges starts looking to his past to try and find the answer to who is sending the tapes, only to find himself increasingly disturbed by the memories he recalls.
Grounded by excellent performances from Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche, Hidden is a masterclass in slow-burning cinema. It has no easy answers, boasts some quite superb direction, and it’s also distinctly unconventional in how it goes about its business (right from the opening titles). Director Michael Haneke (The Piano Teacher) cleverly works his story across several levels, and while, come the end credits, some may initially find themselves underwhelmed, here’s a film that stays in the brain long after the stop button has been pressed. Granted, it won’t be to all tastes, but those that do find themselves engrossed are likely to agree that this is one of the finest French films in many years.--Jon Foster
Product Description
Writer/director Michael Haneke delivers a masterpiece of unsettlement. Life seems perfect for Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche), a bourgeois Parisian couple who live in a comfortable home with their adolescent son, Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky). But when an anonymous videotape turns up on their doorstep, showing their house under surveillance from across the street, their calm life begins to spiral out of control. Subsequent videotapes arrive, accompanied by mysterious drawings, and gradually Georges becomes convinced that he's being tormented by a figure from his past. But when he confronts him, the man assures Georges he is innocent. A growing sense of guilt begins to rise in Georges as he recalls his less-than-angelic childhood, yet for some reason he's unable to be completely honest with Anne. Soon, their happy home is an emotional battleground, leading to a climax that is breathtaking in its ferocity and ambiguousness.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I wasn't prepared for how powerful Caché turned out to be: it's been a long time since I've heard an entire cinema gasp in genuine shock at one sequence and it's almost as shocking second time round on the small screen when you know what's coming. On the surface it's a fairly typical French film, but it's what's under the surface that really counts. That said, it's still a film that many dismiss as empty or dilettante filmmaking, either because it's more concerned with the fallout its mystery provokes than offering a solution or because it's just trendy liberalism. It's certainly not for all tastes.
The central premise is simple enough, as Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche's comfortable bourgeois life is put under increasing strain by a series of videotapes of the their house accompanied by childish drawings of bleeding faces. The tapes show nothing: their menace comes not from their contents but the fact that they exist. Since the drawings have to come from someone who knows the character's past, is it Auteuil's Georges' own conscience that is sending them? Or is it the filmmaker himself to provoke a reaction from his characters? Significantly the tapes are all shot on a fixed camera mounted on a raised tripod in what must be a clearly visible position. The appearance of the second tape blocking a doorway that was clear earlier in the shot offers little else in the way of a possible natural explanation.
But the tapes are really just a Maguffin, a narrative device to push the characters and plot forward.... Read more ›
The central premise is simple enough, as Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche's comfortable bourgeois life is put under increasing strain by a series of videotapes of the their house accompanied by childish drawings of bleeding faces. The tapes show nothing: their menace comes not from their contents but the fact that they exist. Since the drawings have to come from someone who knows the character's past, is it Auteuil's Georges' own conscience that is sending them? Or is it the filmmaker himself to provoke a reaction from his characters? Significantly the tapes are all shot on a fixed camera mounted on a raised tripod in what must be a clearly visible position. The appearance of the second tape blocking a doorway that was clear earlier in the shot offers little else in the way of a possible natural explanation.
But the tapes are really just a Maguffin, a narrative device to push the characters and plot forward.... Read more ›
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Mr. 880
Format:Blu-ray
German director Michael Haneke is not everyone's cup of tea. Like a number of European "auteurs" through film history, his movies tend towards the philosophical if not existential, and because of this they can be both exciting and infuriating in equal measure. The Piano Teacher had all the repressed sexuality of Belle de Jour at its best, yet his "Hollywood" re-make of horror-in-the-cabin-in-the-woods thriller Funny Games seemed unnecessary to say the least. Hidden is probably the movie he is most well-known for in both Europe and America and while not perfect - and the plodding plot and anxious silences are not the stuff of modern-day British and American thrillers for sure - the mood of the piece, and the brooding atmosphere of some terrible event to come, is to be admired here. Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche deliver terrific performances as a couple with secrets, pasts and dilemmas all stored up and ready to burst forth the moment a series of videos of them and their home start appearing at the door. And if you do want to get all intellectual about it, the film is something of a commentary on our increasingly Facebook/Twitter/blogging-obsessed lives and how so little of what we hold as private and dear can be kept so in the modern age. But the movie is also just a great psychological thriller. Slow, meditative and self-conscious? Yes, and that's why it won't be everyone's idea of a Friday night picture with pizza. The film's shocking moment and denouement won't necessarily inspire all either, but cinema ought to be thoughtful and provocative at times as well as entertaining and forgettable at others. Whatever you might think of Haneke, his films are never the last of these descriptions.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Like a languid picnic on a hot summers day, the participants may be chasing away the ants and blue bottles whilst mopping the sweat from their flurried brows, as multiple dynamics emanate from a fixed set scenario. Lying under a total amnesiac blanket is the blue bottle in the Chablis.
This coats itself over the baked bread of modernity to probe the flaked scab which lies under the hardened crust. Then it reveals a startling picture of scuttling insects scurrying as they inhabit the brain and memory channels. Each microbe tries to reassemble the past to fit it into the present, and to create a resonating future dream all based on an innate gossamer tissue of lies.
The film focuses on how these hidden emotional undercurrents are rearranged to fit this glossy represented version of composed power point reality. Using the modern technologies of CCTV cameras, mobile phones and TV's he builds a narrative, looking at the middle class lie and the sewer that lies underneath and how the present connects directly to the past.
Our hero, is not what he appears on his TV screen persona, erudite, incisive, surrounded by the attributes of culture. In emotional reality he uses these as props to hide away from himself, and in particular his troubled conscience which each night sits him on a turning spit and then roasts him in his sweated fevered dreams over an open fire of his memories..ouch.
Each sleep mare forces him to shift from his composed daily fiction to inhabit his past life, as he beams back to a time when he set up his friend, a kid already traumatised into an orphanage, due to an inner jealousy. Not just any kid, but one whose parents were killed by the french police when they were protesting against injustice in the 1960's.... Read more ›
This coats itself over the baked bread of modernity to probe the flaked scab which lies under the hardened crust. Then it reveals a startling picture of scuttling insects scurrying as they inhabit the brain and memory channels. Each microbe tries to reassemble the past to fit it into the present, and to create a resonating future dream all based on an innate gossamer tissue of lies.
The film focuses on how these hidden emotional undercurrents are rearranged to fit this glossy represented version of composed power point reality. Using the modern technologies of CCTV cameras, mobile phones and TV's he builds a narrative, looking at the middle class lie and the sewer that lies underneath and how the present connects directly to the past.
Our hero, is not what he appears on his TV screen persona, erudite, incisive, surrounded by the attributes of culture. In emotional reality he uses these as props to hide away from himself, and in particular his troubled conscience which each night sits him on a turning spit and then roasts him in his sweated fevered dreams over an open fire of his memories..ouch.
Each sleep mare forces him to shift from his composed daily fiction to inhabit his past life, as he beams back to a time when he set up his friend, a kid already traumatised into an orphanage, due to an inner jealousy. Not just any kid, but one whose parents were killed by the french police when they were protesting against injustice in the 1960's.... Read more ›
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3.3 out of 5 stars
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
DUD DVD
We gave this very well reviewed movie to a friend but she could not make it play. It took her too long to return it to us and now it has exceded the return date. Read more
Published 2 months ago by DAVID WEBB CARTER
1.0 out of 5 stars
No way
No way am I going to write a review to help Amazon sell more stuff and thus condone its nasty policy of not paying due taxes in those countries it operates in. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Stephen Lewis
1.0 out of 5 stars
There is an error in my copy
I could not watch the extras. My copy is broken. The movie, itself, is ok, without problems. So, it is not perfect.
Published 3 months ago by Rafaelandrademd
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic...
Absolutely loved this film...great performances by Binoche and Auteil. Picture quality is almost reference quality. One of the very best bluray releases from Artificial Eye so far. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Blu-ray fan
4.0 out of 5 stars
Solid French suspense
A stunning and engrossing slow-burner, with a very open-ended development and denouement. The director plays with the topic of guilt and lies (and their ramifications) on different... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Shephard
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hmmmm
I'm not sure what to make of this film, however it does have that flawless 'Frenchness', and accomplished performances from both Daniel Auteuil, and Binoche(as always). Read more
Published 8 months ago by Belinda Barchard
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gripping!
The past coming back to haunt someone has always been a popular theme in films and is very prominent in Michael Haneke's Hidden. Read more
Published 12 months ago by D Brown
5.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting and uneasy
This is the first film I've seen by Haneke and I'm keen now to see more. Hidden (which I watched with English subtitles) is perfectly constructed - clever, dark and profoundly... Read more
Published 14 months ago by wordfan
5.0 out of 5 stars
I wish more films were this good
Yet another Haneke film that is spellbinding, thought-provoking and hugely entertaining. If you 'get it' then there is absolutely nothing I need to add to the worthy praise already... Read more
Published 16 months ago by thetruthshallsetyefree
2.0 out of 5 stars
Hidden I wish it was
The nightmare of all is that which is most hidden. Since the fear comes from what we cannot see we allow oursleves to give meaning to the meaningless and form to the formless. Read more
Published 16 months ago by M. Locke
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