Issue 153

Review: Cache

26th February 2007

Michael Haneke is a director whose name has come to be synonymous with European Art House cinema, the exact definition of which is far from lucid. He has also courted criticism and controversy during his career for persistent graphic and unremitting themes, not least his portrayal of self harm and sexual violence in The Piano Player. With Cache, however, Haneke sets a benchmark for the direction and quality of European cinema at present.

Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliet Binoche) live a middle class existence in a bourgeois area of Paris, but their lives are disrupted as videos of their apartment, of them, and of George's family home, all accompanied by graphically violent child-like drawings, are repeatedly sent to them. Pulsating in a deeply measured and understated manner, Cache tackles themes of guilt, security and identity, producing a film that although not always enjoyable, will stay in the mind long after the credits have finished rolling.

Review: 5/5.

James Hay