Britain's The Guardian called Michael Hanake's "Hidden Camera" "the first great film of the 21st century", and a review on IMDB reads:
"Caché" is one of the few real masterpieces of the 2000s. The mix of socio-political comment with the thriller genre is not new...But Haneke asks us and gives us much more: he demands our ability to fill in the many important historical and political gaps, messes with our prejudices but respects our intelligence, and knows that a good part of us viewers are bored to death of being spoon-fed with one-digit IQ plots in mechanical thrillers inhabited by tired, phony "archetypes" of good x evil characters.
This film can get such high praise, but its artistry and narrative power are not strong, the composition of the picture is quite satisfactory, and the rhythm is also very slow, and it is no problem to watch it at 1.5 times the speed. Its excellence lies more in its sharp political metaphors - revealing the social demonstrations that were hidden in French society.
The old man, Majid, is the son of a long-time worker in the hero's family. His parents come from the last French colony in Africa to let go: Algérie. On October 17, 1961, during a demonstration in Paris against the French government, many Algerians disappeared, "more than 200 bodies were thrown into the Seine", and the French government remained silent for decades. Not to mention. Naturally, after Majid's parents went north to Paris to participate in the parade, there was no return. Majid became an orphan from then on, and was sent to an orphanage because of Georges' jealousy and selfishness.
And decades later, Georges repeatedly stressed that he couldn't remember being six years old. Just as the French government hid its disgraceful demonstrations decades ago. And in fact, did Georges really completely forget? No, he just refused to admit it out of self-respect in front of his wife and others. In the end, he told the truth, he first tricked Majid into slaughtering chickens, and then tricked his parents Majid into slaughtering chickens to scare him.
The director completely skipped the question of "who is that voyeur". If the last 5 minutes of long shots are considered to be the voyeur's perspective, then this is completely unsolved, and the director is not making a suspense film. He was more focused on expressing one thing - how did Georges react when the scandalous events of the past were revealed?
Georges is a typical French intellectual and social elite. The walls of the house are covered with books (most of the TV walls are videotapes, but the wall next to the dining table is indeed full of books).
But what do we see in him? Granted, he's educated (without hitting Majid) and cultured. But compared to Majid and his son, he is cowardly (couldn't admit the fault of his childhood), cold-blooded (no guilt over Majid's death), paranoid (even after Majid's death he insists it's either Majid or Majid's videotape made by my son). In contrast, the sons of Majid, who were not well educated, were tolerant and calm. He was still polite and calm when he went to Georges after his father killed himself.
In addition, the film has three dialogues related to physical conflict. The first was when Georges and his wife walked out of the police station and nearly hit a black guy on a bike. The second time was when Georges went to Majid for the first time, and the third time was when Majid's son went to Georges' company to find Georges. The first time the little black brother said, "If you are as fierce as you are, try harder." Georges' wife, seeing that it was obvious that he could not beat him, hurried to persuade him, and Georges did not speak again. The second time Majid said "Are you going to hit me, now you are stronger than me, but you can't hit, you are too educated." The third time Majid's son also said almost the same thing "Are you going to hit me, It looks like you're stronger than me", everyone sees WWE and knows how capable black people are, so I thought about it later and thought that what he said was not "strong" physically, but more "strong" in social status—— Because of him, his father could not receive a good education when he was a child, and he was unjustly killed in his later years. I guess the director is using this as a metaphor for a society where the strong eat the weak - the stronger side can rewrite history, because if the truth is not recorded, it will eventually be forgotten. Like at the end of the film, Georges takes sleeping pills, closes the curtains, takes off his bathrobe, and falls asleep like a baby, as if Majid is a non-existent person.
In the end, the director used a 5-minute long shot to shoot a scene after school. There's actually something Magid's son and Georges' son are talking about. On the left side of the picture below, Georges' son has the big curly hair of the logo. Probably wanted to say that they had a good chat, got along well, and didn't hate each other because of the love and hatred of each other's fathers. Faintly expressed hope for the future of France.
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