A middle-class family is haunted by the constant stream of voyeur tapes, and we, like the characters, look forward to the moment when the mystery is revealed. But just like Venus of Milos, you can't get the thrill of a flawless drama from Haneke, a film that seems to be spliced together from fragments, structuring history, and also Deconstructed life. The journey that takes the protagonist to his childhood nightmare has not yet begun, but it has already ended, not because the secret is sealed, but because of his powerful self-persuasion ability that God is helpless.
Where is the camera? Who is that guy with the camera? Haneke loves playing games like this with audiences. In 1997's "Fun Game", the murderous criminal controls the development of the plot like a movie director. When the plot exceeds his imagination, there is a videotape replay in the camera, and then the ending is rewritten, and the victim is completely There is no possibility of escape. The reason this movie loathes some viewers is that they find themselves being manipulated, knowing that in mainstream Hollywood movies, they are used to being gods.
"Hidden Camera" is more clever than "Fun Game". It does not challenge the audience so directly, but cleverly brings the audience into a seemingly complete story, but when we gradually stitch together the whole piece When assembling the puzzle, it was discovered that the key pieces were hidden. It is not only the plot that is hidden. In the last shot of the film, with a wide-angle shot, the characters appear densely, and the key characters in the film appear in the lower left corner, and many viewers did not notice them at all. The camera in traditional films leads the audience to discover secrets, thus bringing the thrill of exploration, but in Haneke, the camera is not hidden, but highlighted, it is a lie and truth, and what appears in the camera is true , but the person holding the camera can choose which part of the truth you want to see. If truth is only a fragment, then it is no different from a lie.
To explore the theme of "Hidden Camera" cannot avoid the childhood nightmares awakened in the film. The host's status as the host makes his work full of moral innuendo. In the face of the television camera, he can talk freely and at ease; but in the face of the voyeur's camera, he is flustered and overwhelmed. Which one is the real self? The characters in the play are trapped in this existential quagmire. It may seem like a personal tragedy, but Haneke cleverly adds a historical element to the script to move beyond the hysterical shenanigans. The shadow of Algeria is an important emotional experience for France and for the male host, but when these secrets that were hidden in the past years are gradually revealed, there is only self-rescue in addition to continuing to hide. The "original sin" of Christianity needs to be transcended by the power of faith, while the sins of history can only be made up for by lies. The hero's self-rescue is stubborn and simple, he keeps finding reasons for himself ("I was only 6 years old"), and then he thinks of using money to solve it, or asking for help from the police and friends, Maggie committed suicide in front of him He couldn't arouse his guilt either, and in the end he simply took a big sleep to get rid of it. The male protagonist represents the numb and desperate historical conservatives, who are afraid of the truth being revealed, and would rather endure the inner torment, bear moral condemnation and maintain their perfect image. The most tense moment for the male protagonist in the film is when he learns that his boss has also received the tape, as it relates to his career and social status.
As Haneke wants to express, "Hidden Camera" is not only a reference to France's evasion of Algeria's historical problems, but more of a broad allegory for any person or country that hides secrets. Now that we have realized this, we can answer the question of who is holding the camera. The first shot in the film is the clip in the camera, which is so real that it completely deceives the audience. This design is repeated in the film until the audience finally gives up the pursuit of the so-called truth. Haneke loves to debunk the glamorous life of the middle class, in which couples (even between husband and wife) desperately try to maintain a harmonious image in front of their friends, fearful of revealing secrets. The content of the videotape gradually became more and more secret, and Haneke did not hesitate to let Magee prove his innocence by dying to maintain the secret. We might as well abstract this person with a camera. He represents the revealing of the truth, perhaps God, others, or even the protagonist himself. No secret can be completely hidden, the coercion of the other, the inner self Responsibility has plagued the former sinner all the time. At certain moments in the film, the audience becomes the one with the camera, watching the protagonist's life for a long time through surveillance, while also examining them with our own moral standards. There is a news clip in the film about Italy's participation in the Iraq war, which Haneke intentionally shows, perhaps suggesting that in the future this will also be another secret that needs to be hidden?
The entire Hidden Camera looks like a boring home video: a tedious picture of middle-class life about marital squabbles, rebellious teenage sons, sick grandmothers, and quarrels with passers-by , watching his son's swimming competition and other completely innocuous footage. But it's the content that's really worth noting, and the interesting thing is that it's hidden, or more precisely, open. Here Haneke played the text game with the audience again. The son suddenly left home, and he suspected that his mother had an affair with the boss. We found that their relationship is indeed close, but whether there is a relationship beyond friendship, in the film No hint was given, and there is no trace of where the son came from. Magee's son found the male host, and he also firmly claimed that he did not shoot the videotape. Are these words true and credible? The openness of the text is even more vivid in the scene at the end, and we can hardly even see the son and Magee's son, let alone hear what they are talking about. About this ending, which pretty much sums up what Haneke wants to say in the whole movie, is it about reconciliation for the next generation? Or reveal the real mastermind behind this prank? Or is this the start of a new round of candid photography? All questions need to be answered by the audience themselves, but just like the theme of this film, maybe there is no truth at all? Or it has long been hidden, and even if it is revealed, no one will care.
Every shot and picture of "Hidden Camera" reveals that this is an inevitable nightmare, about the fears, beliefs, values, emotions and death of modern people, the characters in the play are anxious about a Kafkaesque absurd dilemma, The inability to face the dilemma of mistakes and sins in life is an indictment of escapists and an indictment of the morality of the times. Money and status confuse our eyes. They are like Faust's new life full of temptations. But it requires us to give up our inner hope and sense of guilt. But "Hidden Camera" is by no means a simple problem film or an idea film. It does not directly tell the audience those simple moral values. It is a powerful work of art that calmly and accurately expresses the fractured narrative, openness The theme and subtle creativity of Haneke's snarky irony, the selfish modernity reduced to a tool and the fear of historical truth, but the "camera" is everywhere, it is always reminding us not to Forget the truth hidden by the dust. In fact, all you need to understand about Hidden Camera is that what Haneke wants to tell is by no means a story, what he really wants is a fable.
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