15, 118mins
Michael Haneke’s marvellous film Hidden is one of the most subtle and terrifying art-house thrillers about stalking to have been made.
Daniel Auteuil has a seemingly enviable life. He is married to Juliette Binoche, and presents a cult high-brow chat show on French TV. The couple are slightly spooked when lengthy CCTV tapes of their home start arriving through the letterbox. Nothing much happens in these video marathons apart from one or the other of them leaving home or arriving back from work. The tapes are accompanied by crude cartoon sketches of a boy vomiting blood.
The script turns on Auteuil’s sharp suspicion of who the nameless culprit might be. The poisonous tension is the web of lies he spins to keep the reasons well hidden.
Advertisement
The film itself hinges on the racially inspired (and factual) murder of Algerian immigrants in Paris in 1961. This gives nothing away. What makes Hidden such a gripping watch is how this guilty national memory preys on a seemingly innocent and conventional family.
It rapidly transpires that very few characters in this chamber play deal in absolute truths. They even lie to themselves about why this should be so. The genius of Haneke’s film is the sheer modesty with which it is presented. The ripples of menace are just that: an interrupted dinner party, the odd anonymous phone call, a gaggle of over-helpful friends, and the couple’s confused 12-year-old son. Hidden is a genuine find.