A bit of disclosure, appropriately enough, is in order. Caché was the first film the cinetrix saw this year, on a rainy January Monday on the Lower East Side [thanks to the Cinephiliac and his lady friend]. But Haneke's film is a slow-acting poison; its toxins need time to seep in.
By now, if you've followed the fortunes of this film at all, you know that the term "spoiler "was never more apt, suggesting the sour, off nature of what lies hidden in Caché's plot. But I don't want to talk about the story, at least not directly.
I'm more interested in the framing, particularly the way the director perverts establishing shots. In Caché, they're held too long, until we become conscious of the wind rustling the leaves of the tree in front of Georges and Anne's home, the soundtrack sussurations reminiscent of Blow-up or Tout Une Nuit, other films that reward and frustrate attention to the image. We don't even need the subsequent joggle and roll of this image fast-forwarded on tape to realize these static shots are never really still, but the effect is that our eyes cannot rest, either, so desperate do we become to find meaning, to latch on to our stand-in.
When the protagonist does not arrive or else appears only briefly before walking offscreen, leaving us impatient surveillants behind, we have the opportunity to notice small details and invest them with meaning by proxy. Is it significant that Anne and Georges' townhouse is where Rue des Iris meets their street? Probably not, but the temptation to iris in on it is almost impossible to resist. Is that the telling detail? What about when Georges, much later on, is shown underneath a sign that reads Deux Freres? Is it a clue or a MacGuffin? Does it matter?
It's my suspicion that these images are empty signifiers, false fronts like the spines of the fake books that line Georges' literary chat show set, but no matter. Our eyes have been upended; by the end of the film Haneke has us really looking and, perhaps, even really seeing.
I'd be interested in hearing from those who've gotten more than one gander at Caché. Do les oeuils still have it the second time around?
Somewhat related: mapping visual complexity across systems.
