This French film was directed by Michael Haneke, who also wrote the screenplay. To break the film down to its barest level it is the story of a family who are apparently under some sort of surveillance. To explain key shots or how the plot develops would ultimately destroy the point of watching the film, so I shall not go into these aspects in this review.
The family in question consists of Georges (Daniel Auteuil - of Jean De Florette fame), who is a discussion programme presenter, his wife Anne (Juliette Binoche), and the broody teenage son Pierrot (solidly played by Lester Makedonsky). The film starts off with Georges discovering a video tape, consisting of a long shot of the family home, left on the front doorstep. As the film progresses we, both film subjects and audience, wonder who is leaving the tapes and what motivation do they have. Anonymous cards are sent, and strange phonecalls to the house start to build up the tension. However, the film story then takes a different turn that leads to more intrigue and just as much mystery.
This latter point is what makes the film challenging to watch for a general audience, and in fact even in my case as a veteran cinema-goer, the film never fully seems to answer all the questions. In fact a day or two later I wondered if I had grabbed the wrong end of the stick. Unfortunately to try to explain would totally spoil the film. In general this was a good movie, but it fell down, in my view, with the pacing. As facts were revealed to us, just leading to more and more questions, the film started to drag. Whilst I guessed some of the twists, and didn't guess others (or wondered about more fundamental issues in the film itself) I found that the slow pace of the film gave me plenty of time to think things through. The film teeters on the very edge of becoming boring quite often. This, however, is very French!
Suspense, and a desire to understand what is actually going on, plays a large part of what drives the urge to continue watching the film. Other good points are the intriguing cinematography, the film often uses wide shots which, on a cinema screen at least make you search the shot for hidden (pun intended) details, and then flips to mid shots where you are convinced that you are probably missing something that is just off camera. An air of menace is present throughout the majority of the film, which at 117 minutes is no mean feat. The acting was very good too, although I have little patience for 'stupid' characters in films, and some of the characters did, sadly, fall into this category.
In all 'Hidden' is a good film, with plenty of ambiguity for discussion on film groups!
**** (out of 5)
