film: hidden (caché)

just caught this at the melbourne international film festival. it's a thriller based around the rather dull bourgeois lives of two french people (georges - played by daniel auteuil, and his wife - juliette binoche) and their son pierrot (lester makedonsky). dull, that is, until what originally seems like a prank being played on them turns a little more sinister.

auteuil is brilliant as the muted, stoic georges, and just like his wife we feel cut off from the information about his past that is slowly revealed through the film - it all becomes very important in the end, and the 'hidden' of the title ends up being important in more ways than one.

despite very few moments of high drama (though those that do come are worth the wait), the film is taut with tension and compelling to the very end.

this won austrian michael haneke the best director at cannes this year, and it's definitely deserving. despite what appears to be a modest budget, the film is fantastic; both entertaining and socially relevant. it's shot on high-definition, and even that lends itself to the film, though it never feels like a low-budget doco; it maintains its artistry.

sounds interesting.

the other day i found out that they're having the international film festival where i'm going too and got all excited... that is until i realised that unless the films in english i won't be able to watch it cos the subtitles will be in a language that i can't understand; which as you can imagine was very frustrating to say the least.

why can't my brain just automatically know and register twenty different languages? that would be so soo nice. so soo nice.

*bump*

this seems to have been around more lately - anyone else seen it?