Film Muser Rating : 4 / 5
Release Date : October 5, 2005
Running Time : 118 minutes
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Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche star in Cache, a film about an upscale family who’s life is turned upside down by a series of video tapes and drawings left on their doorstep. The tapes depict nothing more than surveillance style video of the family’s home, but there are drawings sometimes included that show much more graphic scenes. What starts off as a slight annoyance, the video tapes soon lead the family into disarray and deceit as they start to reveal a suspicious past.

Cache

Almost the entire movie is filmed in static shots and their is no musical score, giving the effect that you are actually watching a surveillance video. The opening scene just sits on a shot of a house, with no (or very little) sound. I actually thought that I didn’t have the audio input correct on my home system, making me stop the film and check my cables. Once the dialog starts, the scene starts to make more sense as you realize that you are watching the first video that the family has received.

Auteuil’s character, Georges Laurent is the subject under “surveillance”, as the video tapes act as a catalyst in revealing a past that he had forgotten about, or chose to forget about. Even though he viewed this particular event in his past as minor, he learns that they had dire effects on another. As he learns of the effects his actions had, he goes into a state of denial, and refuses to take responsibility for what he has done. Auteuil captures perfectly a man’s fall from peacefulness to to utter chaos, while Binoche complements him as a wife who loses faith and trust in her husband.

This movie is not for everyone, as it moves fairly slowly. If you don’t have a good attention span, you may want to stay clear, as you will likely find it boring. If you can look past this and let yourself get immersed in the film, you will find yourself sharing in the tense situations the family finds themselves in. There is no clear resolution to the film, but there are a few hints at the end that can be interpreted a number of different ways. But this is not what the film is really concerned with – it’s not a mystery movie that needs to be solved. Instead it is a movie about elitists who are unwilling to admit to their mistakes, and how their guilt can destroy their lives. This film may focus on one man and his guilt, but there are nuances that insinuate an indictment of European and western society, their treatment of the less privileged, and how they downplay the consequences of their actions.

Memorable Scene
As I mentioned, the final scene of the film can be taken a number of different ways. Depending on how you look at it, there could be a positive or negative resolution to the movie. Without giving anything away, I tend to look at this scene as going down the positive route. Let me just warn you that anything of relevance can be completely missed if you don’t watch closely.

Note: this movie is presented in French with English subtitles.