If I’m on a date and the guy I’m with doesn’t get, doesn’t love, or even worse, has not heard of, Michael Haneke’s brilliant Cache, certainly top of the list among the best films of the ‘noughts, then I’m probably not seeing him after we’ve gone Dutch on the check that night. I know, I know, it sounds so snobbish and condescending, but hey, I’m a guy who thinks you are the type of films you see (and if there’s any mention at all of Judd Apatow, or yes, Na’vis, in the course of the date, I’d be surreptitiously calling for my cab home while he’s in the bathroom). Cache, the story of a French family who keeps on receiving videotapes of themselves under surveillance from an unknown source, is one of the most intellectually challenging, psychologically provocative, and artistically impressive films I’ve ever seen, with a perfect Gordian knot of a screenplay that allows its themes to linger, disturb and provoke you days, no, even months, after you’ve seen it. I didn’t think Haneke could ever top Cache, but he comes quite close to doing so with his latest film, The White Ribbon, the deserving winner of many, many film prizes including the Cannes Film Festival Palme D’Or last May, the European Film Awards Best Picture last December, and the Golden Globes Best Foreign Language Film last weekend (and the pleasure of seeing Haneke, truly one of our times’ great directors, humbly, somewhat bewilderedly, accept his prize, more than makes up for the sight of James Cameron winning the Best Director award for that Wii video game masquerading as cinema, Avatar). Sure, The White Ribbon is infuriating, chilly, dense, and slow-moving at times (some of the reasons which keep it, in my opinion, from surpassing Cache as Haneke’s personal best), but more importantly it’s also powerful, intelligent, sophisticated, and visually stunning all the time.
Jan 21
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