I agitated for a long time to get the Book God to buy me this; it appeared on various birthday and Christmas wish lists before he finally gave in and bought it for me. And then like so many other things it sat on a shelf for ages before I picked it for Saturday Film Night chez Bride.
And although I’m pretty sure that I don’t have a clue what was actually going on and I certainly have no idea what the ending actually meant, I thought this was a very stylish and well-acted thriller.
So Georges presents an arts discussion programme on TV, is married to Anne and they have a son. They seem to live a charmed and privileged life until they start receiving mysterious videotapes which show that they are under some form of surveillance – they are certainly being watched without their knowledge. These are accompanied with drawings which show scenes of violence and then the phone calls start. Without Anne’s knowledge Georges starts to investigate, and some disturbing elements from his childhood begin to surface.
Things I loved = Daniel Auteuil is brilliant, such a wonderful face and a man who has perfected the Gallic shrug; the sense of menace; the natural setting; the WTF ending.
Things not so much liked = a bit too oblique for me on occasion, but perhaps I just have to watch it again
Rating stuff = 15 (contains strong bloody violence) – in particular one very unexpected act of violence which had me jumping out of my seat.
Tissue count = 0
Safety cushion = see rating stuff, which i could have got to the cushion more quickly than I did, but perhaps I’m overdoing it
So this is a Michael Haneke film and I therefore should have expected that there was more to this than met the eye. It’s clearly got a subtext relating to the whole French-Algerian thing and in particular the treatment of immigrants. It provoked some lively discussion and the checking of various historical reference books.
I’m still not sure who did what to whom and why. But it probably doesn’t matter.
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August 6, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Kathy
Oh, I’m all about some WTFery. I’m adding this to my queue! If it makes any more sense to me than it did to you, I’ll let you know. 😉
August 7, 2010 at 6:53 pm
brideofthebookgod
I’ll look forward to that, Kathy!
September 3, 2010 at 8:51 am
Kathy
So. I have just watched this movie. I have a theory, but I am uncertain about it. Do you want me to post it here? There will be spoilers. (Not for you, of course, since you’ve seen it, but for others who may read this).
September 4, 2010 at 3:28 pm
brideofthebookgod
Well, I could put a big “spoilers in the comments” note as an update on the post. Or, you could e-mail me at brideofthebookgod(at)btinternet(dot)com and we can debate offline….