An Unsettling World  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This may not be the most uplifting image, the most iconic or important image in popular culture, but it is impossible to forget for those of us that have seen it. To enter the world of Michael Haneke is to enter an unsettling world, one in which the tension is disturbing and the feeling of dread is suffocating to the viewer. Why the need to watch this? Haneke comments on society, the bourgeoisie, cinematic voyeurism, violence and the guilt of watching violence. His films work on many levels, never giving the viewer an answer but giving them food for thought to make their own mind up.

 

Hidden sees George and wife, Anne, receive videotapes from a stalker who sends ‘surveillance’ footage of their home. George thinks he knows who it is - someone from his past, a ‘hidden’ guilt. The film refers to the massacre of the Algerians in 1961, at the hands of the French. This hidden guilt leads to suppressed, ineffable prejudices, and unresolved racial tensions. The haunting image above shows us the incident that led to unspeakable events, the fear of our past coming back to get us - our guilt for our prejudices. All this affects George’s family and in the case of Haneke’s films, the children. Children in his films become killers, disenfranchised and alienated; they are the source of repercussions through repression or their past. This is the case with Hidden and particularly the final image of the film, which splits audiences as to who might be sending these video tapes.

 

Michael Haneke is one of the best filmmakers working today. His films are important because they are about society and the flaws and cracks within them, but what makes him stand out is that he doesn’t present a reason why but gives several ideas to the problem without a definitive answer. It’s this ambiguity that allows audiences to draw their own conclusions. His films haunt your psyche. Images like this one from Hidden stay with you long after the film. Think of the boy’s planned murder in Benny’s Video (1992), the German kids and what they will become in The White Ribbon (2010) and the shock of the killers rewinding events in the disturbing Funny Games (1997).

 

Hidden may be Haneke’s masterpiece. It is a film that can’t be neglected but one that reaps the rewards of art cinema. While the image may be discomforting and not pleasant to view, it is impossible to ignore and forget, emanating from a film that seeps into the mind and stays there well after viewing. To quote The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, from his review of the film, “[Hidden] is one of the great films of this decade.”

 

By Ben Jenkins

BA Film Studies student
University of Winchester

 

 

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