Cannes: Day Four

Michael Haneke's 'Hidden' looks like the first potential award-winner, while Carlos Reygadas stirs up controve

May 14 2005

Though there had been a number of fine films during Cannes' first few days, it wasn't until Saturday that we saw what many considered the first truly great movie of the festival.

True, Michael Haneke's 'Hidden' proved characteristically divisive, with some irritated by what they saw as condescending preachiness; a far greater number, however, were simply blown away not only by the film's sheer brilliance of execution (even its detractors admitted it was beautifully made and performed) but by its relevance and the range of issues covered.

Daniel Auteuil plays the host of a literary TV chat-show, who suddenly starts getting tapes delivered of his comings and goings to the house he shares with publisher Juliette Binoche; the videos are wrapped in childlike drawings suggestive of bloody violence.

The police can do nothing about it, and the anonymous packages begin to take their toll on Auteuil's family life; he feels under threat, and begins to lose control.

From this simple conceit Haneke mines a rich vein of issues to do with contemporary life: the repression of emotions and memories, social and economic oppression, the effects of celebrity, the erosion of privacy, the fear of the Other, voyeurism, responsibility and conscience.

Crucially, however, the film also succeeds superbly as gripping drama; it's suspenseful, witty, engrossing, and often very affecting. Those who still maintain that Haneke's films are cold should check out the scene between Auteuil and Annie Girardot, who plays his mother – just one example of many near-perfect bits of acting.

Of those movies that have played so far, 'Hidden' looks best placed to pick up a major award (or more).

Similarly divisive was 'Battle in Heaven', Carlos Reygadas' follow-up to 'Japón'.

As in the earlier film, the Mexican director makes use of non-professional actors. Here he tells the story of a middle-aged chauffeur tormented by a crime he has committed and by his feelings for his boss's daughter, who (for reasons probably known only to Reygadas) decides to help him cheat on his wife.

Beginning with a scene of oral sex, the movie repeatedly aims at images that will shock, puzzle or impress; there's an element of bombast to Reygadas' notion of cinematic art, which frequently leads him into overstatement and absurdity.

Nor is he afraid of those explicit sex scenes which are becoming something of an art-house cliché. Indeed, as Reygadas throws off his second-hand religiose motifs, he veers between the trite and the nonsensical.

It must be said, however, that some found the film extraordinary.

Few would make such claims of 'The King', James Marsh's first real fiction feature. The story is a little over-familiar, with Gael Garcia Bernal leaving the US navy to go in search of the father he's never known – Southern preacher William Hurt – who already has a family, including a teenage daughter clearly pleasing to Bernal's eye.

What develops is part 'Badlands', part 'The Apostle', and part quite a few other movies, but the cinematography is good, Marsh is good at creating a sense of place, and Bernal fills out his role with a much-needed ambiguity.

Finally, the less said about 'Down in the Valley', the better, except that its present-day LA-set tale of a teenage girl falling for a ranch hand gives Edward Norton a chance to play cowboy. Sadly, the film, despite an otherwise pretty promising cast, seldom gets more grown-up than that.

Some have been very down on 'The King' – they probably haven't seen Norton strut his stuff.

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