Michael Haneke’s brilliant psychological thriller, widely considered one of the best films of the decade, follows Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche), whose privileged Parisienne lives are disturbed when an anonymous tormentor sends them a series of videotapes tracking their movements. A powerful, disturbing film about paranoia, racism and guilt that gets right under your skin.

For Decalogue, Hidden has been picked as the film that represents Michael Haneke as Director of the Decade. In this introduction to a screening at Watershed, author and academic Catherine Wheatley discusses the films impact and meaning. Hidden on its release was a huge success and Catherine describes it as a filmic Rorschack blot - with audiences seeing something in it that perhaps tells them more about themselves than it does about the film or the director's intent. Critics generally have a shared respect for the film, but vary widely on their interpretations of what the films means – is it a personal story, a thriller about family, a political allegory or a social critique? Catherine Wheatley argues that it is all of these things and that what makes Haneke such an important director is that he has made a film that raises so many questions and which speaks to most audiences on some level.

Catherine Wheatley is an author and journalist, who has written numerous articles for the BFI's Sight & Sound, alongside a critical analysis of the films of Michael Haneke; Michael Haneke's Cinema: The Ethic of the Image.

Posted on Wed 24 Nov 2010.

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