Hidden (2010)

[Psycho Stitch]

In Theatre : January 29, 2010
Director(s): unknown

HIDDEN is the story about a young man, Kai Koss (aka KK,) who unwillingly returns to the small town he ran from 19 years ago. His cruel mother has recently died, and left him the house he grew up in. He means to leave as soon as he has made all the necessary arrangements, but with his heritage comes dark and deadly secrets, and KK soon finds himself tangled up in a series of event that seem beyond anyone’s control…

Not everyone in the small town is happy to see him back, and when a young couple out camping disappears, his troubles become overwhelming. The shadows of the past hover over him as he tries to tackle the present, and it turns out that he has spent the past two decades trying to forget. only to find that there are some things that you just can’t run from

[Friday The 13th]

nice posts Psycho!

[Zach]

Hidden

Review by: Zach

Hidden is the most explosive film of the year. It's also one of the first truly great films of the new century and is likely to be looked at as a landmark for decades to come. Director Michael Haneke has threatened to make a film as powerful as this for some time. His recent works include The Piano Teacher and the post-apocalyptic Time of the Wolf, both highly lauded and controversial films, but with Hidden he goes back to themes he examined in 2000's Code Unknown: namely the unease in modern life caused by racial tension. But whereas Code Unknown was a somewhat piecemeal affair, Hidden is like a cinematic punch to the stomach, likely to leave viewers both dazzled and perturbed.“Hidden” is the story about a young man, Kai Koss (aka KK,) who unwillingly returns to the small town he ran from 19 years ago. His cruel mother has recently died, and left him the house he grew up in. He means to leave as soon as he has made all the necessary arrangements, but with his heritage comes dark and deadly secrets, and KK soon finds himself tangled up in a series of event that seem beyond anyone’s control. Not everyone in the small town is happy to see him back, and when a young couple out camping disappears, his troubles become overwhelming. He ultimately comes to discover that there are some things that you just can’t run from.Following a bizarre accident on a desert road and an odd encounter with another boy about the same age, KK (Kristoffer Joner) returns to his hometown after a long period of estrangement. It’s a cozy yet slightly spooky place, a rural locale with a massive waterfall, surrounded by a daunting forest, and filled with unpleasant memories: the memory of the abusive mother who practically drove KK away, and who is now mercifully dead. In her will, she left KK a home in the heart of the woods; entering the house and coming face-to-face with disturbing memories conjures up torrents of evil that lurk inside of KK – malice that he suppressed for years but that now manifests itself with devastating force.Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche play Georges and Anne Laurent, a middle-aged bourgeois couple who have successful careers as a TV bookshow host and a publisher respectively. They live in comfort in Paris and have a son entering his teens. The cosy peace of their domestic life - crammed as it is with dinner parties and book launches - is broken when one day Daniel receives an envelope containing a gruesome and childlike drawing of a young boy with his throat cut. When the envelopes continue arriving and become more sinister, Daniel tries to figure out who could be sending him such threats. But in order to do so he has to face some very uncomfortable truths about his life as a small boy on a remote French farm, when a young Arab was posted to stay with him and his family. Daniel begins to wonder if a hidden childhood secret could be coming back to haunt him forty years on.Haneke shows us the action from several perspectives, including the largely unseen perpetrator of the macabre plot. He slowly reveals the story and creates a highly-charged thriller, but the sheer brilliance of the film is the way in which the sinister undertones creep under the skin of the viewer. Make no mistake: any Western European living in any degree of comfort is likely to feel very uncomfortable at the notions of guilt which emerge from this work.There are another couple of specific reason which help to make Hidden the extraordinary feat it is. Firstly, the film contains the single biggest shock I have seen at the cinema in some years (it took the audience several minutes to regain its composure at the viewing I attended). Secondly, and most beguiling of all, the film requires intense scrutiny, and even a second viewing. Haneke may bury his clues, but they are all there on screen, right until the very last frame of the film. Do not leave before it has completely finished, and prepare yourself for some sleepless nights once you have seen it. Hidden is that rarest of cinematic gems: an out-and-out masterpiece which is unique, original and innovative, and it's no surprise that it has swept the board at several European award ceremonies. Unmissable.