Cache

Thoughts on the Surveillance Camera in Haneke’s Cache (2005)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2006/jan/27/2

The surveillance camera in Haneke’s Cache signifies 'repressed memory' addressing both: individual repressed memory (Georges' particular memory of framing his childhood competition) and collective repressed memory (contemporary French society dealing with issues of colonialism, class, race). The use of the surveillance camera would combine the two inherently because of its utilization as a means for surveillance of society at large and in addition to its use as a device to reveal repressed memory or subconscious.

The built environment is crucial to the film in relationship to the idea of the body. The houses and building serve to correspond to the notion of individual and collective bodies. The camera surveys the exterior of house or body of Georges vs. Apartment building or collective interior, where the corridor signifies the internal workings of a collective body.

The 'omniscient/objective' / third-person-narrative camera vs. surveillance camera differentiation is quite interesting here because there is often a question as to which type of camera it is - to be defined later in the clip or through the clip sequencing... The last clip is a clear example of this.

This last shot opens up the plot to multiple interpretations, however none of which really make practical sense. One could speculate that the boys plotted the entire scheme, but this seems difficult and unlikely. One could interpret the meeting of Majid’s son and Pierrot differently. That Majid's son was plotting to harass Pierrot - but in reading this scene in this way, one could speculate about the paranoia, racism and expectations of the viewer.

Also, given that a viewer might not see the boys meeting in this ending, then one should ask what would the viewer think of the last scene and it's meaning? Does it not revert back to some surveillance device of a possibly unknown perpetrator on the youth of our time? ...i.e. what crimes will they commit? Is this the surveillance of a future generation? And if so, what dies this tell us about the use of the different camera types in this film?

If the surveillance camera is entirely [I am not trying to deny that the surveillance is partially his individual subconscious, but that it is also partially a collective subconscious, the generational critique of crimes of their (fore)fathers] Georges' subconscious or repressed memory (I don't think this makes sense either i.e. why does his boss get a copy? his friends see the footage to his family's estate?) - completely divorced from a collective repressed memory - then how can we explain it?

Compare Tape 2, Memory clip interruption to murder scene in Lynch’s Lost Highway surveillance footage.