隐藏摄像机

在观看Caché时必须记得，我们在画面上看到的人物的所作所为以及听到的人物的话语，并不反映他们内心的所思所想。整部电影坚持以外部视角进行观察（窥视），避开内心刻画，为的就是还原人在现实里的这种复杂。认识到这一点，我们就不难发现，影片实际上已经告诉了我们， 乔治并非像他从始至终强调的那样对童年犯下的过错不以为然，他的内心其实一直清清楚楚地知道自己的残忍。为表明这一点，电影使用了三个亦虚亦实的插入镜头。这三个插入镜头是全片唯一的主观视角，展示的是谎言。与之相对的则是隐藏摄影机的窥视视角，展示的是真相。在片中，我们不断看到隐藏摄像机所代表的真相毫不留情地刺穿乔治围绕秘密说出的一个又一个谎言。这点后面再讲，先来看电影是如何在避免内心刻画的同时告诉我们乔治心中有愧的。

第一个插入镜头出现在影片开头不久。乔治和安娜收到了第二盘录像带及附带的第一张简笔画，安娜将简笔画递给乔治看，此时插入镜头出现，我们看到一个口中流血的少年（当然就是Majid，只是观众此时还不知道）。插入镜头结束后，夫妻俩的对话继续，乔治的语气明显慌乱了起来。这段安排明确表示插入镜头正是乔治脑中闪现的情景：在看到简笔画后，他立刻想到了Majid。若乔治真如他自己后来所言，对童年发生的事情已经淡忘干净并毫不在意，他不会在四十年后对这突如其来的简笔画看一眼便知含义。除此之外，在心中有了猜测后，他的第一反应是隐藏：关掉录像带，谎称自己认为是儿子同学的恶作剧；这急切的遮掩同样暗示了他的内心是有愧的。这是他为了隐藏秘密撒下的第一个谎，不光为了瞒妻子，恐怕也是想骗自己这与当年的往事无关。同他后来撒的其他的谎一样，这个谎马上被戳穿了。仿佛知道这幅画击中了他似的，相似的卡片也被寄到他的公司，甚至他儿子的学校——当儿子拿着署名为“爸爸”的卡片问他这是什么意思，他自欺欺人的谎便不攻自破了。在这之后，第二个插入镜头以梦境形式出现，持续时间较第一次更久，进一步向乔治（以及此刻仍不知情的观众）确认录像带和卡片与童年往事的关联。

在一次家庭晚宴上，乔治收到了第三盘录像带。这一次，录像带表明自己的目的并非监视，而是以自主参与者的身份与乔治对话，并有意识地对他的猜测作出了一个肯定的回应。下一个场景，乔治回到了录像带所示的童年住所。他与母亲的一场谈话是电影最重要的戏之一，对几个核心主旨都有点题，这点也后面再谈。与母亲谈话后，第三个插入镜头以梦境形式出现，和前两个插入镜头一样，它不是真相，而是乔治当年的谎言的具象呈现。关于这三个谎言式的主观镜头，我的理解是，面对无可逆转的罪错，乔治潜意识里非常希望他讲出的谎言全部是真的，这一来Majid落得被送走的命运便是他自己的不幸，他就可以不用背负这个罪责了。乔治对往事讳莫如深、强硬推脱，恰恰是他内心有愧的证据；谎称不记得，恰恰说明他一直记忆犹新。儿时出于自私的恶意中伤覆灭了另一个人的一生，他意识到这个罪是赎不了的，他没有面对的勇气，于是转身逃向反面。正如幼时的他选择用谎言来掩盖内心的妒，如今的他继续用谎言来掩盖内心的愧。他越是否定记忆，记忆就刻得越深，他越是否认愧，愧就越不饶他。

说了这么多来解释乔治并非表现出来的那样漠然，当然不是要证明他是个善人，只是试着破除大多数观众对这个人物乃至对这部影片的误解。一个人如何背负过往的罪孽，如何面对良心，如何达成解脱，是电影探讨的一大议题；但哈内克的野心还不止这么点儿，他把这个议题与另一个更大的议题紧紧连在了一起——法国中产骨子里的冷漠自私，以及与阿尔及利亚人之间的种族隔阂。乔治内心渴望的解脱方式是谎言成真，罪责转移，而非与Majid和平共存，相伴成长，这才深入体现了他的极端自私，以及横亘于他所代表的中产与底层、法国人与阿尔及利亚人之间难以弥合的隔阂。如许多评论已经指出的，对种族问题的指涉在片中也通过电视新闻的呼应完成了由个人到群体的扩张，这点我不再赘述。

乔治的社会形象是一位成功人士，但电影在描摹这一形象时始终带有深深的怀疑。我们回到与母亲的谈话，母亲两次问起乔治和安娜的近况，乔治的回答都是不好不坏，和上次相比没什么变化 (‘We chug along. No highs or lows. I’m fine, Anne’s fine, Pierrot’s fine’.) 乔治所代表的中产阶级的成功意味着一种无聊、乏味、缺乏灵魂的空心生活。他事业有成，家庭美满，平日里也有三五好友时常来聚，但在电影将这种生活放大后，我们看到的不是美好，而是冷漠、猜忌、虚与委蛇，我们看到的是对爱的不信任，对真情实感的严防死守。当妈妈反复向孩子强调自己的爱时，孩子无情地挣脱开她的怀抱跑掉了。当孩子拒不回答究竟是哪里不对劲的时候，我们在他身上看到了主角的影子——无论是面对母亲还是妻子，无论是面对关切还是愤怒，乔治都拒不肯道出藏在心中的秘密。

电影片名 Caché ('Hidden')除了表示“隐藏摄像机”，更深一层寓意便在于埋藏人心深处不见天日的秘密。在电影中，我们看到一个洞察秘密的隐藏摄像机，以无情的诚实为镐，将往事的坟堆层层刨开，直刨到秘密的事实层藏无可藏，不得不现身。然而到这里便无法再继续推进了。隐藏摄像机的镐无论如何锋利，仍对秘密的情感层无计可施。这折射出当代中产生活的一个隐症：人与人之间的连接是肤浅的，表面的，基于礼仪的。这个隐症已经蔓延到了原子单位的家庭内部，家庭成员之间相敬如宾，甚至可以说其乐融融，彼此之间却没有信任，没有爱，每个人都习惯地守起最内一层，为它筑起坚实的堡垒。隐藏摄像机用真实刺破掩埋着秘密的谎言与敷衍，然而即使真相被暴露，对爱的不信任仍能使那内核保持刀枪不入。

正是这种固若金汤导致了人与人之间对话的缺失。在电影中，几乎所有的对话都不是真正的对话，所有人都在用社交礼仪教出的“话”来掩饰内心真实的想法。这也是为什么我在开篇强调，在观看影片时不应直接听信从人物口中说出的话语。乔治收到的第四盘录像带为他提供了Majid住所的位置，目的就是指引他走入一场真正的对话。乔治接受了指引，却拒绝了对话。即便在Majid死去后，乔治仍然拒绝与他的儿子进行对话，无论后者如何请求。乔治唯一一次主动要求对话，是在Majid刚刚自杀后。死亡与血染的真实给他带来的巨大的冲击，使得他一时间不能够再回到道貌岸然的生活里去面对惺惺作态的朋友。他溜进黑暗的卧室，不敢开灯，打电话让妻子赶走客人，要求谈话。在这场谈话里，他吐露了事实真相，但仍然不能吐露情感真相。言辞之间他仍在否认那段往事对他的折磨，绝口不提自己的真实感受，在妻子提问时用录像带来转移话题。实际上录像带此时早已无关紧要，或者说，录像带从来都是无关紧要的。录像带所做的仅仅是复述真相，而真相本身一直都在。乔治对谎言的依赖，对真相的拒绝，使他永远不能得到解脱。他的余生，恐怕都要像Majid死去的那天一样，畏惧见光。

当然，电影的结尾还是给出了一丝希望。乔治和乔治这代人已经无可救药了，但乔治的儿子，Majid的儿子，他们或许能够放下历史的恩怨，开启真正的对话。

“Television accelerates experience, but one needs time to understand what one sees, which the current media disallows. Not just understand on an intellectual level, but emotionally.”

—— Michael Haneke

Michael Haneke is one of the famous Austrian directors, his films often use media as the means that is similar with the function of language to social construction, reflecting the post-modern society of the middle class filled with media violence and void caused by material piling. Television as the typical representation of medium, it uses anthropogenic editing visually and auditorily accelerates the experience subject’s presence. However, the real happening only exists in one place, technology makes it possible using medium as physical object to create countless simulacrum of reality with a compressed time. In the interview of Haneke, he mentioned about the danger of media several times, especially the violent moving-images included in television.

It seems easy for audiences only watch the image and take the information conveyed by media, but it hardly can create an empathy and replace the real presence in real time and space. It the constantly played videos that shows violence and pain in distance on television leaves a vague feeling of guilty and incompetent (2005, as cited in Saxton, 2007, p13). In this case, does the reality attached to the physical media no longer pose a stimulation or a threat to the audience, but gradually become an item that can be examined, so we become numb and rigid filled with such empty realistic derivatives to some extent? The surprise when people first time see the images has gone. According to Yuan (2017), with the fast development of technology, the flood of information and also the large proliferation, modern media can cause the implosion between the reality and the virtual. Being the product of human being, modern media like television and content included inside gradually convey and then even represent the spiritual world of one. In the life surrounded by multiple media, the alienation of human is almost inevitable.

In Caché (Haneke, 2005), the video tape is one materialized physical convey of Georges’ emotional experience, which is the guilty he cannot forget when he deliberately uses lies to get rid of Majid in his childhood. The video tapes lead Georges in to the infinite maze of memory and escape. What is interesting is that the identity of Georges is the host of a television show, the producer of the medium society. Frame start with the scene in video tape, which is can be recognized as the present reality at first, and then frame jumps to another scene that turns to be seen as happening in progress. Each video tape sent has occupied the full screen for a while, which is equal with the ongoing film scene. Counting the film as a medium itself, there almost is no a certain space for audience to be present except the truth, being in front a screen, that may already had been forgotten. Georges keeps trying to find where the camera is by walking around the same place recorded in video tape. However, it is impossible for him to find the camera since the source of tapes are actually from director’s sight or audience’s sight. Alienation happened before all the people realized it, the “video tapes” had controlled us.

Word count: 514

Reference List:

Heiduschka, V. (Producer), & Haneke, M. (Screenwriter/ Director). (2005). Caché [Motion Picture]. French: Wega Film etc.

Saxton, L. (2007) Secrets and relationships: Off-screen space in Michael Haneke’s Caché. London: University of London.

Yuan, X. (2017). Michael Haneke’s film studies: The sin that be shadowed and highlighted. Wuhan: University of Wuhan.

Rather a mistrust of every image because every image is manipulative. In terms of aesthetic imagery, film and video are similar (Haneke, 2006).

In his response to the design of the George family's fixed camera telephoto shot, which appears several times in Cache (Haneke, 2005), Haneke introduces the concept of 'image mistrust'. He argues that the blurring of the boundary between film and video images, caused by the insertion of video in other media, creates a sense of mistrust in the viewer of the image at hand.

Cache (Haneke, 2005)

Cachewas inspired by Haneke's viewing of an ARTE documentary about the 1961 massacre of revolutionary Algerians in Paris, and his shock at the fact that it took forty years for the story to come to light in a country like France, which prides itself on its freedom of the press (Porton, 2005). The incident inspired his distrust of the media and inspired him creating film.

Firstly, Cacheuses television as an example of opinion leaders filtering television programs and making the information received by viewers simplistic and one-sided, making the population less capable of receiving complex information and easier to manage. Theory of two-step flow of communication(Lazarsfeld, 2021) reflects this view, where the impact of mass communication does not affect people directly, but is transmitted to them through a second filter by opinion leaders. People lose trust in the media because they learn the truth about what is communicated, and Haneke excels in using media forms in his films to reflect on social issues. For example, in the post-production of George's television program, the editors manipulated the content of the programme, cutting out what they considered superfluous and keeping the simpler content more accessible to the audience. This demonstrates the power of managers to manipulate public opinion and breaks people's sense of security in the media.

Cache (Haneke, 2005)

Secondly, the media's ability to communicate is diminished by the class divide. With first-world middle-class families constructing safe spaces that paralyze the violence of media communication, demonstrating the diminished effectiveness of media reflection in public spaces (Cowan, 2008). For example, the decoration of George's home reflects the middle-class identity of George's family. The television as a media medium in his home is set inside a bookshelf full of books, a sense of framing that suggests that the first-world middle class constructs a closed safe space in their home where the suffering of the third world is allowed to be discussed.

Cache (Haneke, 2005)

However, at the same time these sufferings are only discussed and can easily be impacted by the personal and trivial emotions of life (Cowan, 2008). In one scene, a television screen shows images of the war in Iraq, and as the camera zooms out it shows George and Annie having an argument. This scene shows the safe space constructed by the bourgeoisie to withstand external malevolence, as they ignore the news shown on television and dwell on their own emotional situation. This episode of paralyzing violence embodies the middle class's avoidance of difficult encounters within public space, invoking a reflection that denies the positive role of media propaganda.

Cache (Haneke, 2005)

In sum, despite Haneke's objective, almost callous, camera representation of middle-class life, European immigration and historical-political issues, the viewer can still feel a strong sense of involvement and guilt at the collapse of the media framework, provoking a reflection on the media in today's society in the form of a film.

Reference:

Cowan, M. (2008). Between the street and the apartment: disturbing the space of fortress Europe in Michael Haneke. Studies in European Cinema, 5(2), 117-129. doi:10.1386/seci.5.2.117/1

Heiduschka, V. (Producer), & Haneke, M. (Screenwriter/ Director). (2005). Cache [Motion picture]. France, Austria, Germany and Italy : Les Films du Losange.

Lazarsfeld, P. F. (2021). The People’s Choice:How the Voter Makes up His Mind in a President Campaign. Columbia University Press.

Porton, R. and Haneke, M. (2005). Collective GuiltandIndividual Responsibility: AnInterviewwithMichael Haneke. Cinéaste, 31(1), 50-51.

Tageszeitung, D. (2006, January 30). Cowardly and comfortable. Retrieved from http://www.signandsight.com/features/577.html

从《隐藏摄像机》和长评得知，这电影讲的是法国移民的融合与冲突，和男女有什么关系？网友：我看过这电影，你莫要骗我。

只有女性才会说我们要讲女性的故事，男性不会告诉你，他要讲男性的故事，他会说他讲的是人性，所以这片当然不会有性别标签，但是只要有人，性别就存在。

电影的一开始，室内镜头

在镜头里，男性和女性的位置，女性始终背对镜头，以至于出场15分钟了，我们还不确定这是那位法国最伟大的女演员吗？

也许有人要反驳，是第一男主角，这个故事里女性只是配角，看下一幕

儿子回来了，此时电影的构图就是这个家庭的定位，女主人始终没有正面，由一盒录像带引发的故事，并且这盒录像带是女主回家先发现的，为什么她会发现呢？因为她要第一个回家做饭，但她在导演的叙述里甚至没有那个蓝色塑料袋重要。

基本上这样的镜头比比皆是，女主人仿佛是这个家的幽灵，当然也不能一直当她不存在，那就太刻意了，还是会给几个正面。

本片的女主也有工作，但从未出现她工作场景的描述，理由：她不是主角，所以她可以合理的在家做饭，女人下班了在家不做饭，能 干 嘛？导演想不到女人能干嘛，也不准备去思考她能干嘛，女性观众看到这里，手里没碗，心中已经有个碗准备去给老公盛饭了。

接下来随着剧情的深入,下图，男主终于在频繁送来的录像带里发现了线索。

女主过来问发现了啥？

这里先暂停一下，复盘一下这个故事，一盒录像带出现在这个家的门口，女主第一个发现录像带，拿进屋，男主看到问这啥玩意儿，两人一起看了就是对面摄像头拍的门口的街道景色，录像带的内容没有特别的指向性，但不得不承认，不剧透的情况下，我们都把录像带和男主联系在了一起。

我们应该产生一个疑问，为什么这盒神秘的录像带不是夫妻两的秘闻？不是女主角的秘闻？

这个疑问并非不合理，因为女主也有这样的疑问，见下图

女主问：请你透露一下线索，也许和我有关

电影播放了50分钟，女主终于想起来这录像带可能也是她的秘密啊。

接下来发生了一段习以为常，我们已经看过千万遍的争吵套路，见下图

女主问：我简直不敢相信你居然不肯告诉我你的发现！

男主：你别无理取闹好不好。不是你想的那样？

这里是典型的被一直灌输的男女争吵的模式，男的说话模棱两可，支支吾吾，有头没尾，神秘莫测，女的则歇斯底里，无理取闹，我不听我不听。

所有人都会说女的就是不讲道理，至于她为什么要发脾气，无人问津。

本片导演从一盒没有指向性的录像带开始，先给了女主机会去定义这盒录像带的走向，但她没有，她就把录像带扔一边，接着男主拿起来，开始研究这盒录像带，把录像带的故事拉到了自己的方向，也就是占为己有。此时，女主才醒悟过来，啊 也许这个东西本来是属于我的，她愤怒，表达情绪，但为时已晚了。

在其他人看来，她就是个半路杀出来的疯女人，这电影的主题和你一毛钱关系都没有，这世界的成果也是，你不是主角。

我们此时又要产生第二个疑问，为什么女主不去关心一下这啥玩意呢？比如你们家门口出现一个神秘的东西，谁来做它的挖掘者？

女主捡到录像带拆开以后就放下了，她干嘛去了？她去做饭了，做完饭还得收拾洗碗，等她想起来（也许太累没有想起来）男主已经自己在看录像带。

这一幕在电影里都是如实呈现的，看上去和最终的主题确实没啥联系，但既然导演给你看这么一长段了，那就是有思考的空间。

从这次争吵以后，故事的主线已经和女主彻底割裂，接下来就是男主（男性）的历史了。

俗称 人性的故事

我们作为观众，经历了一场人性（男性）的洗脑侵犯，而不能撤回，并且藏着特洛伊木马的电影比比皆是，防不胜防。