Caché Reflection

Being monitored by someone secretly is the experience nobody expecting to have since this indicates the loss of privacy. Cache is such a film about this topic. A family is surveillance by something mysteriously. Strange tapes recording their lives are sent to them, which are thrilling. With the indication of tapes, we gradually find out the ignominious past story of the male character.

Although the whole film is about the suspense of surveillance, the film does not give an explicit answer that who did such surveillance. The surveillant is extremely strange that he knew such secret of the male character, and he could monitor the family without being found. I think the film claims that the real surveillant is not essential. This film reminds me of an old saying that "God is watching your every move". The male character drove the worker's son, his childhood friend, away intentionally in order to enjoy all the education resources, and he now could be such successful and respectful. Nevertheless, the worker's son still had a poor life due to the loss of good education. Whereas the male character did not sympathize or apologize to his childhood friend at all, even when the worker's son suicide in the front of him. The male character is made to be extremely selfish and only care about his and his family's benefits. I think this could be an implication of the French government's treatment Algerian people that the problems between them are hard to solve in this generation. However, at the end of the film, there is a long scene of the male character's son and the worker's son's son communicating with each other. This might be a hope that next generations can have reconciliation in a certain form.

Cache also contains many long shots. Such long shots are usually about the normal life on streets. I think such long shots successfully convey a sense of horror to audiences. These street scenes are not different from our lives. What if there are micro cameras recording our lives all day? It is dreadful to think about such possibility.