隐藏摄像机

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

“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.

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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.