Hidden on Blu-ray & DVD (2005)

Hidden details

Formats:	15 DVD, Blu-ray
Starring:	Aissa Maiga, Annie Girardot, Juliette Binoche, Denis Podalydes, Nathalie Richard, Maurice Benichou, Daniel Auteuil, Daniel Duval, Bernard Le Coq
Director:	Michael Haneke
Genres:	Thriller - Psychological, World Cinema - French
Studio:	FUSION MEDIA
Collections:	FILMCLUB Recommends..., Watch Online French Films

Name	Discs
Hidden	15 Feature

DVD Information

Run time:	1 hour 49 minutes
Rental release:	19 Jun 2006
Main languages:	French
Subtitles:	English

Name	Discs
Hidden	15 Feature

Blu-ray Information

Run time:	1 hour 58 minutes
Rental release:	27 Oct 2008
Main languages:	French
Subtitles:	English

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Most helpful review Hidden

Worst. Film. Ever.

By BH101 (35 reviews) from Cambridge , 16 Feb 2007

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[Highly rated reviewer]

Utter merde. Every bit as bad as most people here have said, and then some.

I like French films. I like films that are difficult, or challenging, or don't pan out the way I would expect. I sometimes like films that are ambiguous or lack resolution. None of these things excuse Hidden for its appalling, implausible story and its deliberate 'two fingers to you, viewer' lack of an ending.

At the core of this film is a laughably stupid conceit - the idea that the unfriendly behaviour of a boy of six years old towards another could haunt him into his adulthood and lead to repressed feelings of guilt. Come on. Have you ever met any kids, Michael Haneke? They are sometimes a bit mean to each other. Big deal. Don't use it as some cr-ppy metaphor for international politics. It doesn't hold up.

Despite what you may have heard, this film has nothing to say about politics. Or Algeria, or immigration, or French colonial history. It's an utterly implausible and deeply boring story that doesn't withstand any scrutiny whatsoever.

Apparently, Haneke has said that anyone who still wants to know at the end who is sending the tapes 'hasn't understood the film.' Oh pur-lease. It's a film based entirely around the story of these mysterious surveillance tapes, and a couple's attempts to find out who is sending them. It's the only thing that moves the narrative forward.

Nothing in this film makes sense or is believable. The flashback scenes to the chilhood will leave you scratching your head thinking 'yeah, and...... ?' The sudden suicide is just horrible and unnecessary. A waste of two brilliant actors. If you want to see Auteuil

and Binoche in something decent, rent La Veuve de St Pierre instead. That film is slow, but it's an absolute masterpiece compared to this dross.

Not deep. Just rubbish.

Avoid. Like the plague.
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Worse than worse film ever

By Lutzman (12 reviews) from London , 26 Jul 2012

What a sloooooowww film. Bored me to tears. And for those who suggest that we look out for a 'Hidden' image at the end of the film. NOOOOOOO! I can not and will not waste any more of my time on this rubbish. Some of us have lives, you know.
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What, Huh

By a customer , 31 May 2012

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I don't get it! I was so looking forward to this film and then it ended abruptly with no explanation as to who was involved in the whole plot. Is there a part two? don't bother renting this film, you'll waste almost two hours and left be left hanging. Started out with an intense anticipation that a good thriller provides and then..........nothing.
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Great Film...or a Great Con...or Both

By JayLow (122 reviews) , 15 Apr 2012

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Hidden is a film that splits it's audience. Actually, it's splits individuals in the audience and it's certainly left me in two minds.

On the one hand it's a fantastic watch. It's a really intriguing thriller with a great central premise - a middle class couple are tormented by someone leaving videotapes of their house, along with drawings which seem to relate to a dark secret in the husband’s past. It’s not a totally original idea (Lost Highway used the same basic tool, but more on that in a sec), but it’s a damned good one. The film is gripping (just as much as that other great French thriller Tell No One), the acting is great, there is an increasing sense of unease and darkness and you just hope that the final pay-off won’t disappoint…you just hope that the ending will be as good as the rest of the film…

And then it does end. And you’re left grumbling to yourself ‘Err…did I miss something…is that it’. There is a feeling that you’ve been conned. That you’ve been the victim of a well told shaggy dog story, just as the central characters are during the dinner party in the film…and it’s not a great feeling. The whole point of a shaggy dog story is that the narrator enjoys it more than the listener…it’s a joke at your expense…and the elaborate set-up, the conundrum needs no resolution…

Which of course means the investment you put into it, the TRUST you have that the storyteller will reward you with a fantastic twist, a clever plot turn, a genius revelation is all in vain.

Michael Haneke has said that those who wonder who sent the tapes didn’t get the point of the film. Damn you, Haneke if you believe this – a good whodunit lives by it’s ending, it’s lives by it’s reveal – from Conan Doyle to Agatha Christie, they all got this and if you don’t then it’s you who has missed the point.

David Lynch’s Lost Highway also felt like a con. It’s easy to set up a crazy plot with the promise that all will be revealed then shy away at the end and make out it’s art.

Make out the viewer is inadequate for expecting a whodunit to tell you whodunit. I hated Lost Highway because of it and kind of went off David Lynch. If you want to make films for yourself don’t charge anyone to watch it.

But then…

I watched the last scene again. Closely. The left hand side of the screen. And there, perhaps is answer. Not a great one admittedly but an answer nonetheless.

And…

I’m still thinking about the film two days after seeing it. And I enjoyed every second of it, until I realised it was over…

You see, I’m in two minds.

It’s a great watch, a gripping thriller but damn you Haneke if, at the end of the day, YOU don’t know who sent those tapes.
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I don't understand

By a customer , 04 Mar 2012

please can anyone help me understand the end......who was making the recordings...am I being thick?I loved the film but couldn't believe it had ended so abruptly
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Have Patience!

By a customer , 29 Feb 2012

The run time goes beyond what is necessary and after the first hour you may begin to 'clock watch'. It is a prolonged 'who dunnit?'. Patience is a virtue, this film requires a bit more concentration than many.

Bored as some viewers may get at times, stick with it, it does get interesting towards the end and it is important to watch it to the very end.
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