Three contemporary French thrillers - Hitchcockian intrigue with a Gallic twist! Comprises:
Hidden (AKA Cache) (Michael Haneke, 2005)
Described as "the first great film of the 21st Century" and as Haneke's best work to date, Hidden takes a provocative look at guilt, trust, responsibility and paranoia. Auteuil plays Georges, the well-known host of a literary TV talk show, who finds himself the target of an anonymous stalker who sends video tapes of his house as seen from across the street. As the tapes become more personal and more intrusive, so his guilt becomes more manifest, as does his need to confront the man he thinks is sending them.
The Beat That My Heart Skipped (Jacques Audiard, 2005)
Audiard's remake of James Toback's classic 1978 film, Fingers, presents a memorable character study about a young man torn between a life of crime and classical music. 28 year-old Tom seems destined to follow in his father's footsteps as a Parisian property shark. However, a chance encounter with his late mother's music agent rekindles a desire for a musical career and hope for a better life.
Lemming (Dominik Moll, 2005)
Dominik Moll's follow-up to Harry, He's Here To Help is a creepy drama with echoes of Hitchcock and Chabrol. A bourgeois couple's serene life is shaken following an uneasy dinner party with the husband's boss and his cold wife (a scene-stealing Rampling). Events spiral into weird, sinister territory when a lemming is discovered blocking the plumbing...
