I went to Caché, a French movie on Saturday morning. I got free tickets from the IFI by responding quickly to one of their newsletters. The film itself was quite good all the way up the conclusion, or should I say the inconclusion. The movie is about a family who receive a series of video tapes of them, their house and other interesting locations (I don't want to give anything away) which basically freaks them out and leads them on a hunt for the perpetrator. The last few moments of the film reveal some vital information about who might have done it but rather than that leading to a dénoument (fuck it, I watched a French film at the IFI, I'm entitled to use words like that), the credits roll and you're left feeling cheated out of 2 and a bit hours of your life. Either that or you're left feeling smug and superior because you appreciate film as a medium and have no need for the cheap emotional kick of a plot resolution - it's enough to simply contemplate this "compelling, urgently relevant, insidiously unsettling masterpiece". If you felt the latter, then I hope you choke on your own goatee.
Such was the frustration that one audience member stood up at the end and said "before we all leave, does anybody know who did it?" A brave move in a room with a high percentage of berrets, neckerchiefs and overly-thick-framed black glasses
The other annoyance was the subtitles. Mostly they were OK but there is one scene where the white subtitles are on a white background and are incredibly difficult to read. It's 2006 for fuck's sake, why do we still have to put up with this crap?
Next time I go to a movie with crappy subtitles I'm asking for my money back, everyone should do the same.
