Cache (2005) is an ambiguous film that refuses to tell the audience anything. There is little exposition in the movie, and whatever exposition there is provided by speakers like Georges who discuss their past. But even these sources are untrustworthy. Director Michael Haneke calls upon viewers to notice details and subtle implications themselves so they can piece things together. One detail I’ve noticed (and perhaps the only one I’m fully confident of) is Georges’s prejudice to nonwhite characters.
This discrimination is evident early in the film in a confrontation between Geroges and a black cyclist. When the stranger nearly collides into Georges on the street, an uncomfortable confrontation follows in which they take shots at one another, name-call, and stare each other down. When Anne steps in to calm the situation, claiming both sides should have looked where they were going, the confrontation seems all the more unnecessary.
On its own, this scene shows a man who’s tense and uneasy about the mysterious surveillance his family is under. When his adopted Algerian step-brother Majid enters the picture, however, a deeper resentment against what is “foreign” is unveiled. Georges resented Majid for disrupting his life at the youthful age of six, claiming he didn’t like sharing a bedroom with him, among other things. The final nail in the coffin was when Majid killed a chicken in front of him, making Georges uncomfortable. Georges’s prejudice is rooted in a childhood fear of disruption.
This prejudice leaks into Georges’s anxiety surrounding his stalker, so much so he hounds an adult Majid. What begins as a well-founded hunch turns into a baseless accusation when Majid proves to be innocent, timid even. Even with the mysterious recording of their conversation, Majid doesn’t appear to be selfish because of his lack of aggression. Yet, Georges relentlessly barrages Majid with accusations to the point Majid commits suicide before Georges’s eyes.
Even with Majid’s death, Georges still believes Majid is responsible through extension of his son, who politely confronts Georges at his job. Georges is constantly pitted against nonwhite characters, as those are the only characters he appears to be suspicious of. This suspicion is not founded in reason but rather out of a childhood trauma he attributes to all foreigners. Considering the continuing debate of refugees in Europe, the movie’s depiction of prejudice is subtle yet remains to be relevant.
Few things in the movie are hidden, yet Georges’s racism proves to be thinly veiled.
The CineMan Twist 