The Michael Haneke Collection (UK-import)
Hidden (aka: Cache) (2005): Life seems perfect for Georges (Daniel Auteuil) and Anne (Juliette Binoche), a bourgeois Parisian couple who live in a comfortable home with their adolescent son, Pierrot (Lester Makedonsky). But when an anonymous videotape turns up on their doorstep, showing their house under surveillance from across the street, their calm life begins to spiral out of control. Subsequent videotapes arrive, accompanied by mysterious drawings, and gradually Georges becomes convinced that he's being tormented by a figure from his past. But when he confronts him, the man assures Georges he is innocent. A growing sense of guilt begins to rise in Georges as he recalls his less-than-angelic childhood, yet for some reason he's unable to be completely honest with Anne. Soon, their happy home is an emotional battleground, leading to a climax that is breathtaking in its ferocity and ambiguousness. The Time Of The Wolf (2003): Michael Haneke directs this nightmarish vision of a post-apocalyptic world in which society has completely broken down. Isabelle Huppert plays Anne, who flees the city with her husband Georges and their two children, in the hope of finding safe refuge at the family's country home. But soon after arriving they learn they have made a terrible mistake and must embark on a gruelling odyssey through a country totally devastated by disaster, without even the most basic of utilities such as water and electricity. Demonstrating yet again his unique and uncompromising cinematic vision, Haneke assembles an all star cast for this typically challenging, tense and gripping drama. The Piano Teacher (2001): Isabelle Huppert gives a performance of astounding emotional intensity as Erika Kohut, a repressed woman in her late thirties who teaches piano at the Vienna Conservatory and lives with her tyrannical mother (Annie Girardot), with whom she has a volatile love-hate relationship. But when one of Erika's students, the handsome and assured Walter Klemmer (Benoit Magimel), attempts to seduce her, the barriers that she has carefully erected around her claustrophobic world are shattered, unleashing a previously inhibited extreme and uncontrollable desire. Code Unknown (2000): Paris. A very busy boulevard. Someone throws a crumpled piece of paper into the outstretched hands of a beggar-woman. This is the bond which, for an instant, links the trajectories of several very different characters : Anne, a young actress, is on the threshold of making it in the cinema. Her boyfriend, Georges, is a war photographer, he is rarely in France. His father is a farmer. Georges' younger brother, Jean, has no interest in taking over the farm. Amadou is a music teacher in an institute for deaf-mute children. His father, a taxi driver, originates from Africa. His little sister is deaf and it's because of her that Amadou has chosen his profession. Maria comes from Romania and sends home the money she gets from begging. Having been deported, she goes back home to...