Some people are more successful than others. Georges (Daniel Auteuil) is very successful. He has a good and enviable job as presenter of a highly respected literary television programme. He has a beautiful wife (played by regular Haneke actress Juliette Binoche), who also has a good and interesting job. And a son aged 12 and a real hidden treasure in the city to live in. Georges has everything. And so he has a lot to lose. His success makes him vulnerable. One day he receives a strange video. A shot of his own house. Later another one follows and another one. It takes some time before Georges realises that the message is above all: I know you, I’m watching you. The street fighter is awoken in the respectable and successful Georges. And then something uncontrollable emerges from his past, a past set in a France that was at war with Algeria and facing serious terrorism at home. Georges travels back to his roots. To where he grew up. To things he did in the past and that have still not been forgiven. Haneke is just the right person to portray the paranoia and growing fury of his tormented protagonist in almost mathematically weighed images. The film has the chill of his previous Austrian work and the impressive craftsmanship of his French films. This makes it one of his best films ever. (GjZ)
