For those of you inquiring about Hanekes earlier works, check out Der Siebente Kontinent (The Seventh Continent) This will most likely answer some questions concerning why he does what he does, or will atleast supply you with some footing to further appreciate, or atlest understand, his methods. I cant say I get all this talk of 'openendedness' concerning Cache, as it is perhaps his most approachable film, to the point where it almost condescendingly adapts basic filmic techniques and narrative structures familiar to the Thriller genre.
My understanding of the meeting at the end was that it was Haneke’s way of giving the audience the option of assuming that the videos were in fact being made between the two sons, which is perhaps the easiest closure to such a complicated narrative, and would actually round off the story quite nicely. But If you’ve seen Funny Games, you are probably aware of Hanekes interest in audience-complicity, his disinterest in narrative progression and his somewhat back-handed use of other genre’s techniques to further criticize the commonly held assumption that media can actually incite extreme acts of violence in young people. Like Hitchcock, Haneke is capable of taking fragments from familiar works and adapting them to fit a very unfamiliar and often disconcerting narrative frame to further criticize the radical potential of film itself (or any medium for that matter). Id recommend Benny’s Video, as it is (from what ive heard) perhaps the best example of this, but I have’nt seen it yet.
Though it might seem too obvious to point out, I think the use of video and the static surveillance shots that signal the presence of the grand Other in Cache were actually intended to mirror the active (or passive) process of viewing the film itself. The footage definitely had a other-worldly feel to it, and the only other element that seemed out of place other than the use of VHS tapes (as it is commonly known that even terrorists use DVD’s today) was the fact that such a wealthy couple even had the VCR to play the recording, highlighted by the fact that they seemed to own a flatscreen, possibly HD plasma set. The final shot seemed to be of the same ‘situated’ footage aswell, and as stagnant as it may sound, the only person I could assume was sending the tapes was myself. (or the audience, collectively)
…and as far as all of the confused typifying of Haneke’s work as being to 'French' for his own good, it might be useful to consider that he is actually Austrian, and highly critical of both intellectual pomposity and Frances foreign policy.