1988 ‘Spoorloos’ Directed by George Sluizer
Rex and Saskia are enjoying a biking holiday in France when, stopping at a gas station, Saskia disappears. Confounded, Rex searches everywhere, but to no avail. Three years later, he's still obsessed with finding her, pleading his case on television, putting up posters and ruining his new relationship in the process. Eventually an unassuming chemistry teacher, Raymond, approaches Rex, intimating that he knows what happened.
The Vanishing - Spurlos verschwunden, L'homme qui voulait savoir, L'Homme Qui Voulait Savoir, Исчезновение
When I was fifteen my teacher who taught Dutch made us read Tim Krabbé's 'Het Gouden Ei'. After reading it and discussing it in class we watched Spoorloos, based on said novel. I remember being a bit bored by the novel and thought the film was ok.
Many moons later I re-read the book and recognized it for the sucker punch that it is. (if you loved this film I urge you to read the novel, there are many excellent translations out there and it is well worth the read). A while back I hit a bit of a lull in my movie watching. Wanting to pick it up again I decided to rewatch this. Now, memory is a funny…
if you’re looking for something light, breezy and fun boy have i got a recommendation for you.
With an ingenious plot structure and a black heart that seems to revel in breaking the audience's own, The Vanishing is a bleak thriller that might not have the technical bravado of Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now, but feels very similar in effect. A devastating loss, a study of grief and obsession, and an ending that is simply cruel, but feels just right. Adapted from Tim Krabbé's novella, The Golden Egg, it's a great example of the benefit of keeping the author on to co-write the screenplay. The pacing and structure work together to keep the plot barreling ahead (something other psych-thrillers occasionally stumble on by concerning too much runtime to developing the mood explicitly instead of letting the story…
Dutch brilliance. What one man is willing to do to uncover the truth of a missing loved one. What one man did that will send shivers up your spine. Thrilling. Edgy. Creepy. No Hollywood ending, but pure satisfaction after viewing.
"I'm sorry, but this is the only way" - Raymond.
- Horror Hunt 25: boxd.it/5IHAg "What year did your ninth birthday take place? Watch a horror film from that year."
Rex's wife Saskia disappears from a rest stop out of the blue and he becomes obsessed with finding her. Eventually a man who knows what happened begins to torment Rex. From the first few shots of the Vanishing you can tell that this will be a tense and uneasy film. There is something about the production that never allows you to feel comfortable. It's the sparse use of score and the way it is shot, with cuts that build tension.
The Vanishing is a film about obsession and evil with…
If not for its stupid fucking 80s score, this would be a pretty perfect thriller.
Also makes for some pretty damning social commentary on our sick fascination with psychopaths and killers. Rex could almost be a direct stand-in for our obsessive need to know every last detail of how a crime transpired.
It’s quite depressing how little that message has aged in the era of mass media and mass shootings.
She looks beautiful in the sunlight. It's the type of moment that you take for granted because you assume the world owes you thousands more just like it. You never believe it could be the last until it is, and even then you probably won't believe it. You refuse to believe it. You look at her there, basking in the glow of a world so seemingly perfect and on face value it's just another day. She looks beautiful in the sunlight, and it will shine tomorrow and the next day and the day after that.
Only the sun suddenly stops shining. The world seems so dark. You look for her there, anywhere, everywhere but you see nothing. It was just…
This is not your typical horror, there's not many thrills or any gore throughout, but you're just left so uncomfortable, the sense of hopelessness is almost unbearable. The slow build-up, its structure, and its realistic approach is brilliant and so damn effective, making the impact bigger, I almost forgot I was watching a horror film. And then... damn. The Vanishing is a special and simple yet very haunting and depressing film that's best watched without any prior knowledge of it.
75/100
A.V. Club review. If I'm totally honest with myself, I have to admit that this film drags quite a bit in the middle; in my memory, it's just the drive, the tunnel, the disappearance, the rehearsal, and then the final Faustian bargain, which collectively is maybe half the total running time. If I'm even more honest with myself, though, I have to admit that I don't much care.
Wow, I forgot just how unsettling this movie truly is.
Raymond Lemorne has to be one of the most frightening, brilliant, insane villains in movie history. Hannibal Lecter's got nothing on this guy. And the way the audience finds out his goals and methods and strategy - without resorting to exposition - is simply masterful.
So much has been said about the climax of this film, so I will say no more and let you experience it for yourself. You will not forget it.
Beer: Samuel Adams Blackberry Witbier - 3.5/5 (an oldie but goodie!)
Criterion Collection Spine #133
(Foreign language film)
How far would you go to discover the truth of your lovers mysterious disappearance?
The Vanishing is a fascinating deconstruction of a thriller that really takes its time exploring the mindset of the protagonist and antagonist.
The movie really subverted my expectations by putting so much detail into what exactly made this abduction play out the way it did.
The Vanishing is a French and Dutch language film, but the dialogue is very lite and conversational so it rarely felt like the subtitles were bogging me down.
Try going into this movie with as little knowledge about the plot as possible. My interest in the movie peaked when I heard someone talking about…
Far superior to the American remake.
A masterpiece in suspense.
One of the most depressing and unforgettable stories in it's genre.
Tiene un poco alma edgy adolescente de "jeje, mira qué oscura soy". Y es cierto que tiene algunas escenas verdaderamente perturbadoras, pero por lo demás es plana y absurda, sin nada nuevo ni interesante que decir.
La estructura es de las poquitas cosas que hacen que no se me haya caído por completo, con especial mención a las escenas cotidianas del antagonista. Por otro lado, con esa perilla ¿cómo iba a NO ser un sociópata?
The way the film laid out everything in the beginning to the audience and still somehow toys with the audiences’ expectations AND builds suspense throughout. Bravo!
I’m so happy that I bought a copy of this on blu ray. It’s such a wonderfully constructed and meditative tale about man’s capacity for evil. There really is no other movie quite like The Vanishing, it’s clinical, mysterious and has a blood curtling finish. It’s the kind of film that invades your subconscious and you find yourself thinking about it unexpectedly days later. Sick and twisted in the most reserved and polite way imaginable. You should seek out this underseen classic if you haven’t already.
I was expecting a good movie, but this truly is one of the greatest thrillers i have seen. Great characters and the building of tension was top stuff.
Spoorloos is billed as a mystery, but you know as soon as it happens (even a bit before!) who’s responsible for the disappearance. The movie demystifies Raymond, the killer, from the jump, and allows you to see his perspective and everything leading up to it as well his reasoning. Which, if anything, just makes him more distant and harder to empathize with. It’s always cool to see a older film where you can recognize the stuff it does in so much modern media. This feels like the foundation for almost every psychological thriller tv series in the last ten years. Haven’t seen it but I assume that netflix show You blatantly steals all the Raymond bits from this.
I read…
The Vanishing is a deeply unsettling chiller. A thriller that builds and builds to a horrific ending, an ending that is as famous as the film, if not more so. If you know Spoorloos, then you know that it has an ending to be seen. Even if you don't precisely know what the ending is. I didn't know what the ending was exactly and I am glad. However, now that I have seen it, I am going to be unsettled for roughly the next month.
The Vanishing is a film built on a killer premise. A Hitchcockian set-up. A man (Gene Bervoets) and a woman (Johanna ter Steege), in love, are traveling together, through France, on holiday. They stop at…
De esta película saco que en Europa se puede hacer un thriller de misterio decente a la altura de superproducciones Hollywoodenses.
Spoorloos es una cinta que recuerda al cine negro con uno de los mejores villanos que he visto en la gran pantalla, pues la humanización del antagonista hace que el espectador no vea el típico rol del ser maligno por exelencia, si no la construcción de un sociópata que también es persona, a la vez que bestia. Para mi gusto la película es buena, pero todo lo que gira en torno a Donnadieu, la hace excelente. VAYA PERSONAJAZO.
Spooky, unconventional mystery. Personally, i found interesting existential undertones to it.
Structurally gripping, deceiving us on predictability lines, there was a scary cryptic aura to it.
Great movie. Watched like a novel. Page turner that keeps you wanting to know what’s next while at the same time explores human choice
Losing love. The grief and the endless, tortuous soul searching.
No matter what you do to try and forget that painful memory; nothing stays buried forever.
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