The Vanishing (1988)

John Chard

8.0

Dec 24, 2013

Traceless. Spoorloos (AKA: The Vanishing) is directed by George Sluizer and Sluizer co-adapts the screenplay with Tim Krabbe from Krabbe’s own novella The Golden Egg. It stars Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Johanna ter Steege and Gwen Eckhaius. Music is by Hennie Vrienten and cinematography by Toni Kuhn. It’s a lesson in creeping unease, a film firmly interested in character development as it unfurls a tale of obsession whilst casting a clinical observation of a sociopath at work. Story is basic on plot terms, young lovers are separated during a vacation when the girl mysteri…

George Sluizer's 1988 film <i>Spoorloos</i> (The Vanishing) is the story of a murder and the search for the killer, but it's not a whodunit for the audience at any rate. Just after Saskia (Johanna ter Steege) disappears at a French rest stop while vacationing with her boyfriend Rex (Gene Bervoets), the audience sees the long chronicle of local chemistry teacher Raymond Lemorne (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) preparing to carry out a murder of some random woman. As the film rises towards a climax, we follow Rex's obsessive hunt not for justice and retribution, but for simple understanding of what ha…