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best movie i've ever seen.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Rarely has a film held my attention like this, and rarely have I been more frightened of the cold, hard inevitability that comes with the ending of Spoorloos. It builds its tension not from the revelation of plot points that we want to see, but how far Rex will go to see them. In this sense it is a subversion of the conventional thriller, which would slip little hints and clues throughout, like the brief but revealing shots of Raymond applying his disguise of a fake cast and sling, and ask us to play detective. Sluizer, however gives the game away early. He makes the unusual choice of showing one man's actions, that when pieced together, become the horrifying realisation of an intent. The man is played by Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu with a cold, hard efficiency about his plans. Raymond is good, but perhaps not as good as he thinks. He doesn't play the every-man as well as he should when his loving kids and wife are around, and you can spot tiny little moments where he seems unsure. But beforehand he has made sure of everything else. Donnadieu goes about the process of planning the kidnapping with a scientific clinicalism and a natural curiosity to match. It is frightening because he approaches the task like a game, like an experiment of his own moral absence. Where the audience usually looks for a fault, a motive, insanity and passion, there is nothing. Even the usual sexual deviancy that we have come to expect is not a factor here. A friend makes this mistaken assumption, and we see how it is added into his schemes. If only it was an affair. That could be explained, even justified, but this cannot. Even as he partakes in the serial killer's favourite pastime, taunting the victim's loved ones through mementos and postcards, Raymond does not seem to act out of malice or threat. It is he, eventually, who makes contact with Rex and proposes to show him everything about that fateful day. If we are exhilarated by Rex unleashing physically onto him and getting some semblance of revenge, it vanishes almost immediately when Raymond agrees with what he has been dealt. It is all the more disturbing that this man does not hold the same concepts of vengeance that we do, and still that he again makes the same proposal. There is no second thought of him lying or tricking Rex into something he has not promised. What would he gain by doing so? We sense he is wired with the same sort of curiosity that Rex has been tortured with for three years. He has even prepared sandwiches. Sluizer has made something of a living nightmare that does not end when you wake. He avoids leaning on the cheap scares that inhabit many of this genre; the shakiness of the camera, the soundtrack blaring and dictating our emotions, the money shots that are inevitably littered through the promotion and media. France has never been made duller; Raymond chooses remote, ordinary locations that are a far cry from the postcard prettiness where the tourists flock to. But the most important notion is how he constructs the threads that build to the climax. There is no mystery that the audience is clamouring to hold the answer too. True, we are held in perpetual suspense and anguish like Rex is over the fate of Saskia. Yet Sluizer builds his tension from the slow growing realisation of what is to come. Both men know that Rex will not turn down this opportunity, to be plunged back into the state of not knowing. From the moment they meet, it is then simply a matter of time before he concedes to whatever Raymond must do. To examine this from a rational perspective would be a critical error. This seems to be a common response to the film, to pick apart its logic, to point at the absurdity of it all. But they miss a point. Both men, through watching the film, are revealed honestly and straightforwardly to be who they claim. Raymond would not deviate from his promise, and Rex knows exactly what he wants, and how it will bring about his doom. But the alternative to this is an empty life plagued by horrors of uncertainty, and so he walks willingly into the arms of a murderer. There is no sanitising this, and there is no chance of saving him from this fate (that is, until the short-sighted American remake).

(Warning: Don't read any reviews before watching this movie. It's best to go into this one completely blind.)When a couple goes on a seemingly innocent trip, the woman in the relationship seemingly vanishes after they take a short stop at a gas station. And now we have The Vanishing, one of the greatest psychological thrillers of all time.The most interesting thing about this film is how it gains it's suspense. It's not through not knowing who the murderer is or not knowing when or who he'll strike next, it's gained through the idea that we don't know how and why the murderer did it. The murderer is revealed quite early in the movie, and he generally seems like a normal guy. He has a wife and kids and friends, one of which who laughs at the thought of him being a murderer. The film suggests that anyone we know could be a murderer and we may not know it.The main character of the film, the man in the relationship, has been looking for his former girlfriend for 3 years and even though he no longer believes she is alive, he is still obsessed with finding out what exactly happened to her, some would say out of pure curiosity and some would say because of fate. When everyone else (including the police) has given up searching for answers, he continues, and eventually he finds them. And where it brings him eventually is possibly because it simply was supposed to happen that way. The same reason that this happened in the first place, out of pure fate. And in a world where the murderer will probably get away and no one will ever know it was him, maybe they deserve to be together, somewhere off in another world, escaping from their golden eggs...

The basic storyline of 'The Vanishing' involves a Dutch couple namely Saskia and Rex who have come to France as tourists with the intention of spending their vacation together. But they get separated when Saskia suddenly vanishes in thin air. Rex obsessively tries to find out what happened to her over the next few years while experiencing constant frustration and the film comes to a terrifying conclusion.I am writing this review after watching this for the 2nd time. After my first viewing I remember liking this very much. But after having watched this again, I have no hesitation in stating that I now love this film. There are so many things that I missed on my first viewing which I noticed now. Even though I knew what was coming and what the final climax will be all about, but I still think that the my 2nd viewing was more stimulating than the first one.First of all, 'The Vanishing' is a very visual film. There are so many visual metaphors and symbolism that the perceptive and attentive viewer will notice. Saskia tells Rex in the initial part of the film about one of her nightmares and after knowing the ultimate denouement, that dream seems like a premonition. The central theme of the film is destiny. The film explores whether you can defy what is predestined or will destiny always have the last laugh. One of the best things about the film is that we already know who the kidnapper of Saskia is right from the get go. He is not a Hollywood bad guy. He is almost the antithesis of every Hollywood villain. He is just an average guy who has a loving family, but his mind and his logic work in the most deranged way. In a great sense, this film is more about the exploration and the study of this kidnapper than anything else. The director takes his time to follow this character and observe his actions and the processes he employs and his experiments and his rehearsals to get ready for the actual kidnapping. 'The Vanishing', I think involves one of the most deep character studies of a psychopath and the climax which is the ultimate revelation is one of the most chilling and horrifying climaxes ever.The screenplay which gets non-linear at times is brilliantly written and it beautifully complements the visual style of the direction and the cinematography. The film takes its time to build up the characters and story instead of truckloads of forced exposition. So much about the characters and story is revealed with subtle movements of the camera or a subtle facial gesture or a subtle word that gets spoken. It really has all the understated subtlety that you expect from a European art-house film. The Vanishing is a beautifully made film that has everything that you want from a thriller, but it delivers all of that in a very visually artistic way. Highly recommended.

Certainly not the most spell-bindingly entertaining film I've seen this month/year, but still a remarkable piece of work nonetheless.In fact it seems rather out-of-date at times, as well as being a dreaded 'foreign language' film with subtitles, and positively meandering in places, so what's the attraction? Fabulous character development and a sinister story.If you've already seen the film then you'll remember it as a pretty straightforward plot with a couple of major questions, what happened to Saskia and will Rex find out?However, what makes this film thought provoking is the character development. Or rather, the non-development of the sub-characters. I questioned the Director's choice of cast at the end of the film - the boring, rather unattractive wife; the dull, rather obedient future girlfriend; the unstated nature of the entire film, until I realised that that's the point - an intelligently directed film which makes you ponder the previous events after its conclusion and delve deeper into the curious personalities of the equally unstable male protagonists.I suppose you could classify 'Spoorloos' as a mild thriller on first viewing, but gradually ramp that opinion up to unnerving horror over time. A rare film that I'll no doubt watch again just to re-analyse my initial understated judgement of the main characters.