Stars: Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Johanna ter Steege, Gwen Eckhaus, Bernadette Le Saché, Tania Latarjet, Lucille Glenn, Roger Souza | Written and Directed by George Sluizer
Adapting Tim Krabbé’s novel The Golden Egg, writer/director George Sluizer begins The Vanishing with Dutch couple Rex (Gene Bervoets) and Saskia (Johanna Ter Steege) enjoy a biking holiday in France. That all changes when they stop at a gas station where Saskia enters to get drinks, only to vanish without a trace. Three years later, Rex remains as obsessed with finding his wife as he puts up posters and pleads his case on television. He is eventually approached by Raymond (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), an unassuming chemistry teacher who claims to know what happened.
What could have been a bog-standard thriller instead subverts the expected structure to answer the big questions early on, before taking the psychological route to focus on Rex’s tortured obsession...
Adapting Tim Krabbé’s novel The Golden Egg, writer/director George Sluizer begins The Vanishing with Dutch couple Rex (Gene Bervoets) and Saskia (Johanna Ter Steege) enjoy a biking holiday in France. That all changes when they stop at a gas station where Saskia enters to get drinks, only to vanish without a trace. Three years later, Rex remains as obsessed with finding his wife as he puts up posters and pleads his case on television. He is eventually approached by Raymond (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), an unassuming chemistry teacher who claims to know what happened.
What could have been a bog-standard thriller instead subverts the expected structure to answer the big questions early on, before taking the psychological route to focus on Rex’s tortured obsession...
- 2/13/2024
- by James Rodrigues
- Nerdly
Welcome to the return of Intermission, a spin-off podcast from The Film Stage Show. Led by yours truly, Michael Snydel, I invite a guest to discuss an arthouse, foreign, or experimental film of their choice.
For the thirteenth episode, I talked to Susannah Gruder, a New York-based film critic with bylines at outlets including Reverse Shot, Bright Wall/Dark Room, Indiewire, Mubi Notebook, and Hyperallergic. On today’s episode, we talked about George Sluizer’s 1988 French/Dutch existential procedural, The Vanishing (available on the Criterion Channel). An adaptation of Tim Krabbé’s The Golden Egg, the film’s premise is familiar: A couple is on vacation (Gene Bervoets and Johanna ter Steege), they stop at a crowded rest stop, and one of them seems to disappear into thin air. But while Sluizer’s sleek but collected approach nods to mind game masters like Alfred Hitchcock and suggests the forensic obsessions of latter-day crime thrillers,...
For the thirteenth episode, I talked to Susannah Gruder, a New York-based film critic with bylines at outlets including Reverse Shot, Bright Wall/Dark Room, Indiewire, Mubi Notebook, and Hyperallergic. On today’s episode, we talked about George Sluizer’s 1988 French/Dutch existential procedural, The Vanishing (available on the Criterion Channel). An adaptation of Tim Krabbé’s The Golden Egg, the film’s premise is familiar: A couple is on vacation (Gene Bervoets and Johanna ter Steege), they stop at a crowded rest stop, and one of them seems to disappear into thin air. But while Sluizer’s sleek but collected approach nods to mind game masters like Alfred Hitchcock and suggests the forensic obsessions of latter-day crime thrillers,...
- 8/2/2022
- by Michael Snydel
- The Film Stage
Mark and Aaron cover the Dutch and French horror/suspense classic, The Vanishing. Having experienced this film numerous times before, we are able to explore the foreshadowing and narrative structure that led us on a wild journey to an even wilder ending. We talk about obsession, control, that harrowing ending, and yes, we even get into the American remake.
About the film:
A young man embarks on an obsessive search for the girlfriend who mysteriously disappeared while the couple were taking a sunny vacation trip, and his three-year investigation draws the attention of her abductor, a mild-mannered professor with a clinically diabolical mind. An unorthodox love story and a truly unsettling thriller, Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer’s The Vanishing unfolds with meticulous intensity, leading to an unforgettable finale that has unnerved audiences around the world.
Buy The Films On Amazon:
Episode Links & Notes
3:10 – October Horror Schedule
5:00 – Short Takes (The Tin Drum,...
About the film:
A young man embarks on an obsessive search for the girlfriend who mysteriously disappeared while the couple were taking a sunny vacation trip, and his three-year investigation draws the attention of her abductor, a mild-mannered professor with a clinically diabolical mind. An unorthodox love story and a truly unsettling thriller, Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer’s The Vanishing unfolds with meticulous intensity, leading to an unforgettable finale that has unnerved audiences around the world.
Buy The Films On Amazon:
Episode Links & Notes
3:10 – October Horror Schedule
5:00 – Short Takes (The Tin Drum,...
- 10/26/2016
- by Aaron West
- CriterionCast
–
20. The Innocents
Directed by Jack Clayton
Written by William Archibald and Truman Capote
UK, 1961
Genre: Hauntings
The Innocents, which was co-written by Truman Capote, is the first of many screen adaptations of The Turn of the Screw. If you’ve never heard of it, don’t feel bad because most people haven’t – but The Innocents deserves its rightful spot on any list of great horror films. Here is one of the few films where the ghost story takes place mostly in daylight, and the lush photography, which earned cinematographer Freddie Francis one of his two Oscar wins, is simply stunning. Meanwhile, director Jack Clayton and Francis made great use of long, steady shots, which suggest corruption is lurking everywhere inside the grand estate. The Innocents also features three amazing performances; the first two come courtesy of child actors Pamela Franklin (The Legend of Hell House), and Martin Stephens (Village of the Damned...
20. The Innocents
Directed by Jack Clayton
Written by William Archibald and Truman Capote
UK, 1961
Genre: Hauntings
The Innocents, which was co-written by Truman Capote, is the first of many screen adaptations of The Turn of the Screw. If you’ve never heard of it, don’t feel bad because most people haven’t – but The Innocents deserves its rightful spot on any list of great horror films. Here is one of the few films where the ghost story takes place mostly in daylight, and the lush photography, which earned cinematographer Freddie Francis one of his two Oscar wins, is simply stunning. Meanwhile, director Jack Clayton and Francis made great use of long, steady shots, which suggest corruption is lurking everywhere inside the grand estate. The Innocents also features three amazing performances; the first two come courtesy of child actors Pamela Franklin (The Legend of Hell House), and Martin Stephens (Village of the Damned...
- 10/31/2015
- by Ricky Fernandes
- SoundOnSight
It’s the moment you wait for the entire horror film. It’s not just a plot twist or a payoff but a trigger to your deepest emotions. You want to be shocked and sickened and saddened when the killer is revealed, the hero suddenly dies, or the mystery is solved. Most of all, you want your jaw to be on the floor. **Spoilers obviously ahead**
****
The Brood (1979)- Mommy knows best
David Cronenberg’s third horror film is his first truly great movie and also his first superbly acted film. The Brood’s ensemble is solid but Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar stand out as maverick doctor Hal Raglan and his disturbed patient Nola Carveth. Nola’s estranged husband Frank (played by Art Hindle) teams up with Dr. Raglan in the film’s suspenseful climax. He confronts Nola while Raglan attempts to rescue Frank’s young daughter from a group of murderous deformed children.
****
The Brood (1979)- Mommy knows best
David Cronenberg’s third horror film is his first truly great movie and also his first superbly acted film. The Brood’s ensemble is solid but Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar stand out as maverick doctor Hal Raglan and his disturbed patient Nola Carveth. Nola’s estranged husband Frank (played by Art Hindle) teams up with Dr. Raglan in the film’s suspenseful climax. He confronts Nola while Raglan attempts to rescue Frank’s young daughter from a group of murderous deformed children.
- 10/26/2015
- by Staff
- SoundOnSight
Remastered just in time for Halloween, Criterion dusts off George Sluizer’s classic psychological thriller The Vanishing for a Blu-ray release. The Dutch-French co-production stands as the filmmaker’s most internationally renowned and enduring work, its sterling reputation still managing to overshadow Sluizer’s own ill-conceived English language remake from 1992 with a cast headlined by Jeff Bridges, Kiefer Sutherland, and Sandra Bullock (plus a fresh faced Nancy Travis, a name that often gets neglected in flippant references to the production). With Sluizer’s passing in September of 2014, it’s an eerily timed re-release of his signature work.
A Dutch couple on a road trip, Rex (Gene Bervoets) and Saskia (Johanna ter Steege) run out of gasoline. A heated argument leads to reconciliation, and they properly refuel at a gas station rest stop packed with tourists due to the Tour de France. Saskia goes into the store to get drinks and never returns,...
A Dutch couple on a road trip, Rex (Gene Bervoets) and Saskia (Johanna ter Steege) run out of gasoline. A heated argument leads to reconciliation, and they properly refuel at a gas station rest stop packed with tourists due to the Tour de France. Saskia goes into the store to get drinks and never returns,...
- 10/14/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer, the man behind psychological horror The Vanishing, has died. He was 82. Sluizer cut his teeth with an award-winning short called The Low Lands in 1961, before graduating to the longer form with 1972’s João And The Knife, a haunting drama set in the Amazon basin, and Twice A Woman seven years later. But it was The Vanishing, a landmark horror in 1988, that made his name.The film, which was released under the title ‘Spoorloos’ (‘Without A Trace’) in Sluizer’s native tongue, was adapted from Tim Krabbé’s novella The Golden Egg and charts the efforts of a man to uncover his fiancée’s fate after she disappears at a motorway service station. No lesser a figure than Stanley Kubrick was moved to describe it as, “the most horrifying film I’ve ever seen”. As a portrayal of obsession, it boasts shades of Hitchcock; as a record...
- 9/23/2014
- EmpireOnline
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Oct. 28, 2014
Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Johanna ter Steege and Gene Bervoets in The Vanishing.
Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer’s 1988 mystery-thriller The Vanishing is written by Tim Krabbe, who adapted his own novel.
The movie focuses on a young man (Gene Bervoets) who embarks on an obsessive search for the girlfriend who mysteriously disappeared while the couple were taking a sunny vacation trip. Now, his three-year investigation draws the attention of her abductor (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), a mild-mannered professor with a diabolically clinical mind.
An unorthodox love story and a truly unsettling thriller, The Vanishing unfolds with meticulous intensity, leading to an unforgettable finale that has unnerved audiences around the world.
Presented in Dutch and French with English subtitles, the Criterion Blu-ray and DVD editions contain the following features:
• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New interview with director George Sluizer
• New...
Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Criterion
Johanna ter Steege and Gene Bervoets in The Vanishing.
Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer’s 1988 mystery-thriller The Vanishing is written by Tim Krabbe, who adapted his own novel.
The movie focuses on a young man (Gene Bervoets) who embarks on an obsessive search for the girlfriend who mysteriously disappeared while the couple were taking a sunny vacation trip. Now, his three-year investigation draws the attention of her abductor (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), a mild-mannered professor with a diabolically clinical mind.
An unorthodox love story and a truly unsettling thriller, The Vanishing unfolds with meticulous intensity, leading to an unforgettable finale that has unnerved audiences around the world.
Presented in Dutch and French with English subtitles, the Criterion Blu-ray and DVD editions contain the following features:
• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New interview with director George Sluizer
• New...
- 7/17/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Every year, we here at Sound On Sight celebrate the month of October with 31 Days of Horror; and every year, I update the list of my favourite horror films ever made. Last year, I released a list that included 150 picks. This year, I’ll be upgrading the list, making minor alterations, changing the rankings, adding new entries, and possibly removing a few titles. I’ve also decided to publish each post backwards this time around for one simple reason: that is, the new additions appear lower on my list, whereas my top 50 haven’t changed much, except for maybe in ranking. Enjoy!
Special Mention:
Un chien andalou
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel
France, 1929
The dream – or nightmare – has been a staple of horror cinema for decades. In 1929, Luis Bunuel joined forces with Salvador Dali to create Un chien andalou, an experimental and unforgettable 17-minute surrealist masterpiece.
Special Mention:
Un chien andalou
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel
France, 1929
The dream – or nightmare – has been a staple of horror cinema for decades. In 1929, Luis Bunuel joined forces with Salvador Dali to create Un chien andalou, an experimental and unforgettable 17-minute surrealist masterpiece.
- 10/12/2013
- by Ricky da Conceição
- SoundOnSight
Last night I took little note of it being Halloween. My goal wasn't to watch a scary film or anything horrific, but it all began earlier that the morning. I had been thumbing through Hulu Plus, looking for something to watch for 30 minutes before getting to work and my queue had about 25 films and, in all honesty, I was hoping to watch something in English so I could do a little morning work, browse the net and scroll through Twitter at the same time. Well, that didn't work out... I decided on George Sluizer's 1988 thriller The Vanishing. I'd never seen it and knew nothing about it. Didn't even know it was in Dutch and French. Didn't matter, almost immediately I was hooked. The film begins with Rex and Saskia (Gene Bervoets and Johanna ter Steege), a young couple on a road trip in France. The first jolt of electricity...
- 11/1/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Throughout the month of October, Editor-in-Chief and resident Horror expert Ricky D, will be posting a list of his favorite Horror films of all time. The list will be posted in six parts. Click here to see every entry.
As with all lists, this is personal and nobody will agree with every choice – and if you do, that would be incredibly disturbing. It was almost impossible for me to rank them in order, but I tried and eventually gave up.
****
Special Mention:
Shock Corridor
Directed by Samuel Fuller
Written by Samuel Fuller
1963, USA
Shock Corridor stars Peter Breck as Johnny Barrett, an ambitious reporter who wants to expose the killer at the local insane asylum. In order to solve the case, he must pretend to be insane so they have him committed. Once in the asylum, Barrett sets to work, interrogating the other patients and keeping a close eye on the staff.
As with all lists, this is personal and nobody will agree with every choice – and if you do, that would be incredibly disturbing. It was almost impossible for me to rank them in order, but I tried and eventually gave up.
****
Special Mention:
Shock Corridor
Directed by Samuel Fuller
Written by Samuel Fuller
1963, USA
Shock Corridor stars Peter Breck as Johnny Barrett, an ambitious reporter who wants to expose the killer at the local insane asylum. In order to solve the case, he must pretend to be insane so they have him committed. Once in the asylum, Barrett sets to work, interrogating the other patients and keeping a close eye on the staff.
- 10/28/2012
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
The Vanishing (1993) is a psychological thriller (American remake of the 1988 Franco-Dutch film) directed by George Sluizer, screenplay by Todd Graff, and based on the novel of the same name written by Tim Krabbe. Starring Jeff Bridges (Tron Legacy, The Big Lebowski), Kiefer Sutherland (24, Lost Boys), Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side, The Proposal), and Nancy Travis (Almost Perfect, Becker). Barney Cousins (Jeff Bridges) is a strange man. He'…...
- 11/19/2011
- Horrorbid
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