by Joseph Davis, Contributing Writer
When I was first compiling a list of films for Out of Market, I reached out to a few friends of mine who live around the world for any suggestions. One of these friends was fellow SiftPop writer and resident Dutchman Chris, who recommended to me the 1988 Dutch film Spoorloos. Translated literally, this film is called Traceless, but it’s more widely known in the English speaking world as The Vanishing. Thus, off we go to the global capital of cut flowers and where the national color (orange) is far and away my favorite, as we dive into this thriller. While this is available on the Criterion channel, I personally rented this movie for my own viewing.
I’m not the biggest fan of the thriller genre, but this film grabbed me almost instantly and dragged me deeper into the story at every moment. You have Rex Hoffman (Gene Bervoets), who becomes beyond obsessed with the loss of his friend and love Saski Wagter (Johanna ter Steege) to the point where it controls his life. Conversely, you have his adversary Raymond Lemorne (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), who is a chemistry teacher and a man driven by an internal drive to see just how far he can go. This set of dueling characters and personalities enraptures me as I wonder who will come out on top. Rex is driven by emotions and a passion to his actions, while Raymond is calm, looking for some thrill or response in himself, and is driven by ruthless calculations and trial and error in his actions. Yet in many ways, they’re both driven by the same goal: some form of satisfaction that a final confrontation might bring, to reach their goal and to figure out how the story ends. You almost wonder, had circumstances been different, if these two could have been friends. By the end of the movie, you wonder if their choices drove them to the end or if their fates are predestined from the start.
The second thing I want to discuss is just how amazing the camerawork and story are blended together. This film does an amazing job at taking what you think may be just a minor detail, no matter how brief, and bringing it back later as a huge plot. It also shows just how interconnected each character is in the film. There are points where you think that a detail only matters to the plot of one character, but then suddenly you realize that it has a profound effect or purpose on another. It almost invites you to go back in the movie and try to look for those key clues you overlooked. Even those brief details that feel overlooked are still brought into the film later on to build the characters and the story to the final conclusion. Even things that could be considered as background details, such as the 140 survivors of the Tour de France (the description of which makes me glad I never got into cycling), turns into a character building experience.
While this film isn’t the most inventive film out there, it honestly doesn’t need to be. The director and producers looked at the wheel and knew there wasn’t a need to reinvent it, meaning that each shot is just as effective as the last. Each shot not only adds to the film, but to the characters, from the emotional Rex to the calculating and mysterious Raymond. They find a way to bring both of these characters together in a way, while focusing on what makes each character who he is. It brings out the emotional feelings of Rex and the calming aspect of Raymond. It adds an air of mystery when it is needed, while also driving home the atmosphere when it is needed by the end. The conclusion especially fits this, which I so desperately want to share, yet want you, dear reader, to discover despite the fact this film is older than I am.
Honestly, The Vanishing underlines just why I started with the Out of Market series. Without it, I likely would have only heard of the 1993 Hollywood remake of this film, and just by looking at how it fared in the critics’ eyes, I likely would have never given this a chance in the first place. This film has something in it that any American version just cannot capture. It could be studio interference, knowing how both of these films have the same director, or a change in directorial vision, or some cultural variable that led to changes that brought the film down. In short, if you have seen the remake but have never seen the original film, please do yourself a favor and watch this one. If you are like me and only just now have learned of either film, give this 1988 Dutch film a watch. You will not be disappointed.
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