Rating: 
Summary: Take Your Sleeping Pills
Review: Thanks to Criterion for releasing this film ... the picture is very crisp and gorgeous. The package is nicely designed - a very subtle image of the lonely and alienated gas station on the cover which fits perfectly with the film's theme and mood. I made a mistake watching The Vanishing alone at home in the middle of the night because after viewing it, I couldn't shake the film out of my mind. I walked around the house for hours feeling frightened and restless before going to bed. The sleep was interrupted by some images from the film popping in my mind. The Vanishing is a very rare film that succeeds in what most horror films failed. It has no blood, no gore, no guns or knives, no screaming - it's brilliantly subtle and quiet. It moves slowly as we get drawn closer to the soul and mind of the evil teacher and when the film ends, we realize that we're still trapped inside his sick mind. And to get "vanished" from his mind, it's hard. Because the film is so haunting and unsettling. It slowly casts the spell on you and you won't realize that until you get up from the chair. The Criterion Collection didn't include The Vanishing for nothing...it's truly a remarkable and timeless masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: Exceptional---a breakthrough in suspense!
Review: If you are into suspense thrillers, but are looking for something original that breaks the genre cliches, then this is the movie for you. The suspense and mystery build up quietly, and you barely realize that you're on edge until it hits you, hard. When the kidnapper antagonist and boyfriend protagonist interact, there is an electricity in the inevitability of the situation that keeps viewers rooted to the spot, wondering what will happen next. Won't go into the details, as other reviewers have done that more satisfactorily than I ever could, but just want to throw in my review and say that this movie is great...tough to watch repeatedly though, since you are literally taken on the exhausting emotional journey of the protagonist.
Rating:
Summary: SUPERB NIGHTMARE INDUCING THRILLER
Review: Psychological thrillers don't come any more gripping and disturbing than "THE VANISHING." No blood or gore in this Dutch masterpiece from 1988. A man hunts for his wife who disappeared during their return to Holland after a bicycling trip in France. An extreme cat and mouse game of intense and increasing dread ensues between the man and the kidnapper until the unexpected, horrifying but inevitable climax. You will never forget this one. Don't be confused by the inferior 1993 American remake with Kiefer Sutherland and Jeff Bridges by George Sluizer, who made the original.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting!
Review: This is an amazing film! Far superior to the remake, this film is absolutely haunting and frightening, as it follows how obsession can be your worst enemy. I had seen this film years ago, after the remake came out and was just blown away. Even after purchasing this excellent DVD (though a few extras would have been called for) and watching it again, knowing the outcome, the film still proves very disturbing. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Film
Review: See this and not the remade americanized version.
It just can't hold a candle it, even though it was directed by the same guy...odd
Anyways..When Saskia mysteriously disappears, her devoted boyfriend Rex is undying in his determination to discover the truth. Even years later he has a new girlfriend but she feels she's part of a "trio" Rex's apartment is plastered with missing person posters featuring Saskia. And he has been receiving taunting postcards from Saskia's abductor. He will go to ANY lengths to find out what happened to his beloved Saskia...Very well cast. Gene Bervoets is believable as Rex (and very handsome, I might add ;-) Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu is a perfect selection as Raymond. And Johanna ter Steege is affecting as Saskia.
Rating:
Summary: scary stuff
Review: Good suspense with a twist at the end....recommemded for criterion collectors...
Rating:
Summary: What does it mean to disappear?
Review: This week I've seen two movies back-to-back that were, in one form or another, meditations on the disappearance of a person. The first was "La Femme Nikita," the kinetic and thoughtful French film (from Luc Besson of "The Fifth Element," et al.) about a street thug who is remodeled into a government assassin. She is "disappeared" at the start of the film, with the death of her old self; the whole movie is a journey towards her disappearing a second time, under circumstances that would be unfair to reveal if you have not seen it. "The Vanishing" was the second film. On the surface of it, "The Vanishing" is almost pedestrian. It tells a simple story, embellished with little or no directorial bombasticity, but one which has implications that are so dark and ominous they stay with the audience long after the film has ended. Somehow it manages to generate terrible suspense almost out of thin air, using a story in which every card seems to be right on the table for our inspection. A Dutch couple are driving through France on a vacation. It's a lovely day. They stop at a gas station to fill up, grab a drink, stretch their legs. The husband steps over to buy beer, and when he returns his wife has simply vanished. The ultimate domestic nightmare, whether the subject is one of your children or your wife or maybe even your parents: "She was just standing over there a minute ago..." -- but she's not there now, is she? And that makes all the difference. The whole movie builds its energy around that feeling. She was just over there a moment ago, and maybe if we ask enough people she will reappear. Maybe if I search long enough and hard enough she will be returned to me. Maybe if I put out the word someone else will find her -- That's more or less the train of thought that motivates the husband, and he spends three years of his life searching desperately for her. And then, one fine day, he is contacted by her kidnapper. He's a round-faced, ordinary-looking fellow who doesn't seem to be the "type" -- if there is such a thing -- to abduct or kill anyone. He's got a family of his own, for sakes; how could he even consider doing something this sick? But we know that he's responsible, and we're not asked to place bets on either side -- we are simply invited to watch and see what happens. He has a haunting monologue about the time he jumped from a balcony, just to prove that he had free will, when he felt that others did not. So much of the film, I realize now, centers around this feeling of "If I only did this..." -- that furtive, desperate feeling that so many of us get when something slips through our fingers. "The Vanishing" embodies that and provides it to us in the form of a character who says, in essence, "All right -- you can have her back. But you need to follow me." The most astonishing thing about this remarkably chilling little movie has to do with its director, George Sluizer, who was invited to remake the film in English a year later. He did, but in doing so he jettisoned the original ending and substituted in a more conventional Hollywood conclusion. This isn't simply a matter of bas taste vs. good; this is a matter of logic. The original ending, bleak as it was, was the only possible ending for a story like this. Everything else falls short. The ending in the remake does nothing to expand upon or refine the logic presented the first time around; it's just not possible. The worst of the irony lay in that Sluizer apparently prefers the remake to the original. To that end, I'm grateful that the Criterion Collection has seen fit to reissue the original "Vanishing" in an edition that does justice to its look. The original is a masterpiece. The remake is a travesty.
Rating:
Summary: Boy Loses Girl
Review: The Vanishing is a terrifyingly dark allegory of life and death and lost love. Raymond Lemorne (morne is the French word for gloomy, dismal) is death. Rex and Saskia are Everyman/woman caught in what is simply an artfully speeded up version of the life cycle. Think about that symbolic tunnel they pass through at the beginning. On the other side death awaits, inexplicable, ordinary and inevitable--just like Lemorne. And like Rex, we all deny the obvious and search for the lost loved one only to be eventually snatched away by Him ourselves. What is so unsettling to the viewer is the film's relentless subliminal message: the inescapable outcome of life and love is death and loss.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent for me; Repulsive for Hubby
Review: I'm going to warn you that hubby found this film repulsive and wished he'd never seen it. I agree that a lot about it is repulsive but it is a terrific film. It is a suspense film done on the level of an Hitchcock film but it is a lot more grisly. A woman disappears at a gas station when she and her boyfriend are taking a brief pit stop. For years afterwards the boyfriend goes nuts trying to find out what happened to her. Then, it appears that he will find out exactly what happened to her by meeting with this one person who may have been responsible. As this film steamrolls towards its conclusion, your heart will be in your throat and you will never forget the resolution of the whole mystery. Some viewers will find this film very disturbing. I think seeing it is worth the upset. This was remade in America some years later and was simply awful. Skip the American remake at all costs.
Rating:
Summary: An Ending You Won't Forget
Review: I rented this film on a recommendation from a radio talk show host of all people. Although I knew the ending it still sent chills up my spine. For anyone who is a suspense/thriller fan, you must rent/buy this film.
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