The Vanishing (1988)

[shamus]

Originally Posted by Mr. Thomsen

If you like slow burners, you are in for a treat. Both are among my favorites.

Is there a scene in the Innocents with a playing piano?

[rafaelsalguero]

This its better than the upcoming Twilight Time reléase?

[Akijama]

Originally Posted by rafaelsalguero

This its better than the upcoming Twilight Time reléase?

By a mile. Naturally, I've seen them both, and they're not comparable. The original is vastly superior to the remake.

My 2 cents.

[JackForrester]

Originally Posted by rafaelsalguero

This its better than the upcoming Twilight Time reléase?

This one is better for sure, but I'd also check the remake if I were you. It's not nearly as bad as everyone says. Some of the acting is even better.

[Akijama]

A glowing review from this site https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-V...103262/#Review

Packaging shots, courtesy of criterionforum.org:

[Show spoiler]

[javi92]

Originally Posted by Akijama

A glowing review from this site https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-V...103262/#Review

This has me very excited for this release. The next couple of months from Criterion is just ridiculously stacked.

[MifuneFan]

Confession: every time I read the title Spoorloos in my head, I sing "kick off your Sunday shoes"

[PowellPressburger]

Originally Posted by Akijama

A glowing review from this site https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-V...103262/#Review

Packaging shots, courtesy of criterionforum.org:

[Show spoiler]

After checking out the back cover, it is interesting they are able to license from Studio Canal. (I know many titles they are able to release based on other owners of such films) I'm just hoping SC know what great distribution/ sale Criterion can generate for a lot of their library. meanwhile so many good titles have remained unreleased in the U.S.

[slick1ru2]

Originally Posted by JackForrester

This one is better for sure, but I'd also check the remake if I were you. It's not nearly as bad as everyone says. Some of the acting is even better.

Agreed. I saw the remake first and didn't think it bad at all. Its the kind of movie you remember a long time after for the disturbing elements.

[The Great Owl]

Double-posting my review from the Criterion thread...



Over the past few months, I've been preoccupied with revisiting several horror films from the 1980s, and recapturing the offbeat joy of renting those movies during my teenage years, when I was a full-tilt enthusiast of the Friday the 13th series and similar slasher flicks. As a result, my Blu-ray collection is starting to look like the grimy back room of a 1980s video rental store.

I bring up the above anecdote in this review of George Sluizer's 1988 thriller masterpiece, The Vanishing (Spoorloos), to illustrate the point that there is a big difference between those fun "roller coaster ride" horror flicks and the more subtle dark cinema that really gets under the skin to stay with the viewer long after the credits roll. When I first saw The Vanishing late at night on a cable channel during my college years in the early 1990s, I was struck with the realization that, although I considered myself a jaded viewer, there were still movies that had the ability to shock and disturb me. I purchased the Fox Lorber DVD edition of The Vanishing when it was first released, subsequently double-dipped for the 2001 Criterion DVD, and, finally, upgraded to this new Criterion Blu-ray edition a couple of days ago because I cannot get enough of this movie and because I love appreciating how Sluizer utilizes non-linear storytelling to unveil the true discomforting terrors of the story.

The Vanishing is a mystery film where the "mystery" is revealed to us from the onset. Rex (Gene Bervoets) and Saskia (Johanna ter Steege) are enjoying a holiday trip in rural France when a potentially dangerous vehicle situation puts their pleasant interactions to the test and sheds light on some intriguing character nuances. We see them pull into a crowded gas station just as we see a third character, Raymond Lemorne (Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu), putting a fake cast on his right hand while sitting in his parked car before he emerges at the gas station to scope the customers. The interactions between Rex and Saskia during their few minutes at the gas station, as they relax and play mind games with each other, are crucial in setting the stage for Rex's later obsession with finding out the details behind Saskia's disappearance.

Raymond Lemorne is one of cinema's most unsettling villains, but the viewer is compelled to relate to him as the movie observes him developing strategies for a kidnapping and going through occasionally comedic trial-and-error situations. I am always reminded of a key moment in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, where we relate to Norman Bates as we see his look of dismay when a car pauses while sinking into a swamp.

The Vanishing is not a whodunnit tale, but rather an icy examination of our universal desire for closure when it comes to the outcome of those close to us. Would we rather have an eternal lingering uncertainty in our minds than face an uncomfortable truth where we cannot unsee what we have seen and we cannot undo a decision? The truth hurts, and, sometimes, the truth kills.

This Criterion Blu-ray of The Vanishing is a revelation in terms of picture quality and audio quality, and it joins another recent Criterion upgrade, Insomnia (1997) as a shining example of how an impressive restoration can accentuate the uneasy crooked angles and twisted lines of the story that a movie has to tell. The daylight scenes are crystal clear, the night scenes have an added menace, and Henny Vrienten's score provides even more of a dark undercurrent.

I would love to have seen an edition of The Vanishing with many more supplementary features, but the interviews with director George Sluizer and actress Johanna ter Steege are both informative and engaging.

One of my top 10 Criterion releases of all time is now even better thanks to this outstanding high definition presentation, and The Vanishing (Spoorloos) has my highest recommendation. This is my second favorite Blu-ray release of 2014 behind the Warner Archive Blu-ray of Out of the Past.

[Shingster]

So the caps-a-holic comparison to the Criterion DVD is up and there's quite a difference in the framing on this one! It seems to vary from shot-to-shot but in general the BD exhibits more info at the top of the screen (and indeed seems to correct some framing foibles in the DVD), but there is significantly less information on the sides and bottom of the frame on BD in most of the screengrabs. Was the DVD framed incorrectly or have criterion been overzealous with the cropping on the BD?

Other than that it really does appear to be a gorgeous transfer!

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by Shingster

So the caps-a-holic comparison to the Criterion DVD is up and there's quite a difference in the framing on this one! It seems to vary from shot-to-shot but in general the BD exhibits more info at the top of the screen (and indeed seems to correct some framing foibles in the DVD), but there is significantly less information on the sides and bottom of the frame on BD in most of the screengrabs. Was the DVD framed incorrectly or have criterion been overzealous with the cropping on the BD?

Other than that it really does appear to be a gorgeous transfer!

For what it's worth, I've seen The Vanishing dozens of times on DVD, and I did not notice any framing differences when I watched the movie on Blu-ray two nights ago. It's probably the sort of thing that we realize when it jumps out at us from a screen stills comparison, but it was not an issue when I watched the film in motion.

[JackForrester]

Anyone had a quick video glitch (don't know if that's the right term) exactly at 1:23:43 to 1:23:44, when Saskia is paying for the frisbee?

[kuro_sawa]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

For what it's worth, I've seen The Vanishing dozens of times on DVD, and I did not notice any framing differences when I watched the movie on Blu-ray two nights ago. It's probably the sort of thing that we realize when it jumps out at us from a screen stills comparison, but it was not an issue when I watched the film in motion.

It is pretty interesting to note though, and makes you wonder why the change? I didn't notice it either while watching at a friends the other night but perhaps I will do a better comparison when I buy the disc for myself in November because I still have the DVD. The transfer looks amazing though!

[arcadeforest]

Such a good film, streamed this on Hulu+ last year not knowing anything about it - such a disturbing / haunting ending, still with me over a year later.

[MifuneFan]

Originally Posted by arcadeforest

Such a good film, streamed this on Hulu+ last year not knowing anything about it - such a disturbing / haunting ending, still with me over a year later.

That's the best way to go into it I feel. I too went in blindly, and I was just so disturbed by the premise, as it feels real, and relatable. It too has stayed with me since my first viewing many years ago.

[RupertPupkin]

Originally Posted by JackForrester

Anyone had a quick video glitch (don't know if that's the right term) exactly at 1:23:43 to 1:23:44, when Saskia is paying for the frisbee?

yes me too!


The Vanishing of the frisbee...

just at the moment she gives the frisbee to the cashier at approx. 1:23:43 , a frame (or more) seems to be missing.
It's clearly not a "freezing" problem like on some other Blu-Ray releases (Walkabout, Days of Heaven).
I could see it frame by frame with my stand-alone blu-ray player and you can clearly notice that a frame is missing.

It's strange. I wonder if this missing frame(s) were already on the first release on the Criterion DVD.

since Sluizer seems to be a perfectionist- especially in editing - I don't think that it could have been deliberated unless this was perhaps intentional trick ": the frisbee vanished" - a missing frame.

I want to know !

by the way, the Sluizer interview was very interesting but way too short. This was a lovely moment to see a single picture of Julie Delpy in "Beatrice" with Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu (I really hope that one day this movie will come out on blu-ray ) (sorry I can't help to put everywhere Julie Delpy when I can)
this is the second time that I read or heard in a Criterion release that Stanley Kubrick was a fan of a movie. Almost a die-hard fan... He would have said according to Sluizer that Shining was a playchild movie in comparison (he was really terrified with this suffocated atmopshere in the Vanishing)
Recently I read it in the booklet of "Eraserhead".
So, what would be Stanley Kubrick 10 Criterion selection : The Vanishing, Eraserhead, etc...?

Johanna ter Steege was lovely, I understand S.Kubrick's insistance...

I found more connections with "C'est arrivé près de chez vous" (there's a kind of dark humour (the spider scene for instance) that will find later in this movie, although I have to admit that Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu is far more "impressive"- let's say.

[schlock]

Originally Posted by RupertPupkin

yes me too!


The Vanishing of the frisbee...

just at the moment she gives the frisbee to the cashier at approx. 1:23:43 , a frame (or more) seems to be missing.
It's clearly not a "freezing" problem like on some other Blu-Ray releases (Walkabout, Days of Heaven).
I could see it frame by frame with my stand-alone blu-ray player and you can clearly notice that a frame is missing.

It's strange. I wonder if this missing frame(s) were already on the first release on the Criterion DVD.

since Sluizer seems to be a perfectionist- especially in editing - I don't think that it could have been deliberated unless this was perhaps intentional trick ": the frisbee vanished" - a missing frame.

I want to know !

I have checked the earlier Criterion DVD as well as the earlier Fox Lorber DVD, and there is that "missing frame" where the frisbee disappears for an instant in all of them. So it looks like it was obviously an issue with the shot as it was originally filmed and edited, probably splicing one shot and editing it together with a second take that didn't match up perfectly.

So this is NOT a Criterion mistake or defect. It's inherent within the original film.

[RupertPupkin]

cdnchris also confirmed this on criterionforum : "In answer to the frisbee: it also disappears on the DVD."
Thus it was already on the first original DVD release of "The Vanishing".

[RupertPupkin]

Originally Posted by schlock

I have checked the earlier Criterion DVD as well as the earlier Fox Lorber DVD, and there is that "missing frame" where the frisbee disappears for an instant in all of them. So it looks like it was obviously an issue with the shot as it was originally filmed and edited, probably splicing one shot and editing it together with a second take that didn't match up perfectly.

So this is NOT a Criterion mistake or defect. It's inherent within the original film.

yeah, I did notice in the background (by avancing frame by frame), you have suddenly a red truck in the background behind the glass of the shop, but it's pretty well done, because I didn't notice a bad-edit when I've rewatched frame by frame watching this time very close Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu who is walking in the foreground (we can just see his head).