The Vanishing (Dutch version)

Released 1988
Stars Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Johanna ter Steege
Directed by George Sluizer

One of the most intriguing things about "The Vanishing" is the film's unusual structure, which builds suspense even while it seems to be telling us almost everything we want to know. The movie is a thriller based on a domestic tragedy - on a wife who inexplicably vanishes into thin air, and of her husband's three-year search for information about what happened to her. Almost from the beginning of the film, we know more than the husband does, and yet the more we know, the more we wonder and fear.

The film opens on a clear bright summer's day, as a Dutch couple drive down the expressway for a cycling holiday in France. They've had a little domestic quarrel, nothing important, but now they are happy again as they stop at a roadside gas station for gas and refreshments. They throw around a Frisbee. They bury a couple of coins to mark the spot forever. The wife goes back to the station to buy beer and soft drinks, and she never returns. She disappears. At first the husband cannot believe what has happened. He leaves a note on their car and goes looking for her. He can even see, in the background, the bright dot of her red hair in an idle Polaroid he snapped while waiting for her. Where did she go? The question becomes an obsession with him, even years later after he has lost hope of finding her alive. He simply needs to know.

Summary by Roger Ebert

First of all, make sure you get the original version. George Sluizer later remade his own movie in Hollywood with Kiefer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock, and it's farcical. If you want to see that one, be sure to see this original version first. It's one of the most frightening movies I've ever seen. To explain why would give away the secret... --Bill Alward