This is a creepy film, in a subtle way. The odd thing is that almost all the actual images could safely be seen by almost anyone. If you plonked a small, impressionable child in front of the screen with the sound off, hardly any of it would give her/him nightmares.
For example, quite a large chunk of the film just shows people at a service station in France, in the 1980s. There are toilets, there are frisbees on sale for 13,50 francs (they use a comma as a decimal point in France), people are talking, cars come and go, everything seems sunny and normal. It looks very realistic, maybe because I've been to France (in the 1980s) and haven't been to some countries where a lot of films are made.
Yet, despite being low on scary images and devoid of gore, an air of real menace is created.
There is some philosophising, but not too much. The points about random chance are made without being laboured.
I quibble with the choice of "The Vanishing" as the English title. In my opinion, "vanishing" does not sound right as a noun. The Dutch title could have been translated as "Without a Trace", as the TV series of that name came much later than this film.
The English subtitles on the DVD I saw were slightly clunky at times (why put 62 miles rather than 100 km?). I suspect that the discussion about surnames influenced Tarantino, and the ending was not a million miles (1.6 million km) from the "CSI" double episode he wrote.
I would say this was proof that a film can succeed with a low budget and relatively obscure cast, if the script is right.
For example, quite a large chunk of the film just shows people at a service station in France, in the 1980s. There are toilets, there are frisbees on sale for 13,50 francs (they use a comma as a decimal point in France), people are talking, cars come and go, everything seems sunny and normal. It looks very realistic, maybe because I've been to France (in the 1980s) and haven't been to some countries where a lot of films are made.
Yet, despite being low on scary images and devoid of gore, an air of real menace is created.
There is some philosophising, but not too much. The points about random chance are made without being laboured.
I quibble with the choice of "The Vanishing" as the English title. In my opinion, "vanishing" does not sound right as a noun. The Dutch title could have been translated as "Without a Trace", as the TV series of that name came much later than this film.
The English subtitles on the DVD I saw were slightly clunky at times (why put 62 miles rather than 100 km?). I suspect that the discussion about surnames influenced Tarantino, and the ending was not a million miles (1.6 million km) from the "CSI" double episode he wrote.
I would say this was proof that a film can succeed with a low budget and relatively obscure cast, if the script is right.
