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The young Thomas seeks and gains support from his friend Abu, son of Mafillu, one of the female black staff members in the restaurant.
One day Abu disappears suddenly together with at least ten other children, after a nightly and violent raid of his village by the rebel army.
Young Thomas cannot be consoled. He wants Abu back, and Eduard, who feels he is failing as a father, decides to try to find Abu.
While Eduard proceeds to an IDP camp in the middle of the conflict-infested area to gather information about the possible whereabouts of Abu and the other abducted children, Abu himself is undergoing harsh child soldier training in the rebel army of Michel Obeke, formerly Minister of Defence.
Eduard persists in his plight towards finding and saving his son’s friend, and after a dangerous search through the jungle, he manages to reach Michel Obeke’s camp.
Film: The Silent Army
Release date: 6th December 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Jean Van de Velde
Starring: Marco Borsato, Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga, Andrew Kintu, Thekla Reuten, Jacqueline Blom
Genre: Action/Drama
Studio: High Fliers
Format: DVD
Country: Netherlands
Film: The Silent Army
Release date: 19th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Jean Van de Velde
Starring: Marco Borsato, Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga, Andrew Kintu, Thekla Reuten, Jacqueline Blom
Genre: Action/Drama
Studio: High Fliers
Format: Cinema
Country: Netherlands
In the heart of the African jungle, an ever-growing army of child-soldiers are on the rampage. As the trail of slaughter grows, it’s up to our hero to rescue the brain-washed children and put an end to the bloodshed.
We begin by following Abu, a child who is dragged from his home by The Holy Army and quickly indoctrinated to a life of militaristic murder. The leader of the army insists that the children call him Daddy, and isn’t above forcing his disciples to kill their own parents or provide him with sexual pleasure. Soon Abu is helping to plant land-mines, massacre other villages, and kill his friends.
In the meantime, Eduard Zuiderwijk, a white cook, is trying to recover from the death of his wife. When his son begins investigating the loss of his missing friend, Abu, the two begin a journey to find him. This takes them to a refugee camp where Eduard finally decides to go and find the rebel army himself and bargain for Abu’s release.
Deep in the mountains, the rebel-leader has arranged to pick up more ammunition, and soon the scene is set for a gun-blazing, action-packed finale which will test the children’s loyalty to their new ‘Daddy’…
The first thing that strikes you about The Silent Army is its pacing. The first half-hour is like watching a film in fast-forward. The average shot is less than ten seconds long, which makes it difficult to be bored, but even harder to care. Eduard’s wife is killed in a car-crash six minutes into the film, by the half hour mark Abu’s entire family are dead, Eduard has travelled half way across Africa and the audience are left struggling to keep up. It could be argued that the film is placing us in the children’s mind-frame. The situation these children are put in is illogical, frenzied and horrid. But cinematically this pacing is un-engaging. We cannot be expected to mourn the passing of a character who we have barely been introduced to. Characters need to earn our sympathy, our respect. In the absence of any real characterisation, or dramatic tension, all we are left with is a series of war-crime re-enactments, filmed with all the frantic editing and cold precision of a music video.
When the film finally does begin to slow-down, it simply falls apart. Ignoring the glaring plot-holes, self-important lecturing characters are given no emotional justification for their actions. It is never explained, why Eduard decides to take on an army of dangerous gun-touting rebels, or, for that matter what it is that the rebels are hoping to achieve. The leader, Michael Obeke, seems aimless and pantomimic. The female aids-worker we meet at the midway point serves no real dramatic purpose - by the end it never becomes clear what the film is actually trying to achieve.
The finale finds our hero take on the guise of the ‘Hollywood vigilante’, using weaponry to blow his enemies to pieces, and ends with a credit sequence urging us to do our bit to help the plight of real child-soldiers. Yet the film makes every effort to tell us that charity, good-will and ‘white moral-superiority’ are not the answers. The only thing that seems to work is a semi-automatic and a crate of grenades.
What we are left with is a sense of bewilderment. The only thing that achieves any semblance of emotional response is the violence against children. What The Silent Army doesn’t realise is that the reason why films like City Of God are so effective is because we are allowed time to get to know the victims of such violence. Here violence is a means to an end. We have no sense of what has been lost. We are left with a sub-standard action movie in which the answers to all of life’s problems are found at the end of a white-man’s gun.
An exploitative action movie that uses the pain of others to hide its own vacuous nature. AC
The young Thomas seeks and gains support from his friend Abu, son of Mafillu, one of the female black staff members in the restaurant.
One day Abu disappears suddenly together with at least ten other children, after a nightly and violent raid of his village by the rebel army.
Young Thomas cannot be consoled. He wants Abu back, and Eduard, who feels he is failing as a father, decides to try to find Abu.
While Eduard proceeds to an IDP camp in the middle of the conflict-infested area to gather information about the possible whereabouts of Abu and the other abducted children, Abu himself is undergoing harsh child soldier training in the rebel army of Michel Obeke, formerly Minister of Defence.
Eduard persists in his plight towards finding and saving his son’s friend, and after a dangerous search through the jungle, he manages to reach Michel Obeke’s camp.
Film: The Silent Army
Release date: 19th November 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 93 mins
Director: Jean Van de Velde
Starring: Marco Borsato, Abby Mukiibi Nkaaga, Andrew Kintu, Thekla Reuten, Jacqueline Blom
Genre: Action/Drama
Studio: High Fliers
Format: Cinema
Country: Netherlands
Film: The Human Centipede [First Sequence]
Release date: 4th October 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 90 mins
Director: Tom Six
Starring: Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Akihiro Kitamura, Andreas Leupold
Genre: Drama/Horror/Thriller
Studio: Bounty
Format: DVD & Blu-ray
Country: Netherlands
The toe curling surgical horror from Dutch director Tom Six takes high concept body horror to new heights of imagination, and new lows of plot development.
Two young American women travelling across Europe get lost when their car breaks down in the woods. They then happen across the isolated home of Doctor Heiter, a surgeon specialising in the separation of Siamese twins. After inviting the two ladies inside, Heiter drugs their drinks and traps them in his basement, which has been turned into a makeshift surgical ward.
After capturing a male Japanese tourist as his third victim, the doctor then goes on to explain that his ambition is to create the titular ‘human centipede’, a creature with one gastric system made up of three surgically attached people positioned anus to mouth.
After a failed attempt to escape by one of the women, the ‘centipede’ is created. However, the centipede begins to rebel against Heiter’s commands, and the police (investigating the disappearances) begin to grow suspicious of the increasingly erratic doctor…
A film like this relies heavily on its high concept premise, but beyond that there is not much to The Human Centipede [First Sequence]. The film stands proudly beside the fact that the portrayal is one hundred per cent surgically accurate, as if to suggest that something this nasty could actually happen and, to be fair, the thought of that is undeniably scary. Unfortunately, once you get over that initial scare, the cack-handed nature of the filmmaking becomes too jarring.
The film has attracted criticism from some quarters, dismissing it as mere torture porn, and there is not much to refute this claim, especially due to the fact that two parts of the centipede are played by young, attractive, helpless (not to mention gormless) women - who’s top halves are also gratuitously naked for much of the film. More disturbingly, the film leads the audience to believe that being attached to the centipede is like a form of punishment to the victims for not living in the right way; especially considering that the inception of human centipede began when Six joked about performing this kind of mutilation to sex offenders. This is as good as confirmed when Katsuro (the front part of the centipede) admits that he deserves his fate for mistreating his family.
The plot plods along as slowly as the human centipede itself, with the usual bit of establishment, a bit of exposition, and then a hilariously poorly attempted escape that fails to capture any sense of suspense; copying about every slasher film chase cliché ever seen. After that, we are then forced to watch the doctor marvelling at his odd creation, as the two women are left to eat excrement. The biggest problem is that after the centipede is created, the plot loses all momentum.
The acting, for the most part, is pretty awful, too. The female victims seem to spend the first part of the film rambling through hammy dialogue, and then have no other option but to make muffled screams into the anus’ they are attached to - substituting for the lack of screams from the audience. The only honourable mention goes to Dieter Laser, who plays the demented surgeon behind the shocking misdeed - he really does play the part to chilling perfection. Unfortunately, his character is so overbearingly unhinged and suspect that it’s surprising the police hadn’t put him under some kind of surveillance beforehand. This isn’t necessarily Laser's fault – the writing is just so poor.
This film is clearly marketed as a visceral body horror, but it fails to even do that very well, as much of the horror is communicated through over exuberant implication - often to the point of looking silly. At its best, The Human Centipede [First Sequence] raises some genuine chills, but, at its worst, it drags on, and makes a mockery of better realised horror movies. DJ
Film: Soldier Of Orange
Release date: 16th August 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 149 mins
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Starring: Rutger Hauer, Jeroen Krabbe, Susan Penhaligon, Edward Fox, Derek de Lint
Genre: Adventure/Drama/Thriller/War
Studio: Palisades Tartan
Format: DVD
Country: Netherlands
Paul Verhoeven has always been a cynic, teetering on just the right side of violent nihilist. Robocop was a vicious satire on the police. Starship Troopers a vicious satire on the military. Soldier Of Orange is set during the Second World War, it would be forgivable to call it a vicious satire on war, but it's not. It's a relatively gentle (for Verhoeven) satire on life and friendship that is no less devastating in its critiques for that.
Eric Lanshof is attending a fresher party at university. During the ritual humiliation dished out by seniors, he is knocked unconscious by the union president Guus Lejeune. Later Guus apologises, and the two share digs and a group of friends - Robby, Nico, Alex, Jan and Jack. As war descends upon them unexpectedly, these seven men react in very different ways.
Robby sets up a secret transmitter. Nico becomes heavily involved in the Dutch Resistence. Eric and Guus both decide to escape to England. Jan and Jack try to sit out the war, while Alex, whose mother is German, becomes ever more seduced by the German army. After an aborted attempt to reach England, which leads to the capture and execution of the Jewish Jan, Eric and Guus finally escape, but Eric has been fed false information about a traitor, and almost shoots the wrong man.
As two of only a handful of Dutch escapees, Eric and Guus are introduced to the exiled queen Wilhelmina, and recruited into her plan to bring the leaders of the Dutch Resistance to England. The plan is complicated and the traitor strikes again. The resistance leaders, Nico and Robby are shot and killed and Guus executed.
Eric returns to England once more, and becomes a pilot in the RAF, before becoming the queen's aide. On her triumphant homecoming to a free Holland, Eric returns to his flat and finds Jack, the only other survivor of his friends…
Soldier Of Orange is a film that bears all the hallmarks of being unremarkable, and yet, by the end, has left you breathless. It has gained the tag ‘epic’ due to its sheer length, yet it does not deserve such a tag - epic films are those that deal in broad sweeps of history. The characters in Soldier Of Orange don't so much make history as stumble around events that they barely comprehend, and mostly end up getting killed for their trouble. Thus while the characters are at first unremarkable, the events small and every day, we are slowly brought into their world, bearing witness to their deaths and entrances, and most especially, their failures, until the end scene, which is understated, yet quite devastating. Eric, the hero, has returned home. As he opens the doors to a scene of mass jubilation of freedom, he is asked what he will do now. “I don't know,” he replies, instantly hollowing out the perception of heroism and forcing the viewer to face a reality of war, that warriors become defined by what they do, that they have no purpose other than to fight, and while the Nazi's needed to be fought, what then? That Verhoven can express so much with a single line, instantly smashing the perceptions of a broad sweep of history, of heroes and villains, of bravery and cowardice, indicates the full power inherent in this film.
Verhoven is painting in shades of grey, his camera is a pure eye of realism, and he doesn't falter when covering his characters mistakes and failures, which are many. Indeed, Eric's RAF career, where he is successful, is barely covered. Verhoven isn't interested in it. He knows that heroes are created by how they face their mistakes, not how they celebrate their successes. Eric and Guus run a disastrous mission that ends up with most of the group dead. As Eric realises the danger and tries to save the mission, he puts himself in greater and greater danger, until, in a staggering scene, he finally finds himself literally dancing with his old friend Alex, now a fully fledged Nazi, and having to bluff his way past someone who knows almost everything about him.
The image of Guus escaping across the beach is unforgettable cinema in a film filled with memorable moments. Guus later guns down the traitor in broad daylight, and is immediately caught and then executed. By this point, we have almost forgotten that Guus sadistically humiliated Eric on their first meeting. Verhoven does not judge, however, his camera is simply there to record journeys. We sympathise with Alex, Jack, Robby and Esther, his wife, because we know why they do the things they do.
But this film could not have succeeded without its cast, all of whom are outstanding, but, of course, Rutger Hauer as Eric gives one of the great film performances. Hauer is a very difficult actor to film because he has such a gigantic presence on screen that he can often be allowed to dominate the camera, without even intending to. When he is onscreen, it's difficult to remember that other actors are around him. Some directors exploit this; others aren't good enough to control it. Verhoven, perhaps uniquely, manages to keep Hauer as part of a talented ensemble, and, in so doing, brings out shining performances.
Every major character is unforgettable, filmed beautifully, acted perfectly, and with understatement. We watch them grow and flower, whether as heroes, cowards or Nazis. We understand their justification, whether or not we accept it. Esther, who has turned a blind eye to the obvious, says, “I survived.” Esther is Jewish. Jan, the other Jewish character, did not survive. The audience do not need telling the obvious. How many of us would make the same decisions? These are real people we are watching.
Soldier Of Orange is a film made by a director at the height of his powers. The script, cinematography, direction and acting are all beyond compare, and sent Hauer and Verhoven to Hollywood. A masterpiece of European and war cinema, this is essential viewing, not just to cineastes, but to everyone. Unflinching and real. PE
Film: The Human Centipede [First Sequence]
Release date: 20th August 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 92 mins
Director: Tom Six
Starring: Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie, Akihiro Kitamura, Andreas Leupold
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Studio: Bounty
Format: Cinema
Country: Netherlands
Few would have thought that a joke between Tom Six and friends would ultimately result in the film that has provoked worldwide debate over its release and certification.
Much to their frustration, Jenny (Yennie) and Lindsay’s (Williams) car breaks down en route to a nightclub while on vacation in Germany. Stranded on a dirt road with zero phone signal and little sign of help arriving, the two Americans venture out on foot to find help.
Saved by the presence of a house in the middle of nowhere, the women they are relieved and thankful when Dr. Heiter (Laser) offers to call for roadside assistance. Unbeknown to them, their fortunes are in flux and, with the arrival of a third person, ultimately doomed to becoming part of a psychic surgical experiment to create a human centipede…
The first thing noticeable is the story, or occasionally lack there of. Narratively, the film is a lot like the slasher works of the 1980s, with young women isolated in the middle of nowhere. Unlike those films, Six preferred to disregard the idea of building the tension gradually to the point of frenzy, like Jaws, and opted to allow the storyline to serve the visual display that he is about to dish up - and it works. Much has been made of the surgery in this film, and whether it attracts you or repulses you – ultimately, if you’re watching the movie, you’re watching it for the purpose of seeing what it’s all about. Giving that, as a rationale, they have managed to create a positive out of a negative - a complex narrative that builds slowly towards the creation of a human centipede would no doubt leave the audience frustrated and resentful.
Laser (as Dr. Heiter) is a tall intimidating figure who carries himself as if he is sculpted from true evil. His disregard for human life is wonderfully balanced with an unspoken past he dangles in front of the camera in the moments of solitude. The explanation scene, so outlandish that it could just as easy raise a wave of laughter as a chilling silence is pitch perfect, always menacing and clinical without appearing hammed up - a veritable Brian Cox as Lector rather than Hopkins. The weak line performance wise are the Ashleys (Williams amd Yennie), though mainly Williams, as their delivery is always heavy, their dialogue (which is suspect at times to begin with) lands flat, and their gestures and mannerisms are a painful reminder that the content of the film most likely scared off actresses of a higher calibre. Thankfully, and this is in no way meant to be misogynistic, once they’re stitched together, this is no longer an issue, and the film can genuinely stand a chance of improving.
The actual surgery is handled with a real balance and maturity. A lot of the media hype related to this film would paint a picture of it being nothing more than graphic ‘shock cinema’, in the style of the video nasties that were rife a generation ago. In fact, the only signs post-operation of their joining are some fresh scars along the cheek. That’s not to say that there aren’t some truly difficult scenes to sit through. The removal of sections 2 and 3’s teeth will always get a wince from those who have ever been to a dentist. The movement of the centipede when Heiter is training them can also be difficult at times to watch, but only during the close ups.
The cinematography adds to the atmosphere of the film in every aspect. Though not always as flashy as it promised, a delightful light flare during an early scene promised a visually stunning film. These moments of great style are infrequent, with Six preferring to allow the cinematography, like the narrative, to play servant to the horrific set pieces that the film is punctuated with. The look of the film, alongside the lead’s performance, is played straight and is clinical. All precautions are taken to prevent the film from lapsing into a hammed up gore flick of little merit or mood.
Though the film has its faults, mostly in the unimaginative set up for the main body of the narrative, it also has a lot going for it. The Human Centipede is actually quite an old fashioned horror film that has sutured together the key elements in any film of its genre, and then pushes it out a little further than most are comfortably used to. DL
Film: Black Book
Release date: 30th April 2007
Certificate: 15
Running time: 140 mins
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Starring: Carice van Houten, Sebastian Koch, Thom Hoffman, Halina Reijn, Waldemar Kobus
Genre: Drama/Thriller/War
Studio: Tartan
Format: DVD
Country: Netherlands/Germany/Belgium
Black Book marked a return to filmmaking in his native Netherlands for director Paul Verhoeven, following an extended run in Hollywood with genre successes including Robocop and Total Recall (as well as unmitigated disasters in Showgirls and Hollow Man). Outside of his homeland, Verhoeven made a name for himself as a purveyor of mainstream cinematic sleaze, albeit with subversively hidden depths of astute societal observations underneath the boundary pushing sex and ultra-violence.
Elements of Verhoeven’s directorial trademarks are certainly present in the predominantly Dutch language Black Book, set during one long flashback of Rachel Stein’s (Carice van Houten) traumatic wartime experiences in the dying embers of Nazi occupied Holland. The sole survivor of a Nazi assault on wealthy Jews aboard a boat that was supposed to take them to freedom, Rachel witnesses the cold-blooded massacre of her family and becomes desperate for revenge.
When she joins the Resistance, Rachel is entrusted to use her looks and charm to seduce senior S.S. officer Müntze (Sebastian Koch), and learn vital secrets from the German High Command.
Under the assumed identity of the singing (fully) blond Ellies de Vries, Rachel becomes embroiled in a labyrinth of deceit and duplicity. Rachel experiences firsthand the horrors of Nazi rule, even as she begins to have feelings for the surprisingly charming Müntze, while the bloodshed and bitterness of the Resistance, including the determined Hans Akkermans (Thom Hoffman), continues unflinchingly and unabated…
In the role of Rachel Stein, Carice van Houten gives a fearless performance as a woman faced with incredible adversity amongst horrific circumstances. The leading lady runs a gauntlet of suitably Verhoeven-esque sex and violence, with the character of Rachel undergoing a continuous barrage of close shaves and humiliation, where even at one point a container of human excrement is dumped on her half-naked body.
Van Houten creates believability about a character that has endured great pain and yet has to (for the most part) stay emotionally together in order to gain the revenge she desires. While, at times, the blood spraying shootouts and somewhat gaudy sexual content in the film creep towards parody, van Houten’s tenacity shines through and redeems what otherwise could have been a role exploiting just another pretty female face.
The supporting roles in Black Book are equally well cast, further adding a sense of suspense filled intrigue and genuine emotional development to the film. As senior German officer Müntze, Sebastian Koch portrays a deceptively complex role in which he successfully creates a level of sympathy for a man who is ultimately a member of the Nazi Security Service. His role is a subversion of the typically sadistic German officer one might expect (such as in Waldemar Kobus’s overtly villainous performance as the merciless Günther Franken), and, as such, Koch should be applauded in highlighting the humanity of a character who had nonetheless been previously complicit in the atrocities of the Nazi regime.
Similarly, Thom Hoffman’s portrayal of Hans Akkermans, one of the leaders of the Dutch Resistance, subverts expectations, in that his character (as with many of the Resistance) have their own agendas and personal interests in eliminating the Nazis outside of national pride. However, in an extraordinarily violent yet standout scene in the film, Verhoeven highlights the deeply emotional regret of Resistance member Theo (Johnny de Mol) in killing a German agent, revealing a contrast between the efficient and cold-blooded actions of the Nazis and the killing out of desperate necessity by the Resistance.
The cinematography by Karl Walter Lindenlaub and production design by Wilbert Van Dorp in Black Book is wonderfully evocative of the wartime period in the 1940s, from the bright colours and palatial extravagance of the Nazi headquarters in Holland to the drab underground hideout of the struggling Resistance. The costume design for the Nazi officers, in addition to the fashions of the time and place also appear painstakingly recreated, perhaps most particularly impressive when considering the film’s budget was a fraction of a Hollywood production such as Brian Singer’s Valkyrie (coincidentally, also featuring Carice van Houten).
In contrast to Verhoeven’s earlier foray into World War II with Soldier Of Orange (1977), Black Book carries over a gloss of his Hollywood sensibilities that occasionally takes away from the seriousness of Rachel’s wartime ordeals. While the violence and sexual content is certainly not on the same level as a Starship Troopers or Basic Instinct, the director’s penchant for lasciviousness creates a certain over the top comic effect that doesn’t completely sit well within the film’s wartime drama frame, or Verhoeven’s ambitions for a realistic portrayal of Nazi occupation.
Despite these misgivings about Verhoeven’s style, Black Book is not completely derailed. This is mainly because of the superior performances the director coaxes out of his actors, creating an air of authenticity where otherwise the film may have turned schlocky if only served by scenes with exploding blood squibs in shootout segments. There is good and effective dialogue between characters, where the Israeli kibbutz set bookends and Rachel’s anguished question “When will it ever end?” provide significant food for thought in the horrors of conflict.
Verhoeven (just about) at his best, Black Book serves as a reminder of the provocative auteur’s talents, whilst retaining some of his old and somewhat peculiar fixations. An extraordinary performance from Carice van Houten, however, is the real drawer. DB
Film: The Vanishing
Release date: 9th April 2003
Certificate: 15
Running time: 106 mins
Director: George Sluizer
Starring: Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu, Gene Bervoets, Johanna ter Steege, Gwen Eckhaus, Bernadette Le Saché
Genre: Thriller/Mystery/Crime/Drama
Studio: Umbrella
Format: DVD
Country: Netherlands/France
Originally based on the novel The Golden Egg, The Vanishing (Spoorloos) wants the audience to question the choices they’ve made in life, and whether they are really ever in control.
The film follows Rex Hofman as he searches for his girlfriend Saskia after a fateful stop at a petrol station in France. After half and hour, Saskia fails to return with the drinks, and the mystery that will consume Rex begins.
Rex becomes completely obsessed with the search for Saskia, and even after three years, he is still putting up posters in the streets and appealing for information on television. But this obsession is helped along by the abductor Raymond Lemorne, who goads Rex with postcards telling him he would like to meet with him…
The film does not follow a linear pattern which helps build up the mystery and intrigue of it. When Saskia disappears at the beginning of the film, we are unsure as to the reasons behind it, although we are given three clues. The first is the suspicious man in a sling standing at the entrance of the shop Saskia enters, with the camera centring on him in a brief but clearly purposeful way. The second is the discarded drinks lying in the road, one crushed by the wheel of a car. And the third clue, which is the only one Rex seems to acknowledge, is a Polaroid he took of Saskia leaving the shop after purchasing the drinks, walking back to the car but, obviously, not arriving.
What really distinguishes the film is Sluzier’s skill at portraying Raymond as an extremely intelligent and calculating man. After the abduction, the camera takes the audience back to the planning stages of the abduction, and shows Raymond’s meticulous attention to detail. He records the exact time it takes for the chlorophyll he applies to himself to wear off, how far he can travel in this time, and even mimes to himself the way he will drug his eventual victim. What makes the film disturbing is the calm and business manner Raymond goes about this, making it appear more mundane than murderous. Coupled with the fact that Raymond has a family, and leads a seemingly normal professional life, it paints a chilling picture of the humans that have slipped through the net in society.
When Rex eventually meets up with the self-proclaimed sociopath Raymond, he is very much still plagued by the deep sense of curiosity he first felt at the beginning of the film. It is to become his downfall, but there is an acute sense of desperation, and a sadness to him that reveals he is almost willing to forfeit his life for knowledge of Saskia. Raymond acknowledges this and plays Rex like a pawn in his elaborate and sinister game of chess. Raymond knows his safety and control over the meeting is ensured, and subtly persuades the tortured Rex to drink coffee laced with sleeping pills. Rex is aware of the drugged drink, but is told that in order to find out what happened to Saskia, he must share her fate exactly. What follows is one of the most shocking conclusions yet committed to film, if extremely satisfying.
The Vanishing is deliberately slow paced, at times frustrating, but building up the curiosity of both the audience and Rex as the film progresses. The more we know, the more we want to know, thus it requires an unusual amount of patience on the part of the audience as the mystery unravels. But this patience is eventually rewarded, and is well worth suffering the dated music and slightly wooden acting of Gene Bervoets, who plays Rex.
Raymond is a character who reminds us that the world is made up of unhinged people whose mindset, and whose motivation makes them impossible for many to comprehend. He does not commit evil acts for money or love, but to prove to himself that he is in control of his life, and that he is capable of great contrasting acts - loving his family and saving a drowning girl on the one hand, but equally capable of great acts of evil.
George Sluzier’s 1988 thriller The Vanishing is a masterpiece, with the ability to root viewers to their seats. BR
