Written by Tim Krabbe and George Sluizer
Directed by George Sluizer

If you seek out this title, do not be fooled and pick up the American version of the film starring Kiefer Sutherland and Sandra Bullock.  I’d seen that film many years ago and thought it was all right.  Even then, I thought that if the ending were different the film would be so much better.  It has one of those Hollywood “happily ever after” endings that just ended up leaving me feeling empty.  The original version of the story is actually a French film and based on the novel “The Golden Egg” by Tim Krabbe.  People had told me to check out this version, but I didn’t have the opportunity to until recently.

A couple, Rex and Saskia (portrayed by Gene Bervoets and Johanna ter Steege respectively), are on a cycling trip driving through the European countryside when they run out of gas in a tunnel.  In many ways they are a typical couple.  They are in love, but they bicker.  She sees they are about to run out of gas, but he doesn’t listen to her, then they have one of those “I told you so” arguments.

Rex walks off to get gas, leaving Saskia behind in the car even though she begs him not to go.  It would seem she has disappeared on him, but she has just walked out of the tunnel and away from him for safety.

The tension of this situation is still fresh as they make their way into the town.  They stop for a while, and he apologizes.  As they are making up, he makes a promise to her never to abandon her again.  They take a break at a rest area and picnic, not realizing what is stalking them.

Saskia disappears from the rest stop when she runs into the store to buy drinks and is never seen again.

Raymond (portrayed by Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) is a man with a wife and two daughters.  He would seem to be living an ordinary life, except that he has a dark side he has explored and is not revealing to his family.  He is Saskia’s abductor.

A series of flashbacks shows him crafting his plan.  This works well when intertwined with the present time, which is three years after Saskia disappeared.  For three years, Rex diligently looks for Saskia, advertising and putting up posters.  He has another relationship but hasn’t truly moved on.  He moved to France to be near to where Saskia disappeared and keep himself in the public eye, believing that someone somewhere had to see something.

The dual sides of Raymond are intriguing in a way.  He seems to be almost two entirely different personalities.  There’s no real explanation given for why he ultimately does it.  Essentially, it seems to be an explanation of “because I wanted to see if I could”.

Eventually, Raymond becomes intrigued by the fervidness of Rex’s continued searching for his missing girlfriend.  He begins to reach out to Rex and play with his mind.  Finally, he makes the overture that Rex can find out what happened to Saskia, if he does everything Raymond tells him to.

For the audience, this is suspenseful, especially If you haven’t seen the other version.  There are hints that Saskia could still be alive as Raymond has questioned neighbors if they can hear screaming coming from his country home.  At the same time, it seems that Rex is about to put himself in foolish danger.  The suspense works very well and makes the film reminiscent of a Hitchcock film.

The acting is very good.   Although it was distracting to have to read subtitles, I managed to enjoy the performances. Bervoets and ter Steege really have some good chemistry together.  They come off as a typical couple who are in love but have the usual bumps in life caused by different personalities.  Donnadieu is fantastic as Raymond.

I have to compare all of these characters to the American version, and the actors are just ten times above the counterparts.  Sutherland comes off as just downright mean to Bullock, who seems to be a ditzy and lined up from the beginning to be a victim rather than a strong woman emotionally.  The biggest change for me though was between Jeff Bridges portrayal of the abductor and Donnadieu’s.  Where there seemed to be an explanation that Bridge’s character wanted to see if his family would still love him as much even if he were really a terrible person and they didn’t know about it, there’s no explanation like that here.  Raymond seems to be wrestling with two sides of his own personality and once he’s regarded as a hero by his family over an incident at a canal, he seems to feel the need to feed his darker side, something that has come out before as a child.  There are bits and pieces of this part of his personality that seem to seep through from time to time, but nothing as overtly creepy as the way Bridges portrayed the character which led me to wonder why he didn’t get on someone’s radar for a personality disorder a long time ago.

The sub-titles can be hard for some people to handle with paying attention to what’s going on in the film as well as reading the dialogue.  I had no problems with them, and they were clear and easy to read.

I would definitely recommend the French version of The Vanishing, not just over the American version but also as a fine film.  It really draws on the atmosphere of a creepy old-fashioned thriller and does it well.