133 The Vanishing

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Jeff
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Re: Criterion Newsletter (Part 3)

#26 Post by Jeff » Tue Jun 17, 2014 2:58 pm

cdnchris wrote:It would be interesting if they could get Sluizer's involvement and maybe even include the remake...
Twilight Time is releasing the remake on October 14th, so it looks like that's not going to happen.

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domino harvey
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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#27 Post by domino harvey » Tue Jun 17, 2014 3:58 pm

I'll stick with my Black Widow double feature that cost like $5

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mfunk9786
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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#28 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Jul 15, 2014 6:13 pm


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Ashirg
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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#29 Post by Ashirg » Tue Jul 15, 2014 7:15 pm

So the only extras added are New interview with director George Sluizer and New interview with actor Johanna ter Steege. I'm surprised it's not priced as one of their lower tier blu-ray (i.e. I Married a Witch and The Uninvited). This would have made more sense as a dual-edition at this price.

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mfunk9786
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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#30 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:34 pm

Can't say I disagree, though we don't know how long the interviews are.

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captveg
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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#31 Post by captveg » Mon Sep 22, 2014 7:33 pm


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Mr Sausage
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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#32 Post by Mr Sausage » Mon Sep 22, 2014 7:53 pm

Already being discussed here.

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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#33 Post by criterion10 » Thu Oct 09, 2014 12:43 pm

Beaver

Interesting that Criterion is now using the English translated The Vanishing instead of Spoorloos as the opening title.

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knives
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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#34 Post by knives » Thu Oct 09, 2014 12:45 pm

If I'm reading that right you have that backwards.

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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#35 Post by criterion10 » Thu Oct 09, 2014 1:34 pm

Yeah, I fucked that up. Should read like this:
criterion10 wrote:Interesting that Criterion is now using Spoorloos instead of the English translated The Vanishing as the opening title.
Although, since it makes more sense for the title screen to go by Spoorloos, it now renders my initial post pointless.

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manicsounds
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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#36 Post by manicsounds » Fri Oct 10, 2014 12:10 am

Some older Criterion DVDs used the English print instead. Yojimbo/Sanjuro were 2 examples.

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jegharfangetmigenmyg
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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#37 Post by jegharfangetmigenmyg » Sat Oct 11, 2014 6:19 am

I never understood people's attraction to this very "Hitchcock not directed by Hitchcock"-movie. Why not watch the real deal? I found no artistic ambitions whatsoever in this one, and it was one of those films where I had that "Was that really it?"-feeling when the credits rolled. And I even saw it on 35mm with introduction by Sluizer and of course I had fairly high expectations. But it just felt like one of those cinematic homages that Tarantino always does (that aren't interesting either). Could someone enlighten me as to how it has gotten such a special classic status? The plot isn't exactly breaking any new ground, either...


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warren oates
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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#39 Post by warren oates » Tue Nov 04, 2014 12:39 am

The new interview with Sluizer is interesting throughout. Great little bits about the writing and casting. And bonus gossip about Stanley Kubrick, who apparently loved the film, saw it at least ten times, declared that it was far more terrifying than The Shining (from which Sluizer claims he borrowed the "ing" gerund for the English title of his own film) and would call Sluizer up from time to time.
jegharfangetmigenmyg wrote:I never understood people's attraction to this very "Hitchcock not directed by Hitchcock"-movie. Why not watch the real deal? I found no artistic ambitions whatsoever in this one... Could someone enlighten me as to how it has gotten such a special classic status? The plot isn't exactly breaking any new ground, either.
Every time I see this film I think of it as one that Hitchcock himself would have envied (certainly as much as Kubrick did). It's a classic because it's a terrific film on a number of levels and a first-rate thriller that still seems innovative whether you're talking about books or films from the last few decades -- for the literary ways The Vanishing handles both time and character, cutting back and forth between the husband and the killer; for the brilliant manner in which the entire driving engine of this sort of mystery (if not of all stories) from the audience's perspective -- the desire to know what happened -- becomes the propulsive force behind the protagonist's obsessive quest. The film also feels very much ahead of its time in its depiction of the psychopath next door, which even serious art filmmakers like Haneke and his proteges wouldn't begin to get right for at least 10-20 years later.

Not sure where you're getting all that Tarantino stuff, as this is definitely not some kind of ironic pop culture pastiche or genre mash-up. I can't even really see how, aside from generally learning from Hitchcock, the film is referencing anything. Instead, it feels frighteningly realistic, ripped from the darkest of headlines.
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Like the Ted Bundy detail of wearing a fake cast to feign vulnerability that The Silence of the Lambs also used a few years later.
It actually seems more the other way around to me, as so many other films that came afterward -- good ones like Seven or last year's Prisoners and even mediocre ones like last month's The Houses October Built -- reference it rather explicitly.
Last edited by warren oates on Tue Nov 04, 2014 1:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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ArchCarrier
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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#40 Post by ArchCarrier » Tue Nov 04, 2014 8:23 am

I don't know if it was mentioned in the interview, but Kubrick also worked quite intensively with Johanna ter Steege (the female lead in The Vanishing) when he was preparing to make The Aryan Papers.

(Also, it's Sluizer, not Sluzier.)

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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#41 Post by Rupert Pupkin » Thu Nov 06, 2014 12:43 am

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 ! (that's why I've cross-posted on blu-ray.com)

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 [-o< ) (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.

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cdnchris
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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#42 Post by cdnchris » Thu Nov 06, 2014 1:59 am

In answer to the frisbee: it also disappears on the DVD.

Rupert Pupkin
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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#43 Post by Rupert Pupkin » Thu Nov 06, 2014 3:06 am

just to be sure I understood correctly: you mean it was already there on the original DVD with the previous/first artwork ?

ok, in that case that's not another "Eraserhead" problem... whew :oops:

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cdnchris
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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#44 Post by cdnchris » Thu Nov 06, 2014 8:17 am

Yes, i'm referring to the original DVD. It happens at the exact same spot.

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Re: 133 The Vanishing

#45 Post by AnamorphicWidescreen » Sat Dec 13, 2014 6:36 pm

Watched The Vanishing recently, on the recently released Criterion Disk. Superb film - I had seen this once before many years ago on the earlier DVD, but this print is obviously far superior.

The most disturbing element to this film is the every day-ness to the villain; he definitely seems too ordinary/boring to be committing such horrible crimes.

The only amusing part of the movie was when the villain tried to compel that British woman at the rest-stop to come with him for the alleged reason of hooking something up to his car..then her husband came over, realized it was all a scam, and slapped the villain like a little b$%$# - Hilarious!

What's also very well-done about the film is how you can really identify with the boyfriend/husband of the missing woman...
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The scene when the villain compels him to go with him so that he can find out what happened to his girlfriend/wife is quite chilling
....
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And, the ending scene when he wakes up to find out he's been buried alive is horrific, and the first time I saw this, quite unexpected..

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