Spoorloos means 'Traceless' in English. It was a Dutch-French production and released in 1988. It's a bilingual film and falls under the horror subgenre, Psychological Horror. If you have seen Nolan's Memento where Ghajini drew the inspiration from, you will know what a non-linear structure of storytelling means. You would get to know the climax first in such films and then the film would explain to you how that climax was reached. Spoorloos follows a young couple who decides to roam the countryside. Somewhere down the line, the girl gets secluded from the boy and is kidnapped by a self-confessed Good man and 'sociopath'. Simple, isn't it? Well, not so simple. The boy goes on an endless and painful search of the girl. For 3 years, he doesn't find a clue. He gets the nationwide coverage from print and electronic media both in Holland and France and urge the kidnapper to meet him. He decides to forgive the kidnapper only if he lets him know what he did to his girlfriend. What follows next is unbearable to watch. For that matter, the whole film is an exercise in 'futility' you would assume. It's setting is unsettling, pace just good enough to have you on roll and acting top class. Stanley Kubrick, the maker of my and millions of others' favorite horror film of all time, The Shining, called it's director for discussing the editing on his next project and called Spoorloos the 'scariest' film he had ever seen. Now if you have watched and known Kubrick, you would know what a great honour it was Spoorloos. It's riveting and a must-watch experience.
Three things that have occupied my mind for last three days in descending order of importance are: Justin Trudeau, Heinrich Klassen and The Leftovers. I am going to write here about the least important entity for I am likely to forget about it most urgently. The Leftovers is an HBO production and like the most HBO productions, it makes for a great television experience. I chose to watch it for two reasons: First, it was only three season long with 28 episodes in total and secondly, for two years running, it was the best TV show in American Landscape. There was a third reason as well and it was in the name of its creator's promise. Damon Lindelof is one of the brightest American minds and he gave us 'Lost' all those years back. I have been a huge fan of 'Lost' and till this time, gush about its fantastical and mythical elements. People still find it very hard to crack the mysteries of Lost and when a show leaves you with more questions than the answers after its 8
Comments
Post a Comment