29. Oude Maasweg &...

Lyrics

Sittin' on a highway in a broken van
Thinkin' of you again
Guess I have to hitchhike to the station
With every step I see your face
Like a mirror looking back at me
Sayin' you're the only one
Making me feel I could survive
I'm so glad to be alive
Nowhere to run and not a guitar to play
Mixed up inside and it's been raining all day
Since you went away
Manhattan Island Serenade

'k Zit hier op de snelweg met een lege tank
Regen klettert op het dak
Ik zal nou wel naar huis toe moeten liften
Ik denk aan jou bij elke stap
In de verte blijft de Transit staan
Ik kom nooit meer van je los
'k Zie de Caltex in de nevel
Olievlekken op de Maas
'k Loop wel door maar ik kan nergens heen
't Regent nog steeds en ik voel me zo alleen
Nu 'k je nooit meer zie
Oude Maasweg, kwart voor drie
Nu 'k je nooit meer zie
Oude Maasweg, kwart voor drie


This is a song made by a Dutch band called De Amazing Stroopwafels, which is a fantastic name. You have to be Dutch to understand it though. I don't know much else about this band, except that that they come from Rotterdan. But this is a pretty good song. I am not going to translate the Dutch text, because it's basically a loose translation of the English text. That's one of the reasons I chose to link it to a successful Dutch movie, that was later remade in Hollywood by the same director. Another reason is that car trouble and gas stations play an important role in this movie. It is important to note that I only write about the Dutch version of this film. I have not seen the American version, but that's considered to be a fairly awful movie.

The Movie: Spoorloos (The Vanishing) (George Sluizer, 1988)

Spoorloos is a very good movie, though I was slightly dissapointed in it. In high school I had to read Tim Krabbe's book Het Gouden Ei (The Golden Egg), on which this movie was based. I think it is one of the best Dutch books I've ever read, though admittedly I haven't really read many Dutch books. The weird title is a reference to a recurring nightmare of Saskia, the main female protagonist. In her dream she dreams that she is floating through space in an enclosed golden egg, she can't get out of. But there is another golden egg flying through space and once both eggs bump into each other, they, and everything in them will evaporate.

The movie starts with a very effective first scene, which slightly foreshadows the dark conclusion. While traveling towards their holiday residence in France, Saskia and her boyfriend Rex run out of gas. This is never pleasant, but it's especially unpleasant if it happens in a tunnel. Conveniently just before this happened we've heard Saskia tell about her nightmare, so we realize why she gets so unsettled in dark confined spaces she can't get out of easily. After some tension and suspense we are relieved to see that Rex has successfully found a can with gas, he can fill the car with, at least until the next gas station. Rex and Saskia proceed happily, not knowing that the worst is yet to come. At the gas station they fill up their car, have some fun, and then Saskia goes to buy something to drink, before they leave. She doesn't come back. And while we, the audience, have a good idea of what happened and who kidnapped, Rex doesn't. I was quite glad Saskia disappeared so quickly, because the relationship and the bantering between Rex and Saskia is pretty dull and the worst part of the movie.

Three years later Rex is in a new relationship, but he can't find closure unless he knows what exactly happened to Saskia. The film now becomes a tense character study of Rex and Raymond Lemorne, Saskia's kidnapper. Raymond is a very fascinating character. In flashbacks we see that he is quite an ordinary, slightly dull chemistry teacher with a wife and two children. When he decides to kidnap a woman, we see that has to practice a lot. And even in practice things don't always go as they should. His wife and daughter notice that he is not his normal self, but they assume he has a lover. And well, every man in France has a lover. When he finally see how he kidnaps Saskia, we realize how unfortunate she has been. His kidnapping of Saskia doesn't go at all according to his plan and it is pure coincidence that she is the one he kidnaps. But even more interestingly than how he kidnaps Saskia, is why he kidnaps her. This is where the movie disappointed me the most, compared to the book. Raymond once saved a little girl from drowning, which elated his daughter so much that she saw him as great hero. According to Raymond's reasoning his deed can only be considered heroic if he proves to be absolutely incapable of doing evil. This is a fascinating thought, but is only glossed over in the film, while the book spends, as far as I can remember, much more time exploring this idea. Rex's character is better developed. The movie makes it clear, that above all Rex wants to know what exactly happened to Saskia. He has no hope of finding her alive, he just wants to know exactly what happened. In order to do this he even sacrifices his new relationship with a woman who actually seems more interesting than Saskia. Raymond becomes fascinated by Rex' perseverance and visits him in Amsterdam and offers him the opportunity to show him exactly what happened to Saskia. Therefore Rex has to face the same fate as his ex. Starving for answers Rex obliges. And thus starts a chilling and suspenseful ride from Amsterdam to France. This ride adds tension to an already tense movie and leads to the bleak, terrifying conclusion that is even more shocking due to our knowledge of Saskia's fears.

Sometimes events out of control of the filmmakers can make a movie more interesting. While Saskia and Rex are traveling through France, on the radio we constantly hear live commentary of an exciting Tour de France stage. As I've watched this movie only a couple of weeks after the Lance Armstrong scandal became truly public, this radio commentary made the movie more interesting. In hindsight it seems like a stroke of genius to link the Tour de France cyclists to a story of someone like Raymond Lemorne, who on the surface is a good ordinary man, but in actuality is a deceiving liar, who could've pretty easily been exposed if people around him were willing to pay more attention.