Week 26/2024

In George Sluizer’s The Vanishing [Spoorloos], screening at Lumière in Antwerp, we encounter a thriller of unsettling precision, where the mundane is rendered extraordinary through its narrative complexity. The film’s structure defies conventional suspense, offering the audience an omniscient perspective that paradoxically deepens the mystery. As we follow a husband’s obsessive quest to uncover the fate of his vanished wife, we are confronted with the harrowing realization that knowledge does not equate to understanding, turning upside down Hitchcock’s famous saying that “the suspense is not in the bang, but in the anticipation of it.”

At De Cinema in Antwerp this week, Charles Chaplin’s Limelight presents a melancholic examination of the ephemerality of fame and the inexorable passage of time. Through the intertwined lives of the aging clown Calvero and the aspiring dancer Terry Ambrose, Chaplin crafts a narrative that’s rich with autobiographical echoes. Inspired by Chaplin’s encounter with the declining American comedian Frank Tinney, the film delves into the existential angst of an artist confronting obsolescence. Limelight is a meditation on dignity and the silent, inevitable retreat from the limelight, capturing the delicate balance between despair and hope.

Wir wollen auch leben (Mehrangis Montazami-Dabui, 1976) at Cinematek in Brussels is a searing critique of structural racism in 1970s West Germany. The film sheds light on the oppressive mechanisms wielded by state institutions over foreign youths. By focusing on the intersection of juvenile delinquency and the pervasive fear of deportation, Montazami-Dabui exposes the insidious impact of systemic racism. The documentary is a vital contribution to contemporary discourse, urging us to confront the historical and ongoing injustices faced by marginalized communities.