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Capsule Reviews of Today’s AFI Film Fest

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Following are capsule reviews of today’s screenings in the American Film Institute Los Angeles International Film Festival at the Cineplex Odeon Century Plaza Cinemas:

‘The Vanishing’

Netherlands, 1988, 107 minutes

6:30 p.m.

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A contemporary psychological thriller that’s a real nail-biter: a clean, logical nightmare with a fantastically absorbing plot. Director George Sluizer understands the principle of Hitchcockian counterpoint; his film begins with an attractive young Dutch couple and tosses in a typical idea, the girl’s inexplicable disappearance and the frantic search for her. From there, an utterly plausible sense of pure evil is revealed in a third character: a mild-looking French teacher (brilliantly played by “Beatrice’s” Bernard-Pierre Donnadieu) who is fascinated with crossing the barriers of human conduct. Donnadieu and the appalling, horrific climax will haunt your mind long after this film is over. RECOMMENDED.

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