I'm rewatching it now for the first time in years and it's interesting how they do the scene where he's trying to figure out how to get a woman into his car. It's played kind of lighthearted, he's bumbling around and nervous and they've got this light music playing. Which is kind of chilling cause it's a scene where he's planning how to abduct and murder a woman.
"Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease, I don't think Hugo can track anything."
Good observation. It's exactly this kind of scene (also the learning French and family scenes too) that humanise him, and make him chilling. If it weren't for these, we would have a polarised 'bad' guy who was quite obviously bad, and therefore predictable, and therefore cliched (I haven't seen the American version but can totally imagine this is what they would do). But because we are never quite sure of how much his personality is psychotic and because we never know what the fate of Saskia was, we have the question of 'what did he do with her? and 'what is he capable of' burning in our minds and in the mind of our protagonist. Very effective storytelling.
shareRaymond is not psychotic, he's sociopathic. There's a big difference. Psychotics are out of touch with reality. Sociopaths know perfectly well what reality is, but they couldn't care less about other people. They have no conscience and no empathy.
A psychotic suffers from delusions, like believing himself to be Jesus Christ.
A sociopath would have no qualms about murdering someone in cold blood, or otherwise victimizing them,
and is far more likely to lead an outwardly normal life---have a paying job, etc., etc.
I thought the silliest scene was Rex trying to beat the guy up. Like c'mon, way to hit like a girl. The only scene the American version did better, which I guess is fitting... for what Americans lack in subtlety, they sure know their violence. Went to look it up on Youtube to make sure and yeah... def better in the American remake, haha.
share