Frantic

Richard and Sondra Walker return to Paris for the first time since their honeymoon for him to attend a medical conference. While Richard is in the shower, Sondra leaves the hotel and vanishes. Unsure of where she has gone or if she left under duress or not, Richard begins a search that quickly reveals that she has gone missing. A mix-up with luggage and a smuggled substance lead him into the life of the mysterious Michelle who is more mixed up with his wife's disappearance than she lets on.

I have seen this film several times and I think the fact that it isn't a spectacularly gimmicky film is a big part of the reason why it doesn't really stick in my mind over the years. For this reason I watched it again yesterday as I'd forgotten most of the plot and felt it would be like seeing it all over again for the first time. The film takes the simple plot and uses the 'object' as a McGuffin of sorts of quite a big chunk of the film – we don't need to know why his wife has been kidnapped, only that Richard is desperate to get her back and is sucked into a situation he knows nothing of. In this regard the film really works well and manages to keep the pace up even if some of the characters are difficult to fit into the narrative. As a story it lacks fireworks and has a rather understated feel but it still works really well and I enjoyed the simplicity of the story combined with the ease with which it involved me.

The cast are good but it is Ford's film and he leads it really well. He convinces as the man becoming increasingly 'frantic' and he manages to involve humour as his character becomes savvier about what is happening and also appears to be seedier and less professional as a result! Seigner is good even if her character is easier to play; she is a fun character and her performance is good. Outside of these two, few are memorable and it is to their credit (mostly Ford's) that the film is still strong regardless. Other familiar faces include Pinon, Weeks and Huddleston.

Overall this is a solid little thriller that is rather old fashioned in it's telling. It relies on good set pieces within a good mystery plot rather than explosions or car chases and is much more satisfying as a result. Small bits of it don't totally come together but the overall effect is one of a simple film that is delivered with style and is enjoyable to watch.

I really don't understand how this movie could have such a low score at this site. Perhaps the European atmosphere doesn't appeal as much to Americans as it does to Europeans.....just like most french top-films never made it to the US.

Nevertheless, Roman Polanski is terribly underrated as a master of suspence. In fact, looking back at Hitchcock's movies (which is unfair, since they've been made in a completely different era) I don't think he ever made movies written this well.

For some reason most of the time film making starts with putting the director together with some of the best or most popular actors of that period. But this one certainly doesn't.... It shows that Polanski wrote this himself, with his close friend and film-writing-partner, because he really knows what this story is about - he knows where to be funny, where to make it tense, where to make things kind of 'sensual'.

The weird thing is, that looking at all the things that happen in this movie, it's still so relatively shot, and doesn't feel at all too paced, or rushed. No, it rather feels like you are watching a 4 hour movie.

Anyway, those who have ever lost track of someone (for a short moment) in a strange, big city or those who have ever tried to find out something in France, will know and recognize exactly what Harrison Ford's character is going through - people not taking you seriously, people who don't care, people who refuse (or aren't able) to help you in your own language. All these things are put in this movie, so well, that -at least for me- it is really very realistic.

Most writers and directors nowadays seem to ruin most great movies/thrillers by not being able to make a good ending to the developing story. At one point our main character has got to find out what is happening....and how to do that, without taking away the suspence is incredibly difficult. Roman Polanski has done this very well, by not making this story too complicated and slowly unraveling a -looking back- simple mistery. There is no need to glue parts of the story together to make it all fit, or just skip parts to make it easier for him/you.

No, this is the first movie I've seen where when someone looses his shoes on a roof, he has to walk barefoot the next day. Most movies just ignore these little facts, but Roman makes it always difficult for himself in order to make it more easy (or, more easy to believe) for us.

There are no things that make me wonder 'how this is possible' - no, if you are a well known surgeon, many other surgeons from all over the world will know you. And if you will go to a convention in Paris, it's not at all unrealistic that you will run into a few of your friends...even when it's such a big city. Having problems with luggage when you're flying, isn't unrealistic too...nor is the story of this movie, the reason why what happened, happened.

Although I've never understood why our friend wanted his own wife back, instead of staying with the beautifull french girl ;) Again, that's what most people would do in real life....

Bart

What was truly amazing about Frantic was Polanski's ability to turn ordinary situations (finding and opening a briefcase, climbing on the stairs, grabbing the timing device, even driving from the airport) into extended and memorable scenes where the level of dramatic tension was extended to the point beyond slight interest.

Take the scene in the bedroom when Harrison Ford is originally searching for the briefcase and trying to open it up. Polanski does not end with the briefcase here. Later scenes involving it evoke a remembrance of the detail that went into crafting the first scene. Ford's trip onto the rooftop is treated the same way. The scene does not end with him neatly hiding on the roof. It is wracked with complications. The four sitting at the table about to grab the stolen timing device. Even the dance scene, surrounded with potential spies and unknowns, fills itself with Ford's eroticism and paranoia equally well.

The movie is filled with other examples like these, which make it a slow and delayed series of expectant occurences. The movie flows well from a sequence of dramatic sources of tension. I cannot believe that I had seen it earlier. It is truly a shame that Polanski is effectively banished from this country.

A truly brilliant film, a touch of Hitchcock, The acting from all players is superb in my book, I adore the music which truly complements the atmosphere, Recommended a must watch..

This could possibly be the greatest film ever made!!!

It was criminally, barbarically received coolly by both critics and audiences when released - for no apparent reason!!

Many reviews have said up to the half-way point, it is as good as any hitchcock thriller; but from there it goes downhill.

Speaking on behalf of the male population, this is where it picks up from the greatest film hitchcock never made to a surreal masterpiece!

The reason for this, of course is the introduction of Roman Polanski's real life wife - Emmanuelle Seigner. She is surely one of the most hypnotic, mysterious actresses ever to grace the screen.

She has a raw, down to earth beauty, which fits in perfectly with the film's setting - The Paris underground: airport hangers, parking lots, alleys and seedy nightclubs.

Never has Paris been shown in this light.

The film perfectly shows the disillusionment of a stranger in a foreign place.

The film also has a few nice touches which might be missed by a casual viewer, such as Harrison Ford's characters increasingly pathetic returns to his hotel as he grows increasingly "frantic". At the beginning of the film he is a respected doctor, but as Paris begins to take its toll on him he ends up a shoeless, crazed mess followed everywhere by a drug-crazed punkette.

All in all, Polanski's definitive film and a mega-hit that never was.