फ़्रैंटिक

"Frantic" is the most Hitchcock-influenced movie of Roman Polanski. The director has touched almost every cinematic genre, although always with a special taste for mysteries and disturbing elements. That's his trademark.

"Frantic" is a more conventional movie in Polanski filmography, but it's very well done and the sensation of something disquieting –typical of his films- is always there. An American doctor (Harrison Ford) goes to Paris for a medical congress with his wife. In their hotel the woman disappears without explanations and Harrison Ford begins a nightmarish research throughout the city…

The film reminds us of the Alfred Hitchcock thriller "North by Northwest" (1959) –in that movie a misunderstanding is the motor of the story, here it's something similar but more enigmatic, because we don't know who kidnapped doctor's wife.

This is the first cinematic collaboration between the Polish-French director and his future wife, actress Emmanuelle Seigner –she's the girl who helps Harrison Ford in this adventure.

Intriguing and exciting: these are the words for "Frantic". Perhaps it's not considered among Polanski's most important movies, but it still looks fresh and entertaining.

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..

¨Frantic" is a vibrant and exciting thriller of Polish director Roman Polanski . The story deals with the assistance to a conference in Paris of doctor "Richard Walken" (Harrison Ford) and his wife (Betty Buckley), and reliving their honeymoon. In the hotel room when Richard goes out the bathroom after a shower , he discovers his spouse has disappeared on the first day of their journey . Now , at an unknown metropolis , without speaking a word of French language and agonizingly alone , "Walken" undertakes the search throughout wet streets and under rainy sky . As the only track he has results to be a number of telephone written on a matchbox, and from there the issue will be complicate , becoming for the American doctor in a nightmare . He's only helped by the US Embassy assistant (John Mahoney) and a strange French young Emmanuelle Seigner (Polanski's wife).

The pace of the film is well made and carefully controlled ; as the plot finds its aim , for that reason is a story that entertains and works . The picture is packed with thrills, intrigue, tension , suspense and blending the Hitchcock style with the Polanski's particular narrative . Harrison Ford gives a magnificent interpretation in this picture , perhaps one of his best acting . Harrison Ford makes one of his best roles and believable in his character as doctor drawn into espionage and who launches to rescue his lovely wife , though never really cuts loose . The film has a large number of memorable scenes that are the Polanski's stamp : as the start of the movie, the thrilling scenes on the roof , and the unforgettable dancing that Ford dances Emmanuelle Seigner , among others . In addition , there appears ample support cast as American as French actors in very secondary intervention as David Huddleston , Alexandra Stewart , Yorgo Voyagis ,Gerard Klein , Dominigue Pinon , among them . It has an acceptable photography by Sobozinsky , though is urgent a remastering. Rare and sad musical score by the maestro Ennio Morricone .

"Frantic" is a moving thriller from the beginning to the final in which Polanski carries out one of the basic guidelines of the genre : as he creates thriller from roles of the daily life and well written by the same Polanski and his usual screenwriter Gerard Brach . Furthermore , Polanski maintains its grip thanks to Harrison Ford 's outstanding and credible acting . Rating : 6, passable and well worth watching .

One of Polanski's most Americanized efforts, Frantic, begins very well. Through a leisurely exposition between a happily married doctor and wife on a business trip in Paris, Polanski's camera at some stage begins to tell us things through ominous zoom-ins and steadicams. We see him thinking, wondering when he should start worrying. We are comfortably in the same perspective as Harrison Ford's protagonist. But this pace becomes an obstruction later on. This ironically low-key thriller's action is periodically interrupted by unnecessary scenes with no subtext, for example a dance sequence between the internally agitated Ford and Emmanuelle Seigner.

It is a true paradox that pace is an issue for a film called Frantic. So much so that I wonder upon reflection if it was Polanski's intention to compress the briskness of the action to familiarize us with the protagonist's internalization of fear, worry and bewilderment. Whatever the answer is, it was not a conducive creative device.

The first half is promising in large part because of Polanski's experience with the loss of his own wife to random circumstance with murderers. It made me feel as if I was going to see an intense, personal film that dealt with that eternally wounding part of his life, sadly one of the many. Alas, I didn't get that. Frantic is a formula suspense film easily pigeonholed with the rest of the 1980s Hollywood thrillers.

The hero's essential obstacle being that he's a fish out of water, an American businessman in Paris who speaks no French and thus can hardly navigate his way through the city, much less a trail to his wife in which time is of the essence. The film would truly live up to a degree of tension if his interactions with Parisians were realistic. They all seem willing to help, none of them annoyed by an American archetype anxiously babbling English at them in their native country. I've heard many stories from friends and writers who've been to Paris. They do not bless Paris with a reputation for being nice and accommodating to English-speaking Americans. One friend told me that he was not allowed to have his passport back unless he asked for it in French. Another told me that when he tried to order a meal at a restaurant in English, the clerk slammed her hand on the table and ordered that he speak French. My own experience in Paris might be vastly different, and it is no doubt a beautiful and culturally rich city, but there would inevitably be at least a blemish of resistance against Ford's conventionally American character.

There is, however, a great sense of the hero's naivété with danger or intrigue. The tone is never too tongue-in-cheek to diminish the tension of the narrative and never too pitiful to deprive him of his credibility as a serious dramatic character. There is a terrific scene in which he must enter a woman's apartment from the outside ledge through a diagonal window. He must carry a satchel with important contents. He is also a well-fed middle-aged American doctor who never thought by any stretch of the imagination that a simple business trip would require him to do this. There is a not-so-good scene that suggests the same thing, but leaves us with a major story gap, during a scene at an airport where he's scared that the contraband-sniffing dogs will discover the dope in the suitcase. The dogs don't, and yet not only does Ford appear to have forgotten about at least a gram of coke in his pocket, the police dogs don't notice either.

Generally, Frantic is a genre film with genre conventions: the dubious female companion, the inept American intelligence agents, American paranoia concerning terrorism and a predictable ending that was only unpredictable to me because I felt sure that Polanski would take bolder steps. It is nevertheless an entertaining movie, but not a riveting one and not particularly memorable.

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.