X
- 1988
- TV-PG
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h
- 1988
- TV-PG
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h
Summary In a hotel room in Paris, a doctor comes out of the shower and finds that his wife has disappeared. He soon finds himself caught up in a world of intrigue, espionage, gangsters, drugs and murder.
Directed By: Roman Polanski
Written By: Gérard Brach, Robert Towne, Jeff Gross, Roman Polanski
- 1988
- TV-PG
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h
- 1988
- TV-PG
- Warner Bros.
- 2 h
Frantic
66
7.6
Where to Watch
Summary In a hotel room in Paris, a doctor comes out of the shower and finds that his wife has disappeared. He soon finds himself caught up in a world of intrigue, espionage, gangsters, drugs and murder.
Directed By: Roman Polanski
Written By: Gérard Brach, Robert Towne, Jeff Gross, Roman Polanski
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 16 Critic Reviews
66
56% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
38% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
6% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 16 Critic Reviews
66
56% Positive
9 Reviews
9 Reviews
38% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
6% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Director Polanski, a master of movie atmospherics (e.g., Chinatown, Rosemary's Baby), here creates a hauntingly foreign, forbiddingly stylish Paris that seems to move to the oneiric disco stylings of Grace Jones. Harrison Ford, outstanding as an American innocent abroad, moves persuasively from complacency to confusion, rage, and paranoid desperation in a performance comparable to James Stewart's best work for Hitchcock.
Polanski has always inspired comparisons to Hitchcock, back to Cul-de-Sac and up to Rosemary's Baby and beyond, but this is the first time he has intentionally set out to
replicate the thrills, chills and laughter of Hitchcock's best work. He succeeds, but with a difference: the last half-hour, at once improbable and horrible and self-referentially satiric, is pure Polanski. [27 Feb 1988]
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 37 User Ratings
7.6
78% Positive
29 Ratings
29 Ratings
14% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
8% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 37 User Ratings
7.6
78% Positive
29 Ratings
29 Ratings
14% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
8% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Frantic is a Roman Polanski film made in 1988 and I'm going to be stupid and give it a 10 and the reasons for a perfect rating is the story and because the movie doesn't focus merely on violence, blood, guts, sex scenes to entertain the audience. As with Chinatown which was directed by Roman Polanski in 1974 we see in Frantic (1988) a beautifully crafted, perfect piece of film making without stupidity, violence and nonsense like that and a beautifu and kind of intelligent thriller feel to it and a mystery type **** film may have violence or action in it but I'd say about 5% if at all so hardly any really if any...... FRANTIC doesn't rely on violence and stupidity to be a great film and all the characters are great and feels very beautifuly crafted in terms of film quality and has a decent and not dumb story. Actor "Harrison Ford" who plays Richard Walker in the film has his wife named Sondra Walker do a disappearing act on him whilst in Paris and since her disappearance wants clues and answers in a bid to find his wife. A very intelligent movie with a great story that's fairly tense and also contains romance and maybe a very small amount of violence which is probably not even that relevant to the movie because there's hardly any if at all. Anybody looking for a movie with non stop action and violence and blood and guts avoid Frantic because this isn't that type of movie. It's a movie made with common sense instead of stupidity and is very good especially in terms of entertainment and some suspense and doesn't rely on violence too much if any at all. Most of it is just dialogue and a fairly decent mystery about one man wanting answers and to find a missing person and is superbly made by director Roman Polanski and is a stylish film in all departments.
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Les tribulations d'un Américain à Paris dont la femme a été enlevée suite à un imbroglio d'échange de valises à l'insu du plein gré de l'ignorance des valises... dont l'une contient quelque chose pouvant remettre en cause la sécurité nationale...
Dit comme ça, ça ressemble à une très mauvaise série B hollywoodienne avec Harrison Ford la star qui jouerait du flingue ou du fouet avec son chapeau mou tout en cascadant quelques cascades au milieu d'explosions et de poursuites en ville...
Or, il n'en est rien, car le réalisateur polonais en a tiré un film éminemment réaliste dans la ville-lumière sous le ciel gris, dans des endroits plus ou moins sombres, loin des lieux à touristes... même si on voit souvent la Tour Eiffel et la petite Statue de la Liberté parce que, voyez-vous, le film doit quand même "parler" au public américain.
Harrison ne campe donc qu'un bon Docteur qui n'aligne pas 3 mots de "french" et qui se retrouve bien perdu et livré à lui-même lorsque sa "wife" a disparu. Polanski joue habilement du choc des cultures en se moquant gentillement des mentalités de part et d'autre, et avec Harrison qui se prête au jeu, le film s'avère souvent très drôle !
Heureusement, la petite Emmanuelle Seigner, qui fait mieux que se débrouiller ici, et qui sait baragouiner l'amerlocain devient malgré elle son guide impromptu puisqu'elle se trouve elle aussi impliquée dans cette affaire qui se révèle par bien des côtés assez rocambolesque...
Pour autant, il ne s'agit pas d'une bête comédie et la gravité des enjeux nous est régulièrement rappelée et à cet égard, le sacré yankee Harrison délivre un jeu tout en finesse et en authenticité, loin, très loin des conneries à l'Indiana Jones ! c'est pas Spielberg aux commandes, c'est Roman Polanski !
Ainsi, Frantic est aussi prenant, drôle qu'émouvant et impliquant dans la vraisemblance de ses situations même si la fin vire un brin au grand guignol et au drame un peu trop appuyé.
En tout cas, voilà encore un bel exemple de conjugaison de talents avec cette vision aigre-douce de Polanski et un Ford vulnérable dans un environnement qui le dépasse : très peu d'acteurs américains auraient pu donner, je pense, autant de sincérité et d'auto-dérision dans ce rôle.
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Ford`s character is disoriented from the very beginning of the movie, suffering from jet lag, and you can view the movie as one long tourist`s nightmare. Although the suspense never reaches the level of Polanski`s finest work-there are plot holes that are enormous-the film is well made technically and has so many twists and turns that one can`t help but want stick around to see how it turns out. In other words, you have just read a guarded recommendation.
Polanski's thriller boasts several superb set pieces, even if it doesn't quite snap shut on the mind the way Chinatown did. Funny and unsettling.
Polanski treats the hotel with the same virtuosity he displayed in filming the apartment in Rosemary's Baby, one of the most deeply satisfying thrillers ever made. Frantic doesn't maintain this level: there are some irritating illogicalities, and Polanski hasn't fully mined the possibilities of all the elements in his screenplay (cowritten with Gerard Brach), such as Arab terrorists in Paris and the tiny nuclear-bomb trigger they are after. [07 Mar 1988, p.68]
Polanski, who seldom has a problem with directorial conviction, falters here. He tries to gives us Alfred Hitchcock, without much success. Frantic works best when Polanski delivers Polanski -- that sharp-edged vision that injects a harrowing situation with black humor, even slapstick. [27 Feb 1988, p.B1]
Certainly, the elements for a better movie are here. The credits are dotted with multi-Oscar nominees. But not all are well used. What Frantic needs most is an infusion of chemistry. Somehow Polanski has failed to make these actors connect.
Roman Polanski’s directs “Frantic” with unrelenting brilliance. There is not a single frame of this movie that does not bear the mark of a master filmmaker. Harrison Ford is the perfect “Everyman” in the **** tradition, a modern Jimmy Stewart. A rollercoaster ride of a mystery, with Ford searching Paris for his missing wife, as detours and “MacGuffin’s” abound. Witold Sobocinski‘s cinematography captures it all with inky blacks and cool elegance.
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[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]
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Production Company
Warner Bros.,
The Mount Company (II)
Release Date Feb 26, 1988
Duration 2 h
Rating TV-PG
Tagline They've taken his wife. Now he's taking action.
Awards
Jupiter Award
• 2 Nominations
