Customer Reviews

Frantic [VHS]

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

The movie is really excellent, 4 stars anyway. The following comments pertain to the quality of the transfer to DVD. In that respect, let's make sure we're on the same page. On the spine of the case of this DVD is the WB logo, the designation "DVD Video", and the number 11787. In the back description on the case, it is designated: "STANDARD VERSION: This film has been modified from is (sic) original version: It has been formatted to fit your screen." In other words, it's a pan-and-scan version, and indeed one that is so bad that critical information during the movie is lopped off the visible viewing area. The image quality is grainy and disgusting, like a transfer from some old VHS video tape that's been laying around on a dusty shelf ever since the movie was made. The sound quality stinks: One must turn up the volume to near maximum in order to hear the dialog, which even then is badly muffled at times. Whoever at Warner Brothers was responsible for this mess demonstrates their total contempt for the customer.

Like BLADE RUNNER before it, when FRANTIC came out in U.S theaters in 1988, it's box-office performance was rather dissappointing. The reason for this can be attributed to the fact that FRANTIC (like BLADE RUNNNER) was not cranked out by the Hollywood cookie cutter machine, and therefore not a movie for American masses. Delving a bit deeper into this, there are aspects of the film's feel, plot, performance and score that I'd like to touch on:

FEEL

Despite the fact that it's made by Warner Bros., FRANTIC has a distinctive European production feel to it. Yes, it's filmed in Paris,but the feel, pace and cinematography make one realize that Frantic is really a European film which has an American star at its helm. It's not often that big stars, such as Harrison Ford, step out of the Hollywood production scene to make a European-type feature. It's no surprise, then, that FRANTIC was hugely successfull in Europe.

PLOT

The film has the spirit of Hitchcock throughout it. Even its premise: Harrison Ford's(Dr. Richard Walker) wife mysteriously vanishes from his hotel upon arriving in Paris for a conference. It differes from other films with a similar plot (such as THE VANISHING and BREAKDOWN), in that the audience is just as at a loss as Walker is. We only know what he knows. We discover parts of the mystery as he methodically puts the peices together. This aspect is what really creates the film's gripping suspense and makes one relate and empathise with Dr. Walker's anguish. In the afore mentioned movies, there is a bi-linear plot where we see what is going on from the kidnapper's point of view, which make things all-too obvious.

PERFORMANCE

For those critics that say that Harrison Ford can't act, they obviously haven't seen this movie. To me, this is his best perfmance of his illustrious career. Harrison Ford is required to be in every scene of the film, since he is our eyes and ears. This is not an easy job, even for the most seasoned of actors, but Ford pulls it off masterfully.

SCORE

Ennio Morricone's score for this film is very appropriate. He weaves in suspensfull strings throughout the film along with jazzy undertoans and meloncholy pieces brilliantly complementing the Ford's performance and Polanski's vision. The opening and closing titles are distinctively Morricone, mixing an orchestra strings theme with an electric bass and drum set. Alas, the soundtrack CD has been out of print for years.....

FRANTIC is not a perfect film, but clearly, it has not been given the credit that it deserves. It is a film that should not go unnoticed by movie-goers that appreciate atmospheric, suspense-filled thrillers with first-class permormances.

This isn't the greatest Harrison Ford or Roman Polanski movie. The solid performance by Ford, the film debut of Emmanuelle Seigner, and a fantastic score by Ennio Morricone elevate it a notch. Ford plays an American doctor, on a trip to Paris with his wife when she mysteriously disappears from their hotel room. The Paris police and the US Embassy are no help so he sets out to find her on his own. Emmanuelle Seigner (Polanski's very young wife) plays Michelle, a naive drug runner who happened to pick up the wrong luggage, his wifes, at the airport. They team up to solve the mystery. The cliches that show up in this movie are disappointing; The bumbling US Authorities, the Arab "businessmen". Polanski keeps it rolling along though. It isn't even close to being as good as "Chinatown" or any of the classis Hitchcock movies. The score is fantastic. And although Morricone is better know for the Sergio Leone film scores, this one should not be missed by any fans. He provides the perfect soundscape for the seedier side of the City Of Lights. The DVD capabilities are wasted. There are no added features and they didn't even bother releasing it in widescreen.

This is a fairly entertaining thriller with a nice performance by Harrison Ford in his standard 'everyman' role to recommend it. Unfortunately Emmanuelle Seigner looks lost in her role and gets blown off the screen in every scene she and Ford share. But be warned, this DVD lacks any bonus materials and can only be viewed in pan/scan mode. There are no titles, no chapter index, not even a selection menu at the beginning of the movie (no features to select from). It doesn't seem as if the picture has been enhanced nor has the sound been remastered. Pretty lame.

The movie Frantic,directed by Roman Polanski,is excellent.It stars Harrison Ford as an American doctor,in Paris for a convention,whose wife(played by Betty Buckley)is kidnapped while he's in the shower.He goes to the police and they really don't help much,so he goes out to find her himself. He winds up being helped by a pretty French girl named Michelle,who was sort of indirectly responsible for the kidnapping because she picked up the wife's suitcase by mistake at the airport.Emmanuelle Seigner plays Michelle,and does a good job.The rest of the cast,which I am mostly unfamiliar with,is also very good.The film has a great musical score by Ennio Morricone that really adds to the atmosphere of the Paris locations..Overall,this is a great movie,and though I'm not sure how well known it is,it's one of my favorite films with Harrison Ford.

This is one of Harrison Ford's underappreciated gems, made in that brief period in the 1980's when he had a two movie fling with roles beyond his usual fare, the other being the fantastic "The Mosquito Coast." Sadly, both movies bombed, and Ford never pushed himself again.

Roman Polanski crafts a creepily realistic thriller. The first half is near flawless, as Ford investigates the mysterious disappearance of his wife. Things do start to unravel a bit as we find out just what happened to her, the mysterious becoming just mundane Hollywood fare. Still, Polanski's direction is so assured that I'm willing to forgive this fault. His own tragic personal loss clearly informs this dark, unceasingly serious film.

Although filmed in Paris, Polanski makes a fascniating choice. This is not the "City of Lights" we're used to. Instead, Polanski shows the city at its absolute worst, delighting in its ugliness. The film opens and closes with lengthy shots of a highway passing through dreary suburbs. Trash trucks are forever collecting garbage and obscuring the Eiffel Tower. We constantly see bathrooms, alleys, concrete parking structures, rooms lit by banks of fluorescent lights, rundown apartments, the list goes on. This is not to say the film is ugly, it's beautifully shot, but not to look like a series of postcard images, this is a working, living organism of a city.

There is an almost documentary feel to this film that will alienate many viewers. This is arthouse style filmmaking. There are no easy jokes and little snappy dialogue. Multiplex moviegoers, used to instant, constant gratification will be disappointed. But those who like a little more depth and intelligence to their thrillers will be mesmerized.

Sadly, the American DVD is a disaster. It was one of the very first DVDs ever released and shows its age. In fact, the picture quality was notably worse than my old VHS. Even more annoyingly, it starts out in widescreen for the credits, teasing you, then zooms in to pan-and-scan for the feature, before zooming out again to widescreen for the closing credits. Infuriating. Luckily, the British DVD, available at amazon.co.uk, has an anamorphic widescreen transfer. It's not the greatest picture, but until Warner does right by this film in the US, it gets the job done. If you can play Region 2 discs, that's the one to get.

Firstly, this is a great movie. "Hitchcockian" is the most frequent adjective used to describe it, and it fits pretty well. Harrison Ford is cast against type as a decidedly unheroic American heart surgeon whose wife is kidnapped within hours of their arrival in Paris for a medical convention, shortly after discovering that they've picked up the wrong suitcase from the airport (Indiana Jones/ Jack Ryan fans beware: Ford's Dr. Walker in this movie makes Rick Deckard from "Blade Runner" look like an Arnold Schwarzenegger character).
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Rather than finding assistance from the local gendarme (and the US consulate), he finds bureaucracy (sp?) and an unwillingness to
believe that foul play may be involved. Only after breaking open the suitcase does he start to find clues as to what has happened...and why. Eventually he follows the trail to the apartment of a known smuggler (who is "in serious need of medical attention") and the "mule" employed whose suitcase was accidentally switched.
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The mule in question is quite possibly the finest-looking piece of 1980's Eurotrash I've ever seen, the deliciously feline street urchin Michelle, played by Emmanuelle Seigner. She reminds me a bit of Anne Parillaud from "La Femme Nikita", even though that movie was made a bit later than this. It turns out that Michelle hasn't been fully paid for the job she's just finished, so she decides to help Dr. Walker find his wife in order to collect the difference she's owed.
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Without giving away the story, the chemistry between the two stars is very good...Ford is especially believable as he never once looks comfortable in this movie (aside from his wife going missing, he speaks no French and hasn't been to Paris in perhaps 20 years; his awkward sense of displacement comes off as being incredibly genuine).
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The DVD package itself, sadly, is far below form. A DVD doesn't require the "bonus features" package found in "Memento" to be a quality purchase...but a quality transfer is the least that should be expected. This DVD's transfer is exceptionally poor...at times it seems as though it were downloaded from a VHF telecast. And I was astonished to find that there wasn't even a widescreen option available...the scenes on Michelle's apartment rooftop would've been particularly more effective in this format...indeed, this is the first DVD I've ever owned (short of my little girl's Powerpuff Girls and Digimon discs, which are formatted for TV anyway) where the presentation defaults to full-screen. Shame.
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I recommend this movie because the story, performances, soundtrack (that's a GREAT Grace Jones song, by the way...and anything Ennio Morricone touches turns to gold...everyone knows that), and price are all exceptional. 4 stars minimum for the movie based on these features. Considering that this is only a dollar or two more expensive that the VHS edition, it's actually cheaper to own on DVD...but with a DVD you expect so much more than what this package offers...and that's what brings down my review.

Great movie, but what's with the pan and scan dvd? Polanski is a great director and his movie needs a better treatment on dvd. How about widescreen please? This is a great film and it would be nice to see all of the image as the director intended. Thanks in advance.

If you hope, as I did, that the 2001 and 2003 reviews that warn against the lousy transfer of this move do not apply to the 2004 edition, this is unfortunately not the case. The 2004 transfer looks like a bootleg made from a VHS tape. Why is Warner treating this movie so crappily? It is an excellent film and deserves a DVD release that does it justice.

This is one of my FAVORITE movies. Despite the horrible transfer to DVD I still watch it often. I am writing this with the hopes that with the stellar release of Polanski's Tess the powers that be WILL do a new transfer of this Polanski masterpiece. A new digital transfer in WIDESCREEN format would do justice to a film that deserves it. PLEASE. This is a 5 star film .