Product Description

An american heart surgeon is thrust into the adventure of a lifetime when he arrives in paris for a convention and his wife inexplicably vanishes. His search for her leads him into the urban underworld and forges an alliance with a beautiful woman who holds the key to the mystery. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 12/07/2004 Starring: Harrison Ford Emmanuelle Seigner Run time: 120 minutes Rating: R Director: Roman Polanski

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29476 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2004-06-01
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 120 minutes

Amazon.com
Living in exile in Paris after eluding a controversial charge of statutory rape in America, director Roman Polanski seemed professionally adrift during the 1980s, making only one film (the ill-fated Pirates) between 1979 and 1988. Then Polanski found inspiration--and a major star in Harrison Ford--to make Frantic, a thriller that played directly into Polanski's gift for creating an atmosphere of mystery, dread, escalating suspense, and uncertain fate. Set in Paris (Polanski couldn't go to Hollywood, so Hollywood came to him), the story begins when an American heart surgeon (Ford) arrives in the City of Lights with his wife (Betty Buckley) for a medical convention. They check into a posh hotel, and in a brilliantly directed scene, Ford takes a shower and emerges to find that his wife has vanished. This mysterious disappearance--and a confusion between two identical pieces of luggage--leads Ford into the Paris underground and a plot that grows increasingly dangerous as he approaches the truth of his wife's disappearance. The plot gets too complicated, and the pace drops off in the cluttered second half, but in Polanski's capable hands the film is blessed with moments of heightened suspense in the tradition of classic thrillers. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

A Hitchcockian thriller with brilliant work by Harrison Ford
This film is one to behold for one terrific performance by Harrison Ford. While vacationing in Paris, Dr. Richard Walker's wife disappears mysteriously while he is taking a shower. Now he must put the pieces of the puzzle together in order to find out what happened to her. You can really sense the frustration, anger and confusion the frightened Harrison Ford must evoke from one scene to the next. Emmanuelle Seigner as the young girl who will help him is gorgeous and something else to behold. Frantic looks and sounds like something Hitchcock would have conjoured up and it's definitely worthy of being in his league. I was glad that the film did not go for the usual happy Hollywood ending. It does work itself out, but there is also a tragedy that comes along with it. Roman Polanski, who married Seigner has brought us another work of art. I would love to see a commentary and other special features on this film if Warner re-releases it in the future. It's more than deserving of having an enhanced edition. Also recommended by Polanski you may have missed: Death and the Maiden starring Sigourney Weaver in one terrific performance that like Ford, showcases her brilliant talent.

Not aging well
Maybe this was hot stuff 20 years ago, but it seems a bit dated now. The soundtrack is especially old fashioned, almost embarrassing, like something from the 50s. The plot is fairly standard suspense fare. The writing is nothing to write home about. There is a little suspense, but it's no nail biter. After 9-11, the plot about Arabs stealing a nuclear timing device seems prescient, I will say that. Ford's wife is incredibly frumpy and not believable. The scenes of Paris are mostly unattractive. In short, there's not a lot of reason to go out of your way for this.

Americans must be well protected in Paris
Discover Paris the way you would probably never see it. Garbage collecting trucks shown three times in the film. The French police that understands English and does not like nervous Americans, and they send their incognito agents behind the man they have more or less sent to hell. The US embassy obviously speaking with a forked tongue, being reassuring on one side and sending its secret agents behind the American citizen at once without telling him of course (S*** for S***head as Dr Walker says). Then a Statue of Liberty, the original mind you, seen and shown nearly too much. Underground parking lots that are crime avenues. Parisian zinc roofs. French taxis with black taxi drivers getting a flat on a highway. Then constant contradictions between tipping and not tipping in hotels. And all kinds of dealings and dealers along the river's embankments, in all kinds of underground structures, or airports, or night clubs, or bars, or whatever. A dangerous life for simple American tourists, but vacations remembered forever. Anyway in Paris only the French and the Arabs apparently die. Funny more than thrilling but well acted and that is a real pleasure.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines