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Frantic [DVD] [1988] |
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![Frantic [DVD] [1988]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/516F5V0G5NL._SL160_.jpg "Frantic [DVD] [1988]")
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Staring:
Harrison Ford,
Betty Buckley,
Emmanuelle Seigner,
Djiby Soumare,
Dominique Virton
Director:
Roman Polanski
Average Customer Rating:  
List Price: £13.99
Our Price: £2.27
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Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.85:1
Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Binding: DVD
EAN: 5024165814888
Format: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Discs: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Region Code: 2
Release Date: 1999-10-25
Running Time: 115
Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1988-02-26 |
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Amazon.co.uk Review
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 Buckly) 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 of Frantic 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
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 Have you and your wife been to Paris before?, 2010-04-08
A Doctor and his wife visit Paris on a business trip. She gets kidnapped. He tries to find her - but he doesn't speak much French.
There! Nice simple synopsis. Of course what happens after that is the important thing - what does happen after that? I must have seen this film 3 or 4 times and each time when the actual `plot' turns up I think `Oh yeah, that's what it's all about!'. You see it doesn't matter - `Frantic' is not a `why' film, it's a `how' film or even a `what' film, as in `What the ---- is going on?' It's not a thriller - it's a comedy. It's Polanski having a laugh at the expense of Yanks abroad and Arabs abroad and basically anyone who's not from Paris trying to get things done in Paris.
Aside maybe from `The Mosquito Coast', it's my favourite Harrison Ford performance. I'm not, I must confess, his biggest fan, but his look of angry bafflement as he receives no help from U.S. Embassy officials or French police is a joy. The scene where he slips and slides around on the sloping roof also shows a real gift for physical comedy. Emmanuelle Seigner is also perfect as the French girl who `helps' him. I think she's Polanski's embodiement of Paris; irritating, pretentious, shallow, but also beautiful, charming and sexy. She's got it all.
There are some terrific scenes; Ford's adventures on the roof as mentioned above, him trying to `buy' drugs in the nightclub, and, best of all, Ford and Seigner `dancing' in the second nightclub towards the end - a wonderfully funny scene.
There's no getting away from it - the ending jars and, to me, stops it from being a `great' film, but it's still hugely enjoyable and never fails to raise a smile.
top-notch suspense, 2009-10-20
A convention in Paris, a wife gone missing, an incompetent officialdom, a girl in a tight red dress, Israelis and Arabs competing for a hi-tech trophy... out of this mix Roman Polanski fashions a top-notch suspense-drama. The film's attention to detail and pacing are marks of the very best movie story-telling. Harrison Ford is as good as he gets (which is pretty good) but he is outshone by Emannuelle Seigneur and a fabulous supporting cast. I have seen this a few times now, and it does not fade.
Black Thriller That Makes You Come Back For More, 2007-10-20
Imagine going on a business trip, to attend a medical conference; then find your wife has gone missing? This is what happened to Dr Richard Walker (Ford - The Fugitive, Firewall) and he's alone, trying desperately to find his wife Sonia (Betty Buckley - Law And Order: Special Victims Unit, Monk just to name a few) and he doesn't really speak French.
He manages to get the authorities notified but his plight just seems to be going nowhere so he goes it alone, and find this mysterious Michelle (Emmanuelle Seigner) who is more than willing to help as she has her own interests in this.
Soon enough, they find themselves in a dangerous position, hand over what they want for Sonia, and Richard gets very nervious, and Michelle feels out of her depth.
This is an excellent movie, and a classic Roman Polanski movie. The team work well, specially Ford's character as he's genuinely worried and makes the story what it is. Michelle is also great, her moodiness and anxieties come out well. We also see John Mahoney from Frasier, which is great. His role as an official for the USA is pretty good.
The relationship between Michelle and Richard is very interesting, and makes him consider his position with Sonia, whether he's really going to stay with Michelle if everything goes wrong, and sets him a moral dilema.
The story keeps you on your feet and you find yourself begging to find out what will happen next. Even better is that it's got the come back factor, leave it for a year and come back to it, it's nearly as exciting as seeing it for the first time.
The DVD is a bit of a let down, mainly due to lack of extras but if you don't really want to see much else than the film then you'll be very happy with it. The sound and picture are pretty good, but with age and HD now in play it does look dated techincally. Still, this shouldn't put you off as it's excellent.
I was hoping for a 20th aniversary edition with loads of extras, but I doubt we'll see that!
Emmanuelle Seigner steals the whole Film., 2008-09-20
Emmanuelle Seigner (born June 22, 1966) is a César Award nominated French actress and former fashion model, best known as the wife of Academy Award winning director Roman Polanski, and for her roles in La Vie En Rose, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Frantic.
She married Polanski in 1989 which was one year after Frantic was released
and they have two children and they live in Paris.
Its one of the best Polanski Films and anyone who knows Paris will feel at Home.
Frantic does not really get going until he meets Emmanuelle Seigner and from that moment she steals the whole Film.
Only Paris can be that dangerous for American individuals, 2008-01-05
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
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