Frantic (film)

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Frantic
Frantic movie poster
Directed by	Roman Polanski
Produced by	Tim Hampton Thom Mount
Written by	Roman Polanski Gérard Brach
Starring	Harrison Ford Betty Buckley John Mahoney introducing Emmanuelle Seigner
Music by	Ennio Morricone
Cinematography	Witold Sobocinski
Editing by	Sam O'Steen
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	February 26, 1988
Running time	120 minutes
Language	English, French
IMDb profile

Frantic is a noted 1988 thriller film directed by Roman Polanski and starring Harrison Ford.

1 Synopsis
2 Reception
3 Cultural references
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Harrison Ford plays Dr. Richard Walker, a surgeon visiting Paris with his wife for a medical conference. At their hotel his wife is unable to open her suitcase and Walker tells her she has picked up the wrong one at the airport. While Walker is taking a shower his wife mysteriously disappears from their hotel room. Still jet-lagged, he searches for her in the hotel with the help of a polite but mostly indifferent staff, then wanders outside to look further on his own. A street person overhears him in a cafe and tells Walker he saw his wife being forced into a car. Walker is skeptical until he finds his wife's ID bracelet on the cobblestones. He contacts the US embassy and the Paris police but their responses are bureaucratic and there is little hope anyone will look for her. As Walker carries on the search himself (with input from a very sympathetic but wary desk clerk at the hotel) he stumbles onto a murder scene and then the streetwise young woman (Emmanuelle Seigner) who mistakenly picked up his wife's suitcase at the airport. This begins his frantic attempt, with the young woman's help, to learn what was in the switched suitcase and trade whatever it was for his wife's life.

The French locations and Ennio Morricone's musical score create much of the film's atmosphere. Grace Jones' recording of "I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)" is heard at key moments in the movie.

[edit] Reception

Frantic was a critical success and moderately successful at the boxoffice. The film received "Two Thumbs Up" from Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert on the TV show Siskel & Ebert and The Movies^[1] Pat Collins of WWOR TV called it "Polanski's best film ever."^[2]

[edit] Cultural references

Frantic was mentioned in the Barenaked Ladies' song "One Week" and also referenced in Mos Def's "Ms. Fat Booty" from Black on Both Sides. The song "Frantic" by Aqueduct has both a "Roman Polanski Version" and an instrumental "Harrison Ford Version".