FRANTIC

US, 1988, 120 minutes, Colour.
Harrison Ford, Emmanuelle Seigneur, Betty Buckley, John Mahoney.
Directed by Roman Polanski.

Frantic is an atmospheric thriller by Roman Polanski (in collaboration with Gerard Brach, with whom he has written many films). It is a return to his earlier films, films of violence and menace including Knife in the Water, Repulsion, Rosemary's Baby.

The film is set in Paris, uses the city for its atmosphere and shows it as welcoming and as sinister. Harrison Ford is an American doctor whose wife disappears. It is a case of mistiming, wrong suitcases taken, drug-runners and importers of nuclear devices.

The film is slow and moody, rather than explicitly violent and fast-paced. There is a musical score by Ennio Morricone.

1.Thriller? Atmosphere? Paris?

2.The use of the city of Paris, streets and buildings? Atmosphere, the strange yet the familiar? Action sequences? Stunt work? Musical score?

3.The title, the focus of the meaning, in action, tension? Pace?

4.The setting: the arrival of Richard and Sondra in Paris, tired, jet-lag, the flat tyre, settling into the hotel, all the details, appointments and dinner, the convention? Their easy relationship with one another? Characters and style? Shower, breakfast? The problem of the suitcase?

5.Richard Walker and his reaction to his wife's disappearance, the puzzle, questions, search, the manager and the staff, the police and his anxiety - and their irritated reaction? The bar and the drinker, the finding of the bracelet, information? The American officials and their scepticism, laughing and mockery? His reaction? To the gym and the interview with the attendant? The information?

6.His low-key response yet anxiety, the question of the suitcase, searching it, the matches and the phone number, the bar and the misunderstanding about the cocaine, going to Dede's apartment, finding him dead, the tape? Michelle, her return, their argument? Going to the airport and getting the case? His meeting his friends and their suspicion?

7.At the hotel, the police investigation, the management? His decision to lie to the police? Letting Michelle go? Following her, the interrogation in her apartment, his pretending to be her lover, the fight? On the roof, the danger, the recovery of the nuclear device? His phone calls to the Americans?

8.The American officials, their admitting the truth? Going to the club? The Arabs? The first rendezvous: the garage, the shooting, the death? The second rendezvous by the river? Confrontation, shoot-outs?

9.His anxiety for his wife? Her going past in the car? Finally reunited? Michelle, shot, dying? Richard throwing away the nuclear device?

10.The portrait of Michelle, the courier, her casual attitudes, shrewdness, greedy for money, callous in her reactions? Leading Richard around Paris, the contacts? Her death?

11.The bureaucracy, bungling style, human error?

12.A thriller of mistimings, nightmare - and the touch of nuclear war?