frantic ( france-usa , 1988 ) * * * 1/2 directed by roman polanski . written by polanski and gerard brach . cinematography , witold sobocinski . editing , sam o'steen . production design , pierre guffroy . music , ennio morricone . produced by thom mount and tim hampton . cast : harrison ford , emmanuelle seigner , john mahoney , betty buckley , jimmie ray weeks , yorgo voyagis , david huddleston , gerard klein , et al . a warners release . 120 minutes . rated r . >from its first shots , frantic generates and keeps up such terrific suspense that it makes most ( if not all ) other thrillers of the 80s taste like porridge . the suspense is deliberate , slow , stretched out in an utterly commonplace atmosphere --and it is exceptionally effective . san francisco doctor walker ( harrison ford ) arrives in paris , with his wife sondra ( betty buckley , ) for a medical convention , with a bit of tax-exempt sightseeing on the side and a second honeymoon away from the kids . they are exhausted by the long trip and jet-lag . on the " peripherique " -- the belt-road around paris-- their taxi has a flat . even this red herring happening carries suspense . they later totter into the grand hotel . the bleary-eyed couple of generic american tourists are dutifully determined to start their stay with croissants and a roll in bed . but bed and breakfast are not to be . while ford is showering noisily , with gleeful anticipation of things to come , the phone rings and his wife answers . when the man steps out of the shower , the lady has vanished . you' re made to feel all along that something ominous is going to happen , but since you don't know what this might be , every moment , object and tiny event is laden with suspense . director polanski has assimilated better than any other filmmaker the techniques of alfred hitchcock , where the most common thing could be uncommon , where the blandest face could become sinister , where the extraordinary lies within the ordinary . later , polanski also pays additional , discreet homage to the master in ways that hitchcockians will spot -- from the ironic use of the statue of liberty to a rooftop scene . but there's a difference in attitudes . hitchcock mocks gently both his principals and their entourage , while polanski practices a restrained irony only on the surrounding people and places . he is entirely serious about his protagonist harrison ford . tension mounts unrelentingly as ford goes from puzzlement to questions in the lobby , from fruitless inquiries on the spot to the police station , then to the us . embassy . finally he is forced to embark on his own , desperate , frantic search . every imaginable frustration stands in his way , and every stumbling- block is genuine and observed with sardonic precision --even black humor -- by the script and its execution . ford speaks no french and is at the mercy of the good will of interpreters . the hotel personnel is amiable but skeptical : wives have been known to fly the coop -- not a big deal in france . the familiar quirks and annoyances of daily life in paris add to the difficulties --like people on the phone who don't want to be disturbed and hang up . complicating ford's miseries are the peculiar , private and official gallic attitudes toward any problem . compounding this are their specific attitudes toward americans , whom they see as un-cartesian , unsophisticated simpletons . underlying that is the familiar , slightly sadistic pleasure ( which the entire planet shares ) in getting back at the yanks who have had it so good for so long . let the americans stew . the cops treat ford with haughty superiority . the american embassy people -- once the breathless ford has run through the gauntlet of security measures-- are cold , indifferent and unhelpful . the doctor is on his own , in a paris shown with superb calculation and naturalness , neither as gay paree nor as an artificially sinister metropolis . against all odds , ford --who ought to be distracted to perdition with worry -- somehow keeps his wits . taking his main clue from a wrong suitcase , the harassed , dead-tired husband doggedly follows it and becomes involved in a nightmarish investigation . it leads him to odd but very real places , and to fringe people . among them stands out a black-leather young woman , michelle ( emmanuelle seigner ) . she's sexy , with long legs that polanski's camera caresses with low-angle shots , but ford does not . the film is smart . it gives you some of the conventions of " film noir " but it does not get into all-out cliches . the girl 's erotic presence is palpable ( her dancing is like vertical copulation ) , but this is not used as a distraction or a love interest . keeping up mercilessly the suspense of the search is what matters . there does come a point where some filmic overkill sets in --and i mean this more figuratively than literally-- where , in plot twists and in persons introduced , too much is too much , especially by the standards of alfred hitchcock who would have built up developments more soberly while he would have kept going with character development . ( that's why i think of the construction of his pictures as " clean . " ) even so , the first part of frantic is masterly , the second part confident of itself , and the third , in spite of its gimmickry , still has some good touches . harrison ford , a true professional whose talent and versatility tend to be forgotten because of his han solo and indiana jones roles , confirms here the appeal of his unpretentiousness . newcomer emmanuelle seigner gets off to a pretty indecent start . she's the granddaughter of the legendary louis seigner , star of the comedie francaise . the supporting cast , especially the hotel and police people , are perfect in their realism : the more you know france the better those actors are . polanski chose them and directed them with impressive precision . roman polanski was born in paris in 1933 of polish-jewish parents who returned to poland three years later . soon after came the occupation by the nazis , the persecution of jews and the deportation of his family to death camps . roman , who had escaped the germans , survived . later he studied and made films in poland , became famous . a cosmopolitan who knew well big cities , he used them in his works with moody authenticity : london in repulsion , paris in the tenant , new york in rosemary's baby , los angeles in chinatown . the production values of frantic are outstanding . polanski surrounded himself with a who's who of collaborators . french scenarist ( and director ) gerard brach worked here with polanski for the ninth time . among his fifty-odd screenplays are the two of us ( " le vieil homme et l'enfant " ) , quest for fire , the name of the rose , jean de florette , manon of the spring , maria's lovers . editor sam o'steen had already three oscar nominations ( who's afraid of virginia woolf ? , chinatown , silkwood ) . designer pierre guffroy had won two oscars ( tess , the discreet charm of the bourgeoisie ) . composer ennio morricone is a legend in his field . director of photography sobocinski , a polish collaborator of andrzej wajda , proved again what an incredible source of great cinematographers poland is , especially the film school at lodz , polanski's alma mater . curiously , this is the second movie called " frantic , " at least in english . the first ( called in france elevator to the gallows ) was also a thriller , also made in france , also set in paris . it was one of the very first works of the french new wave , and the first fiction feature by louis malle , who , curiously , as in the case of polanski , was one of the few european filmmakers to be very successful with the pictures that they made in america . oddly , except for a small , faithful following , frantic has been underrated and paid little attention to from the time of its release on . " le mauvais gout mene au crime " ( stendhal ) edwin jahiel's movie reviews are at <a href= " http : //www . prairienet . org/ejahiel " >http : //www . prairienet . org/ejahiel</a> 
