This scene looks much more exciting than it actually was.
Previously I had written that when tackling a screenplay, you should absorb as many of the great films in your chosen genre as possible. But over the weekend I learned that watching bad genre examples is equally important, if not more so.
Frantic, Roman Polanski’s 1988 “dread filled thriller” (to quote the marketing blurb), is about a doctor (Harrison Ford) visiting Paris with his wife for a medical conference. Minutes after they check into their hotel room, he takes a shower and she disappears. The rest of the movie involves Ford desperately trying to find her. Not a bad setup, right?
Apart from the fact that the film is dated within an inch of its life (Ennio Morricone, composer of such unforgettable scores as The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, phones it in with some nasty ’80s synth), it possesses numerous problems that sabotage the effectiveness of the story. Since Project Echo shares some DNA with Frantic (my main character’s daughter goes missing), it was enlightening to look deeper into the film’s inner workings.
- The audience needs to care about the main character’s motivation.
After 10 minutes Ford’s wife exits the picture and remains absent until the end. This is not enough time for the audience to care about her, and Polanski is too busy having Ford chase around Paris to remind us why Ford’s chasing around Paris. With no emotional attachment, we could care less if he finds her or not. - The bad guy needs to be really really really bad.
In these types of films, where an ordinary individual is forced to take drastic measures in order to save someone he loves, the villain needs to be scum-suckingly nasty. Think Alan Rickman in Die Hard. In Frantic the villain doesn’t even show up until the 90 minute mark, and even then he’s as impotent as a piece of rotting plywood. Watching Ford save his wife becomes dull and tedious when his adversary is a couple degrees less dangerous then Big Bird. - Pacing is everything.
Frantic is probably one of the most un-frantic films I’ve ever seen. It holds your interest for a little while, but once Ford goes about the business of actually finding his wife, things slow to a snail’s pace. He goes to the cops, the embassy, the yada yada yada. When you give the audience a mystery like a missing loved one, you have to work hard to keep the intensity up or they’ll get bored.
Lesson for the day: watch just as many bad movies as good ones. They have a lot to teach you.
23/06/2009 at 10:31 am Permalink
Evan,
I am very impressed that one movie could besmirch the good names of both Roman Polanski AND Ennio Morricone. Apparently the 80’s were not kind to Polanski — he also made the infamous Pirates!
As you know, I am intensely interested in bad movies of any kind (though this one sounds more boring-bad than sublimely-bad). Though I am not a filmmaker myself, I do find myself picking these films apart to see why they fail, both as films and as expressions of genre.
I am enjoying the blog — keep up the good work!
23/06/2009 at 11:29 am Permalink
Yeah Asher, this is a “so-bad-it’s-boring” kind of film, not a “so-bad-it’s-secretly-brilliant” kind of film. Polanski is too talented to make Rotor, but he’s certainly not above making a dud.
23/06/2009 at 2:18 pm Permalink
Yep, I totally fell asleep during this one. Woke up asking Evan, “So did he find her?” Not very frantic.
07/10/2009 at 10:22 pm Permalink
I disagree with the author of this article and the other posters who seem to have just followed what the author said. I agree with what the author of this article noticed about this movie, but I disagree that it was a failed attempt, simply because that’s the way the movie is. The movie is exactly the way it was meant to be, it was created for a certain audience and many people loved this film. The soundtrack is still being sought after by people who enjoyed the movie. It may not be for everyone but as a film, it is not a failure. Polanski has a certain cinematic and story-telling style that may not appeal to just about everyone. This movie is similar to one of his greater movies Chinatown in the way it was shot.
18/07/2010 at 9:16 am Permalink
I saw this movie last night. I too disliked the music, tho Morricone seemed to be working very hard to convey unpleasantness: rather the opposite, I’d have said, of “phoning it in”.
That said, for the purposes of this blog, the only thing actually wrong with *Frantic* is its title. That, and the fact that it clearly attracted three of the wrong viewers.
Perhaps the casting was a bit off too. Richard Walker is a man who is inexperienced with physical danger, hampered by shock and struggling to think what to do next. Having him played by action hero H. Ford is a perversity too far. It teases our expectations of what we’re not going to get.
Likewise the title. *Frantic* is actually one of Polanski’s nightmare pictures, like *Repulsion* and *The Tenant*. Its glutinous pace conveys the sense, all too familiar in our civilisation, of being helpless in the face of emergency, unable to get anyone to rescue us. The villains are elusive, almost faceless, because it’s rarely clear whose side they’re on, or what they really want, apart from the McGuffin.
Well, at least I know what Evan Derrick is going to give us. And while I wish him the best of luck – I see he has turned 30 now – I expect I’ll pass. I feel I’ve seen it countless times already. Clearly I’m not Derrick’s audience, just as he’s not Polanski’s.