MovieChat Forums > Frantic (1988) Discussion > Crappily directed movie

Crappily directed movie

posted 13 years ago by bobby_allen
8 replies | jump to latest

Roman Polanski could have done better. Eg. the prolonged dancing scene was crap. Would you be dancing when your wife had been kidnapped and life in danger? The scene on the roof, him stripping naked, etc were all so crappy. Overall a badly directed movie.

I only watched this movie because I like Harrison Ford.

[–] Eumenides_0 13 years ago

I loved the scene on the roof; him losing the shoes are just the sort of realism Polanski brings to traditional sequences like this.

This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] bbagnall 12 years ago

I was really looking forward to the "Polanski" stamp on this film but didn't end up enjoying it. Out of all his films, the Ninth Gate is my favorite, and I also liked the Ghost Writer. Chinatown never did anything for me and seemed overrated.

Frantic just seemed pretty dull on the whole. I know it is supposed to have that Hitchcock thing, but all the clumsily directed gun-play at the end, the horribly staged death, and then the sudden ending just seemed typical of his problems with ending his movies with any sort of authentic emotional resonance.

[–] franzkabuki 13 years ago

You bemoan the "crappy directing" and then go on only to cite (alleged) flaws that, in the way they´re presented, have got nothing to do with directing. What gives?

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] LightningLad 13 years ago

You call that dancing? I'd have certainly wanted to avoid having to talk to drunken colleagues. And maybe he was going to sell that he always sleeps in his clothes, right after a night of sex.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Mortal-Creeps-ebook/dp/B006LO3TCA

[–] mariposa-9 12 years ago

The dancing scene was an important ingredient to the plot of the film. Here he is "frantically" searching for his kidnapped wife, but he's paired with a sexy French chick. He's losing his mind searching for his wife, but can't help being aroused by this girl. Ford and Polanski brilliantly handled this dichotomy.
The dance sequence is one of the best parts of the movie. You should watch it again with an open mind. Ford does some of his best acting, ever, in that scene.

[–] spookyrat1 11 years ago

Ford does some of his best acting, ever, in that scene.

LOL!
The other poster is right. The scene drags on for about 3 minutes. It did slow the pace of the film. We'd got the message. I think you should take your own advice.

You should watch it again with an open mind.

The first half of the film is quite mysterious and compelling, but Polanski IMO isn't able to sustain the suspense into the second half after Walker meets Michelle. It increasingly gets bogged down in set pieces such as the dance sequence in a bid to finalise all the sub-plots associated with the main narrative of getting his wife back.

I think this may well have been a far better film with 15 or 20 minutes appropriately edited from the 2 hour version we see, creating a leaner film with an enhanced "Frantic" feel to it.

[–] sfrsez 12 years ago

i watched it despite of ford