Koeferl- Frantic

Three noir elements that recur in the film Frantic are isolation, helplessness and anxiety; these elements create an impression of psychological entrapment for Richard Walker. He feels isolated because he's in a foreign country where everyone speaks a foreign language; he is an outsider. The fact that there is a language barrier between him and most people in Paris only makes him feel more helpless and alone. In a few scenes he tries desperately to communicate with strangers to find out where his wife might be. The difficulty communicating with the French compounded with his growing suspicions that something terrible has happened to his wife leads to Walker feeling very frustrated and anxious (It is only when he finds his wife's broken jewelry on the ground near the pub that he knows she has been kidnapped). The psychological entrapment that Walker feels is felt by the audience as well, because we know just as much about his wife's disappearance as he does. Walker does not encounter any life-threatening physical conflicts in the first half of the movie; it gives the illusion that nothing is really wrong, so Walker might just be paranoid. Everyone around him is living a normal day, and the first things that prove that some serious stuff is going on is the broken jewelry and Dede's dead body.


The scene involving Walker making his way into Michelle's apartment on top of the roof is a great scene, because Walker has so much trouble with his surroundings. He slides around in his loafers, so he can't move around properly, and when he takes off his shoes they just slide off the building. I found it very hard to watch this scene, because it kept getting worse and worse (I got very anxious watching everything collapse in front of him). The bag gets stuck, he tries to retrieve it, and most of the contents slide off the roof. Walker is very helpless and anxious in this scene. He could not accomplish such a simple thing as walking across a roof, and his fragile environment wasn't doing him any favors. The lighting in this scene is very bright; it is only midday. The framing is tight because although Walker is outside on a roof, he doesn't really have very much room to move around in if he wants to survive his little predicament. The roof's surface is very smooth, so he has to move very slowly using that radio pole thing he broke to help him. This is a full shot, which means it's a social shot. The purpose of this camera proxemic is to show the audience exactly what Walker's immediate surroundings are, and how dependent his life is on his next actions. This scene does an excellent job in making the audience (me, namely) feel very anxious and uncomfortable.