Cutler: Frantic

    In the thriller Frantic, Dr. Richard Walker finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare when his wife is kidnapped in Paris. There are many noir elements in this film including fear/anxiety, helplessness, and moral ambiguity. All of these elements create an intense feeling of psychological entrapment for Walker.
    When Walker's wife is kidnapped, he immediately begins the frantic search to find her. He is overcome by feelings of fear and anxiety because the worst case scenario has happened. He then feels helpless because he is in a foreign country and there's a language barrier, so it further hurts his chance of finding his wife. Also, no one believes him and the local people don't trust him because he's American. He is isolated in a foreign country. Walker realizes the moral ambiguity in the situation when he meets Michelle and learns of why his wife was kidnapped. On his search for his wife, he feels entrapped because of the bizarre circumstances. He meets Michelle who agrees to help him but she furthers adds to his fear and anxiety because she acts as a femme fatale and temptress.

In this picture, the framing places Walker as the central figure because he is in the foreground. He is more dominant than Michelle indicating that he has taken control of the situation. For most of the film, Michelle adds to Walker's entrapment because she is difficult. This scene at the end of the film shows that Walker is dominant and has taken control of the situation and no longer feels trapped by the femme fatale. She is one of the main sources of the moral ambiguity aspect of the film, so this scene shows that Walker has risen above that and will finally be reunited with his missing wife. 

Kuebler-Frantic

In this film we see Harrison Ford in a different role than accustomed. While he is still the hero there is a sense of mortality to his character and fear. He is a normal man who is trapped in Paris looking for his wife who has been kidnapped for reasons he is unaware of until later.

This movie uses many noir elements and to touch on three of them only breeches the tip of the iceberg. In this movie we see suspense, oblique lighting, and of course the femme fatale. Each scene throughout this movie is more tense than the next situation and as he goes deeper into the underworld we find that he is becoming more and more trapped. The deeper he goes into the world the darker the movie gets in terms of lighting. Lastly, the femme fatale finds her way into every aspect of this movie even when trying to run away she only brings Dr. Walker deeper into the underworld. By the end of the movie Walker has turned away from the law and the light and embraced the darkness of this underworld and becomes trapped. It is not until the climax in which the femme fatale is shot and Walker has his wife back that he truly departs from this entrapment. Until this point he has traveled too deep into the darkness and followed a woman that he learns to depend on and protect. He was unable to walk away from this situation due to guilt, heroics, and a sense of morality and care for his wife. all of these elements provide excellent reasons for psychological entrapment.



This pictures gives an amazing mise en scene. Harrison Ford is well lit while the femme fatale in the background is shrouded in darkness; showing their true natures and giving an idea where the dimension of the movie will turn. The lighting gives us an idea about the characters. The woman is the focus of this pictures because our eyes are drawn to the center of the picture and her eyes pierce through the darkness surrounding her. The tight and small frame of this pictures shows that these characters are intertwined and unable to separate until the very end. Lastly, the personal and intimate nature of this picture shows that there will be some tension between these characters and future pain between them due to the good and dark nature of the two heros.

Ruffino-Frantic

Almost everything in this shot has a dark lighting which shows the dismal and uneasy feeling of the movie, but the highlight of the shot is Michelle's hand resting on Walkers chest and his hand grasping her wrist going to move it that is what the director wants the audience to focus on. Walkers face is serious and apprehensive, while Michelle's is calm and alluring. This shot is a perfect representation of the sexual tension that is seen throughout the movie between these two. The camera proximity is social which is appropriate because it makes this moment less intense as opposed to the option of having a close up on their hands. The frame is a mix between loose and tight Michelle's side of the shot has a little room showing that she is in a position to move about. While Walkers side of the shot has him partially cut out showing that he is trapped and has no place to go. So this shot perfectly shows one of the most important elements of his psychological entrapment, sexual tension.

Polanski made Frantic into a perfect noir nightmare, the psychological thriller shows many aspects of noir elements such as violence, fear, anxiety, isolation, moral ambiguity, disorientation, loneliness, and sexual tension. All of these elements help produce the sense of entrapment that Dr. Walker must be feeling. These are the feelings and actions that lead Richard to feel a sense of responsibility for both Michelle and his Wife. They are the reason why he keeps putting himself in potentially life threatening situations from which he cannot safely remove himself.

Michelle, is such an important part of this movie she plays the role of the femme fatal supporting sexual tension as well as the sense of moral ambiguity. She is the temptress for Dr. Walker ,even though he loves his wife which he shows in his desperation to find her,. Her appeal is obviously one of sexuality, she is extremely attractive and she is very tempting but there is more to it. I think that Walker identifies with her because she is lost as well. I feel like this appeals to Walker because he is lonely himself in an unfamiliar place which leads to his feelings of loneliness and disorientation. Walker is forced to deal with her troubles as well as the sexual tension she creates, which makes everything more interesting to say the least. And she does not make the task of finding his wife any easier but he takes her in simply because she literally refuses to leave his side. which all adds to the feeling of entrapment.

Dr. Richard Walker is very far from home, he can not communicate because he does not know how to speak the language, and his wife is missing. This is a scenario built to make one feel disoriented. Firstly he is in a foreign country he does not know the area so this present the obstacle of not knowing where to begin which is overwhelming in itself. This also adds on to his mounting anxiety about his wife who he has lost and is on a mission to find. She was his lifeline she spoke French and knew the agenda so every time something goes wrong or he doesn’t know how to communicate it is just another reminder that his wife is gone and he is alone. He realizes that he has been thrown into a world where no one cares about his privilege and no one is going to give him any special treatment. He is in Paris and he knows no French, this adds on to his sense of isolation and helplessness. This also shows you how his feelings of entitlement is very important in his feeling of disorientation as well. He goes into another country not knowing the native tongue but expecting people to understand him. He quickly learns though the this will not be the case. All of these elements lead to Dr. Walkers extreme feelings of psychological entrapment. Leaving him anxious, isolated, and alone.

Madere - Frantic

In his film Frantic, Roman Polanski uses many elements of noir to create the setting for Harrison Ford's distressed search for his wife. From the opening credits of the film, Polanski sets up the noir feeling of Frantic. The credits roll as though they are cars traveling on a busy highway, first appearing large and becoming smaller and smaller the further down the road they get. This and the opening scene with Harrison Ford's character Dr. Walker and his wife traveling in the cab gives ample opportunity to show the cityscape of Paris. This element, also known as the city in decline, portrays Paris as a seedy character of its own in the film. It also shows how Paris, especially given that Harrison Ford's character is an American who doesn't speak French well, adds to the element of psychological entrapment.

Another noir element employed by Polanski is the use of not only suspense, but helpless suspense. Once Harrison Ford's character steps out of the shower to find his wife gone, he is at a loss of how to address the situation. He begins the film-long search for her by wandering around the hotel looking for her, then by asking the hotel staff if they'd seen her. Finally, he ventures outside of the hotel to ask people if they might have seen anything. After finding a piece of his wife's jewelry, Dr. Walker seems unable to determine what his next move should be. He instinctively knows his wife is in danger, yet he doesn't know how he should go about looking for her. This theme follows throughout the film--with Dr. Walker helplessly grasping at straws and finding himself in dangerous situations while he tries to figure out what happened to his wife and how to get her back.

Still another noir element in Frantic is the femme fatale, embodied by the character Michelle. Everything about Michelle, from her heavy eye make-up to her leather clothing to her involvement in drugs as both an abuser and a mule, reveals her femme fatale status. She agrees to help Dr. Walker for her own selfish reasons as is constantly shown with her demands to get paid for her work transporting the bomb. It isn't until the scene in the cafe with the police from the embassy that she truly shows herself as a trustworthy ally.
The scene where Dr. Walker meets Michelle is particularly noir-ish. The lighting in the scene is dim, with highlights on the door and the murdered DeDe. Even the characters in the scene, Michelle and Dr. Walker, are obscured by the dim lighting. This scene is significant because it is the first time Dr. Walker comes into real contact with violence in the film and the dim lighting with the murder highlighted shows the significance of this fact, as well as foretells of more violence still to come in the search for Mrs. Walker. The camera proxemic of this scene is social, so as to reveal both Dr. Walker and Michelle in the scene, as well as the dark hallway and staircase in which the scene takes place (and the initial struggle between Dr. Walker and Michelle) and DeDe's murder. Again, the camera proxemic serves as foreshadowing: Dr. Walker and Michelle have fallen into a dark world and more darkness is to follow with violence accompanying it, and there will continue to be somewhat of a struggle between Michelle and Dr. Walker in the film. The relatively loose framing of the scene gives the characters some space to move around. This shows that both of them have choices in the film--Dr. Walker has the choice to stay true to his morals and not sink too far down in the dark world to achieve his goal and Michelle has the choice to be trustworthy, to work loyally with Dr. Walker, and to act for reasons that are less selfish and prompted by instant gratification. The framing is not too loose, however, revealing the fact that Dr. Walker and Michelle are not completely in control of how the story will play out from there on; they are somewhat at the mercy of Mrs. Walker's kidnappers.

Bloo - Frantic

‘’Do you know where you are?’’ This is what Sondra Walker says to her husband Dr. Richard Walker as they drive from the airport to their Paris hotel. They are in Paris to attend a medical convention. These words foreshadow the feelings of displacement that Ford’s character will experience. After they have checked into their hotel, Dr. Richard Walker takes a shower and in those few minutes his wife disappears. This disappearance and a confusion between two identical pieces of luggage leads Ford into the Paris underground.

Polanski makes us of several noir elements in the film namely isolation, helplessness, and the femme fatale. When Sondra has vanished, Richard leaves the hotel to search for his wife. Through his wife disappearance, Richard must step out of his comfort zone, which is shown when he decides to search the hotel lobby. The camera follows Richard from a distance so that he looks slightly diminished and out of his element. Isolation and helplessness are also shown when he wanders into a flower shop and tries to explain to the people who work there about his wife. However, they don’t speak English and can’t help him. This is an example of the isolation and helplessness he feels since his wife was the one who arranged everything for him and she spoke French. Another example is when he goes to the local cops and the American Embassy but neither are much help. We see how Walker struggles in Paris, unable to speak French, disoriented, and unable to convince anyone that his wife has been kidnapped, this creates the feeling of isolation. Along his way in search of his wife, he meets Michelle, a mysterious young woman who picked up Sondra’s suitcase. She is the femme fatale in this film. She is constantly tempting him and as the classic temptress she dies at the end of the film.

In this scene, we see Richard Walker standing in a parking lot. The lighting is low key which creates a suspense except for his face which expresses worry and anxiety. The camera proxemics for this scene is social, we see him standing alone in the parking lot which refers to the isolation he feels. The framing is loose which shows that he eventually will overcome his entrapment.

Lazo - Frantic

Roman Polanski's Frantic contains elements noir to ratchet up the tension and suspense as Richard Walker searches for his missing wife. These noir elements include paranoia, helplessness, and isolation. Dr. Walker's paranoia is the most obvious element. No one believes his wife has been kidnapped; the hotel employees, the French police, and embassy workers all think Walker is overreacting and paranoid.

Dr. Walker's helplessness and isolation go hand-in-hand. He is isolated by the fact that no one believes him, and he is on his own. He is also isolated by his surroundings. He's stuck in Paris, and he can't speak French - he has no means to truly communicate. He is an outsider. Who wouldn't feel helpless in these circumstances? His intense helplessness and isolation all tie in well with his paranoia. He seems paranoid, which alienates him (another noir element) from authorities who could help; isolated and alone as a result, Walker feels helpless in his predicament.

This picture doesn't have any piece particularly lit better than the rest. The brightest spots are the lights down the hallway and the doorway Walker is standing in, perhaps representing the desperate choice of how to handle his wife's disappearance. As a result, the framing is fairly loose, allowing Walker to move down that hallway should he choose to. The shot is personal, clearly showing the confusion and worry on Walker's face, but is not so close as to exclude the look down the hallway. Walker's expression shows much of his helplessness and isolation. The paranoia is soon to follow.

Morris- Frantic

In Frantic, Harrison Ford plays an American in Paris whose wife goes missing. Because of the culture difference, no one seems to believe she has been taken, leaving Ford's character Dr. Richard Walker to find her on his own, leaving him "Frantic".
This movie has several elements of film noir including anxiety, isolation and helplessness, especially in the scene where Walker goes through the suitcase. The wrong suitcase that his wife ended up with is the only clue that he has to where his wife is, so he goes through it.
This scene is in the beginning of the movie after he has found his wife's bracelet so he knows she has been taken. Also, he is the only one that believes finding her bracelet is a clue to her disappearance. He is isolated as an outsider, isolated in his belief that his wife was kidnapped and isolated in his room. He is anxious, and does the only thing he can think of, break into the suitcase and look for clues. He is helpless, and needs to find something to do to find his wife.
This is an example of psychological entrapment because he is doing things that he would not normally do. He rifles through a stranger's bag because he is desperate to find clues. Going through the suitcase leads him to the Blue Parrot, and on the trail to finding his wife.

In this scene, the key lighting suggests the suspense within the scene. The framing is tight on Walker and the suitcase, and the camera proxemics is close to the subject. This all suggests how Walker is in a psychological entrapment.

Frady - Frantic

Polanski uses a mixture of noir elements to enhance the suspense and tension in his film, Frantic. Among these elements, paranoia, helplessness/alienation, and sexual tension are the most prominent. These three things give this film an overall sense of "franticness."

Dr. Walker, upon discovering his wife missing, can be accurately described as paranoid. The hotel employees, the police, and even the Americans at the embassy all think he's being too paranoid. However, as the saying goes, just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you. Dr. Walker's paranoia pays off when it leads him to find out what really happened to his wife.

The main contributing factor to Dr. Walker's sense of helplessness and alienation is the setting. He's been to Paris only once before, about twenty years ago, and he doesn't speak French. He has no support system here, as his only countrymen are largely impotent and don't really take him seriously anyway. His wife was his lifeline, and she's gone, so he is forced to turn on his American inflated sense of self-importance, and huffily demand help from any and all authorities. When this fails, he has to realize that he can really only get things done if he does them himself. Even Michelle isn't much help, as she needs saving on a few different occasions, and ultimately proves to be disloyal and self-absorbed.

Speaking of Michelle, she provides the third important noir aspect of this film: sexual tension. As the film's femme fatale, Michelle constantly tempts Dr. Walker with her lithe sexuality and damsel-in-distress attitude. She plays a young and naive stand-in for Sondra Walker, constantly testing his faithfulness and resolve. It's no wonder that she had to die at the end, as his burgeoning feelings for her would likely complicate marital relations in the future.

The brightly lit hallway retreating into the background shows many doors, suggesting the uncertainty of Dr. Walker's situation. The fact that he's naked and not finished shaving, along with the puzzled/worried look on his face suggests his helplessness and alienation. He's in the foreground, close to the camera, but not centered, in a loose frame. He is free to pursue his wife, but he doesn't know where to begin looking for her.

Torres - Frantic

In the movie Frantic Harrison Ford plays Dr. Richard Walker, a rather successful American doctor who has been thrown into a very noir nightmare. The movie is a psychological thriller that contains several noir elements, including moral ambiguity, fear, anxiety, paranoia, violence, sexual tension, and the feelings of entrapment, helplessness, and isolation. The use of a femme fatal figure, Michelle, supplies the moral ambiguity and sexual tension. Although Dr. Walker loves his wife and is desperate to find her, he is forced to keep the company of a young woman who cares more about having fun and getting her money than anything else. Because she refuses to leave his side, Michelle provides a source of psychological entrapment by forcing Dr. Walker to deal with her antics and the sexual tension her presence creates, which doesn't exactly make finding his wife any easier. A sense of betrayal (especially by authority figures) provides the film with paranoia, fear and anxiety. Dr. Walker feels let down by the police force's lack of seriousness about his situation, and even the American embassy is unable to sufficiently help him. He is let down by everyone and forced to do the investigating himself. This feeling of having no one to turn to for help certainly contributes to the feeling of psychological entrapment. Also, being in Paris and unable to speak or understand French puts Dr. Walker at a serious disadvantage, as well as supplies the film with anxiety and a sense of isolation and helplessness. Being unable to understand people on the street or ask them questions is enough to make anyone feel isolated and trapped.

This scene exemplifies the entrapment felt be Dr. Walker. For the most part, the lighting is low key, except for a harsh highlight at the top of the frame. This shows the dismal situation that he is in; knowing that his wife has been kidnapped, that the police won't take him seriously or help him, not knowing how to contact the kidnappers after the first failed attempt at an exchange, etc. The framing is tight, as Dr. Walker's own body works as a barricade, taking up about 1/3 of the frame. He is both trapped in the frame and in the mirror, with only a very small possible escape route to the right. This greatly emphasizes the psychological aspect of the entrapment as he is literally confronting himself in this situation. This scene also shows that Dr. Walker is not entirely blameless in this situation. Just as he is blocking himself from escaping in this scene, he has also hindered himself in his situation by not learning French before going to a French speaking country (or at least carrying a pocket dictionary) and by ignoring his wife while he was taking a shower. The camera proxemics are personal, revealing just his face and upper torso. This reiterates the confrontation he is having with himself as well as shows the viewer his seriousness and emotions by making the focus his face. The camera proxemics also help to box him into the frame, further emphasizing his entrapment.