Henry, Frantic

Frantic is a thriller is there ever was one. Well it is an okay movie. This movie, with Harrison Ford of course, involves a lot of nior elements. Theses elements emphasize a lot of cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Dr. Walker and his wife go on a trip to Paris, “the city of love” supposedly, and his wife gets kidnapped. All because they picked up the wrong bag, and then everything goes down hill from there. The noir elements in this movie are sexual tension, anxiety, fear, and helplessness. Helplessness plays a major role. First of all, he is in a country that he has not visited in twenty years; therefore it is completely foreign to him at this point. He does not speak the language and hardly knows the customs. His only sense of a connection was his wife, but she is gone. As the film progresses, sexual tension comes into play and it hits Dr. Walker extremely hard. This is where Michelle comes into play and tempts Dr. Walker on several occasions as she also plays the role of a damsel in distress. However, Dr. Walker loves his wife which is demonstrated when frantically trying to find her, he is also tempted by Michelle. Another noir element in this film is fear. Fear is the name of the game. Fear that he will not find is wife, fear if conquering foreign soil and fear of Michelle, which brings a lot of moral ambiguity into the film. The scene that exemplifies entrapment is the scene with Michelle and Dr, Walker on the ledge. This is so interesting because they have to count on each other. At this point one cannot abandon the other; of course this is by obligation not free will. The lighting in this scene is pretty bright and focused on the center, yet characters have room to make adjustments. But on Michelle’s face it is a bit tainted, but in the beginning it was a little bright. Yet, the shadow does come from her hair, I think this gives a little sex to this part of this scene. I wonder why this is so. The camera proxemics is personal because of the handholding. Harrison Ford does it again.