Written by: Michael Den Boer on December 9th, 2005
Theatrical Release Date: USA, February 26th, 1988
Director: Roman Polanski
Writers: Roman Polanski, Gérard Brach
Cast: Harrison Ford, Betty Buckley, Emmanuelle Seigner
DVD released: September 22nd, 2005
Running time: 114m56s
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Rating: 15
Sound: Dolby Digital Surround English, French and Italian
Subtitles: Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish
DVD Label: Warner Brothers
Region Coding: Region 2 PAL (UK)
Retail Price: £15.99
Discs: 1xDVD-9
The Film :
Dr. Richard Walker (Harrison Ford) and his wife Sondra are in Paris for a medical conference. Shortly after their arrival while Richard was in the shower his wife disappears without a trace. Dr. Walker decides to look for his wife when it becomes clear that the police show little interest in his wife’s disappearance. Dr. Walker befriends a young woman named Michelle who may know more then she lets on and she reluctantly helps him look for his wife.
Video:
Warner Brothers present Frantic in an anamorphic widescreen that preserves the films original aspect ratio. The colors look nicely saturated and the image looks sharp through out. This region 2 release of Frantic is a vast improvement over Warner brothers region 1 DVD for Frantic. The region 2 Frantic release has less grain and the image is stronger overall then the region 1 release of Frantic.
Audio:
This DVD comes with three audio options English, French and Italian, all three of them presented in a Dolby Digital Surround. For this review I listened to the English audio mix. The audio is clean and dialog is crisp. The music and effects sound evenly mixed. Overall the sound mix more then gets the job done. The following subtitle options come with this release Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish. The subtitles are east to read and follow.
Extras:
This DVD comes with no extras.
Overall:
Frantic is an often overlooked film when discussing the films of Roman Polanski. It is often written off as a Hitchcock clone that was made as an attempt to make a more commercial film from Polanski. Frantic even though it does have a Hitchcock style to it is more then your typical homage film. Polanski manages to infuse a great deal of his own personal style into the film and Harrison Ford’s performance is one of his best of his career. The film also boasts a solid score by the legendary Ennio Morricone. Overall Frantic is a mesmerizing thriller that pulls you in slowly and doesn’t let go until the films final haunting frames.
Warner Brothers region 2 DVD despite it lacking in extras is still the best version of Frantic currently available on DVD.