Three-time O(r)-winner Jack Nicholson (Best Actor, As Good As
It Gets - 1997, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - 1975; Best
Supporting Actor, Terms of Endearment - 1983) and iconic screen
beauty Maria Schneider (Last Tango in Paris) star in THE
PASSENGER, a cinematically brilliant romantic thriller written
and directed by O(r)-winning filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni
1995 Honorary Award (Blow Up, L'Avventura). When a fellow
traveler dies suddenly, burned-out journalist David Locke (Jack
Nicholson) assumes his identity. Using the dead man's datebook as
a guide, Locke travels throughout Europe and Africa, taking
meetings with dangerous runners and falling for a beguiling
young woman (Marie Schneider). But his exciting newfound freedom
carries a eful price as Locke realizes he is in over his head.
Featuring a tour-de-force performance by Nicholson, THE PASSENGER
won the Bodil Award in 1976 for Best European Film and was
nominated for the Golden Palm at the 1975 Cannes Fi
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The Passenger is one of those movies that is all about the vision
of the director, in this case, screen legend Michelangelo
Antonioni. Starring none other than Jack Nicholson, and featuring
a plot billed as an international romantic thriller, The
Passenger defies expectations by turning the genre on its head,
making the characters and the story secondary to theme and tone.
London-based Journalist David Locke (Nicholson) is working in
North Africa when a fellow traveler by the name of David
Robertson, who looks remarkably like him, happens to die
suddenly. Burned out and depleted, Locke decides to assume the
dead mans identity, drops everything, and starts again as a new
man with a new life. With no idea of who Robertson was or what he
did for a living, Locke uses Robertsons datebook as a guide as
he travels through Europe and Africa, takes meetings with people
he finds out are runners, and ends up falling for a beautiful
young woman (Maria Schneider). As Robertson, David Locke thinks
he has found an exhilirating new freedom, but the fact is he's in
over his head: there are people looking for him and his life
could be in danger.
The movie is a thriller in structure only. While designed for
suspense, its just a premise for Antonioni to explore on themes
of identity, humankinds seemingly futile relationship to the
world around us, and isolation. For Antonioni, the action is the
means by which the image unfolds, and not the other way around.
The actors and the plot are set pieces, simply smaller means to a
larger end, and the image and atmosphere supersede all else. A
slow pace, long, lingering s, a focus on emptiness, and a
detached, almost brutally objective point of view are the
trademarks on full display here. Especially notable is the
stunning seven-minute long in the final scene, one of the
most famous in cinema history, which Nicholson, in his
commentary, tags as an "Antonioni joke." It caps a crowning
achievement by one of the big screens most visionary directors.
On the DVD:
The commentaries are most definitely welcome guides, and those
looking for a way into the movie and into Antonionis head will
really enjoy them. Jack Nicholson provides one commentary track
where he generously shares his memories of the shoot, his
thoughts on the movie thirty years on, and lets out the secret of
how they managed to get the camera through the bars on the window
for that seven-minute in the last scene. On the second
commentary track, journalist Aurora Irvine and screenwriter Mark
Peploe offer more of a wide-angle lens view of the movie and its
place in history. Both are inful narrativesNicholsons is
particularly enjoyable--and make excellent additions to the DVD.
--Daniel Vancini