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The Passenger [1975]


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best film of the 1970s?
Review date: 2007-11-02 Rating: 10 out of 10

A jaded journalist steals another man's identity & gets embroiled in arms trafficking connected to North African liberation movements.
In the early 1970s there were many attempts to fuse the European art house movie with the Hollywood thriller - The Passenger is probably the most successful example, though today it will probably appeal to art house cinephiles more than to fans of typical Jack Nicholson blockbusters.
Antonioni was never better - almost every shot & frame is extraordinary but in an unostentatious way (not always the case with Antonioni!). The entire complicated final scene seems to be filmed in one long circular take, which will have technical types wondering how it was done. The plot, narrative & dialogue are as focused as any "New Hollywood" film from the period (eg Scorcese). Jack Nicholson gives an acting masterclass - the lengthy scene where he steals the dead man's identity shows all the complex thoughts & considerations involved - but all without words. Maria Schnieder replays her Last Tango in Paris role here & Ian Hendry turns in a perfect performance (as he usually did).
The film also touches on "third world" and "post colonial" political issues in a provocatively non-judgemental way that is still relevant.
The Passenger was out of circulation in the cinema for many years for mysterious reasons & it's wonderful to have it back on this DVD, which also includes 2 commentaries from Nicholson & Peploe (but unfortunately not from Peter Wollen). I'd say The Passenger is one of the very best films of the 1970s - for me it stands up better than Last Tango...


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Reviews


You need a big screen!
Review date: 2007-08-17 Rating: 8 out of 10

I saw this in the cinema. I had no idea what to expect. It was fabulous. I loved every minute, and when I came out I felt I had been through a complete experience - i felt I had been in the cinema for days.
That's why I can understand people who are disappointed and frustrated by it. It's made for cinema, not TV, and DVD just ain't the same. I can give it only four stars - unless you've got a private Odeon in your mansion, in which case it's five.
Antonioni's films are slow, but he was the last great European filmmaker who understood the medium. In these days of push-button editing the chance for viewers to immerse themselves in long, single shots are gone, and with them the nature of the art.


How films are made
Review date: 2007-01-29 Rating: 10 out of 10

Apart from the superb film itself there are two 'commentaries' on this disc, one a run-through of the film with Jack Nicholson talking about his view of it as a masterpiece, describing some of his experiences while making the film, with some asides about Antonioni for whom he obviously has great admiration and affection. Similarly there is another run-through with the script-writer, Mark Peploe (who also wrote the original story). Though rather hesitant and understated, this is also worth-while.
For the student of film or for those of us who just love film as an art, this is an absolutely essential DVD. If the film at first seems slow and confused, stay with it, watch it again, play Nicholson's commentary. The experience will relive itself in your mind's eye with more and more understanding and pleasure.

Antonioni's musings?
Review date: 2006-11-20 Rating: 4 out of 10

Well after the Nicholson character has taken the identity of a gun runner he receives a message telling him that he may be in danger. His response is "Why is that?"

With the character being so dumb, how necessary to our lives are "Antonioni's existential musings, philosophy and a number of themes relating to identity, disatisfaction and destiny"?

Still I was impressed at how narrow were Nicholson's hips.

A Truly Flawed Masterpiece
Review date: 2006-11-17 Rating: 8 out of 10

'The Passenger'is the very essence of quiet, profound filmaking. Elliptical, incrediby ambiguous and with a noirish storyline that discards the importance of plot for the existential philosophies that such a story can open up to. Often I have wondered why such a film has been so badly neglected and forgotten (it wasn't avaliable in the UK on either VHS or DVD formats).

The story is refreshingly simple, leaving Antonioni to practically do whatever he wants with it artistically without once being restricted. Nicholson plays David Locke, a successful journalist following the story of a group of rebels in a remote North African area. Through the opening sequences we are presented with a sense of disorientation, dissatisfaction and confusion in the character (not once through conversation or voiceover but through his actions, his facial expressions, mannerisms and the importance of the vast landscapes caught through each camera shot). In the hotel room next to his he finds a man with a vague resemblance to himself dead. He assumes the man's identity and through information in the man's diary decides to pretend to be him, only later discovering the man is a gun runner dealing with some ruthless criminals. On the run from the British Embassy and the gun runners Nicholson finds himself in Spain where he meets Maria Schneider's character, an anonymous tourist who he decides can help him hide from his pursuers.

The story is fantastic, with definite space for existential musings, philosophy and a number of themes relating to identity, disatisfaction and destiny. However, it is how Antonioni is attempting to impart these messages where the film ultimately fails. The first of the two fatal flaws of 'The Passenger' is that it is trying to be too intelligent. The inclusion of London settings with Locke's wife and a whole host of posh nit-wits making a documentary on his life add nothing whatsoever to the plot and really only result in too many tedious and annoying scenes that completely ruin the mood of the film and the attachment we should be making to the protagonist. Flashbacks of Nicholson interviewing Witch doctors and rebel leaders while his wife is mincing around in the background obviously impart the estrangement between them but alienate the viewer from the story and the essence of alienation the film is ultimately attempting to impart.

Many believe Antonioni is discarding the need for plot in this film, but ultimately I believe that the mechanics of the plot he has annoyingly added have ruined what the film may have been: An absolute masterpiece. The British perspective in the film has ruined it and taken away the existential tone and the edge that extended concentration on Nicholson's character may have brought to the film.

The second flaw in the film is Nicholson's performance, but this is not actually his fault. The nitty-gritty flashbacks, the completely pretentious inclusion of footage of innocent civilians being shot etc. and the occasionally completely tedious camerawork do not give him space to establish his character. As a true devotee of Nicholson's earlier film 'Five Easy Pieces' (his finest performance in a true existentialist masterpiece), i noticed that he just didn't bring the same dimension to David Locke as he did to Robert Dupea- and yet both men are running away from something. 'Five Easy Pieces' had brooding long camera shots, scenes with little or no dialogue, and very little plot significance, but it completely draws you in and makes you feel the character's pain and tribulation. 'The Passenger' does not do this. Too many scenes slip by without any edge or emapthy, too many scenes have Maria Schneider speaking artsy drivel that is uninspired. Nicholson could really have made the film his own, but the fact is Antonioni has not granted him the privilege of simply acting. There are a few bursts of brilliant, underplayed performance towards the beginning of the film and the end (the Yugoslavian Chapel scene must also be applauded), but otherwise he wanders around stifled and asleep.

Finally, 'The Passeneger', although flawed, contains moments of incredible beauty, of technically superb direction, and it leaves you asking a huge number of questions once it has finished. The film's end left me breathless, disorientated and ever so slightly melancholy. The seven minute zoom shot with Nicholson on the bed and all of the myths that surround it (it is so completely ambiguous in plot and in message, left entirely to the viewer to decide what has happened)leave you completely in awe. Few films have ever left it to the sub-conscience and the subliminal to lead you towards the conclusion. Intelligent, ethereal, poignant and impossible. Classic.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Maria Schneider
Jenny Runacre
Jack Nicholson
Ian Hendry
Steven Berkoff

Creators:
Jack Nicholson (Primary Contributor)
Maria Schneider (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
EAN: 5035822030336
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL,
Release date: 2006-07-03
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 121 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1975
Language: Dutch (Subtitled)
Language: Finnish (Subtitled)
Language: Romanian (Subtitled)
Language: Danish (Subtitled)
Language: German (Subtitled)
Language: Hebrew (Subtitled)
Language: Greek (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: Hindi (Subtitled)
Language: Czech (Subtitled)
Language: Norwegian (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)
Language: Portuguese (Subtitled)
Language: Hungarian (Subtitled)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Bulgarian (Subtitled)
Language: Swedish (Subtitled)
Language: Arabic (Subtitled)
Language: Turkish (Subtitled)
Language: Polish (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: French (Dubbed)
Language: German (Dubbed)

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