FILM REVIEW: The Passenger (1975)
The Passenger (USA, 1975)
Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni
Starring Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry
There is an argument put forward by film theorists that today's audiences are incapable of appreciating older films. The saturation of our culture with music videos and the internet creates a natural impatience, which carries over into cinema through increasingly rapid editing and flashier cinematography. This causes the simplification of imagery and the symbols which lie behind them, and the whole process begins feeding on itself until we are all infantilised.Notwithstanding its inherent arrogance towards the cinema-going public, this theory is flawed because it is based upon a nostalgic assumption about older films. Contrary to its assumptions, potentially great films are often reduced to being merely good or very good, not by shortcomings in their audience but in the difficult attitude they take towards presenting their ideas. The Passenger is a typical example, being a revered classic which is indeed very good, but whose flaws are easy to acknowledge and prevent it from ever being great.The Passenger is Michelangelo Antonioni's third and final feature in the English language, the others being Blow-Up and Zabriskie Point. Like many of his films, it explores the issue of alienation, specifically of characters feeling isolated and out of place in the world around them. But where Zabriskie Point attempts this analysis with an entire generation, embodied by the two students who make love in the desert, The Passenger is a lot more focussed, more personal and ultimately more successful.The film explores the extent to which a single act or idea can alter an individual's life, using the trading of identities as a means to explore existential disillusionment. When we first meet David Locke, expertly played by Jack Nicholson, he is bored of his life, bored of his work and desperate to escape to somewhere where no-one can find him. He trades identities with the dead man in the next room believing that he can start his life over, without any baggage or responsibilities: for once he can live the way he wants, for as long as he wants.
Having taken on this mantle, and changed from Locke to Robertson, our leading man quickly finds himself in dangerous circumstances worthy of any thriller. The scene in the church, in which Nicholson bluffs his way through a meeting with the men he is supplying with arms, is reminiscent of Richard Hannay during the political meeting in The 39 Steps. Both characters have to think on their feet to convince the world that they are someone else, making all decisions and giving all answers based purely on impulse and guesswork.But unlike John Buchan's novel, or any of the film versions that followed, the thrills in The Passenger are much more internalised. There is a thriller-like plot, both in Locke's new identity as a gun runner and in the efforts of his director and wife to track him down. But these elements have to take equal billing to the existential thrust of the film, which is interested in identity and the internalised conflicts of the central character. The film manages to balance the two very well, giving us enough moments of jeopardy and near-misses to keep the less patient among us interested.The central idea of The Passenger is that all men (and possibly women) are bound by the same doubts, fears and anxieties. Assuming a new identity is not a feasible means to escape from oneself, no matter how methodically one goes about it. On the one hand, 'Robertson' finds himself bound to supply guns which he cannot possibly deliver; the second he takes the down-payment in the church, he becomes a wanted man. On the other hand, elements of Locke in his previous life begin to encroach, as his initial enthusiasm begins to give way to melancholy, cynicism, and finally an all-encompassing sense of futility.
The key scene in The Passenger comes in the last ten minutes, where Locke and The Girl are in hiding in a hotel, knowing full well that the former will soon be killed. Locke relates a story of a blind man who regains his sight: the man was initially elated, but this vision exposed him to the horrors of the world which he could previously only imagine, and he ended up a recluse who committed suicide. This is the nub of the film: what seems like a chance to escape the world and see it with new eyes only leads to greater suffering. Ultimately all we can do is accept our status as passengers, unable to influence the mechanics of this world and fully mindful that whatever we do, death will always catch up with us.This outlook is furthered by Antonioni's direction, which highlights how small and helpless the characters are. Whether they are crawling through the desert or in the busy streets of an inner city, the central characters are presented from a distance, insignificant in the face of all around them. Even in its most romantic moment, when it appears that Locke and the girl have made love, the camera keeps its distance, peering through the doorway when other directors would have taken us up close and personal. The film is beautifully shot with washed-out colours and a series of interesting camera angle.The most famous of these is the penultimate scene, a seven-minute tracking shot which is both a technical showcase (predating the Steadicam) and a poetic means to bring the story to a close. As Locke lights up a cigarette and lies down on the bed, the camera moves slowly forward through the bars of the window, out into the square, follows the movements of several characters before turning around and drifting back in to find Locke dead. This is Locke's soul taking flight, finally escaping from this world into something new, and taking one last look at what he is leaving behind.
For all its virtues, The Passenger is not without its faults. Even to those familiar with Antonioni's style, or more general trends in European filmmaking, the film is very, very slow and around half an hour too long. Because the emphasis is so much on emotion rather than plot, its story could have been handled in 90 minutes without losing any impact, whether visually or emotionally. Antonioni's languorous shooting style with long slow takes and almost no soundtrack can seem pretentious on occasion, albeit not so much that we lose all interest in what is happening.
The other problem with The Passenger is the sense of distance involved. Just as, in the words of David Lynch, the artist needn't suffer to show suffering, so the audience shouldn't necessary be alienated during a film about alienation. Like the work of Tom Kalin, The Passenger keeps its audience at arms' length, not out of coyness about its subject matter, but because that seems the natural way to tell the story. And as with Swoon or Savage Grace, this decision may be the right one, but it makes connecting with the characters more difficult, putting the entire story in jeopardy.The Passenger is an intriguing and haunting work whose influence on modern cinema continues, as seen by its substantial presence in Anton Corbijn's The American. Jack Nicholson is on good form, albeit not quite as good as in Chinatown, and the film is recommended viewing for anyone interested in European cinema. For all its faults and bits that drag, there is a slow-burning profundity to it, which keeps it an enticing and memorable experience for generations to come.
Rating: 4/5
Verdict: A haunting and intriguing slow-burner
Written by
Daniel Mumby |
Saturday, February 05, 2011
|
Labels:
Anton Corbijn,
Art Films,
Chinatown,
Daniel,
Film Reviews,
Michelangelo Antonioni,
The American,
The Passenger,
Thriller
|
- (500) Days of Summer
- 3 for the Price of 1
- 3D
- 90 minutes
- A Canterbury Tale
- A Good Year
- A Shot in the Dark
- A Single Man
- Abel Ferrara
- About me
- About Schmidt
- Acoustic
- Action-Adventure
- Adaptation
- Agnieszka Holland
- Airplane
- Alan J. Pakula
- Alan Parker
- Alan Watts
- Album Review
- Alejandro Amenabar
- Alexander Payne
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Alice in Wonderland
- Alien
- Alien 3
- Alien Resurrection
- Aliens
- All The President's Men
- Alnwick Academy of Dance
- Alnwick Playhouse
- Alnwick Theatre Club
- Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who
- An Education
- Andrew Brett Hayes
- Andrew Stanton
- Angel Heart
- Animation
- Anime
- Anton Corbijn
- Apocalypse Now
- Apollo 13
- Art Films
- Asif Kapadia
- Avatar
- B-Movie
- Back to the Future
- Bad Lieutenant
- Barry Lyndon
- Basic Instinct
- Batman
- Batman and Robin
- Batman Begins
- Batman Forever
- Batman Returns
- Battenberg
- Battle of Britain
- Battleship Potemkin
- Be Kind Rewind
- Belleville Rendezvous
- Ben Wheatley
- Bernard Rose
- Big Trouble in Little China
- Biopic
- Black Comedy
- Black Narcissus
- Black Swan
- Blade Runner
- Blake Edwards
- Blockbuster
- Boozer
- Breaking Point
- Brian De Palma
- Brian Henson
- Britannia Hospital
- British New Wave
- Bryan Singer
- Burke and Hare
- Byron Haskin
- Caper Film
- Capricorn One
- Captain Moonlight
- Carol Reed
- Carrie
- Charlie Kaufman
- Childrens
- Chinatown
- Chris Morris
- Christianity
- Christmas
- Christopher Nolan
- Cinema
- Citizen Kane
- Clio Bernard
- Comedy
- Comic Book
- Coming of Age
- Concert Films
- Cosmo Duff Gordon
- Cronos
- Cult Films
- Damien O'Donnell
- Dances with Wolves
- Daniel
- Danny The Champion of the World
- Darren Aronofsky
- David Fincher
- David Keating
- David Lynch
- David O. Selznick
- David Zucker
- Debra Granik
- Deliverance
- Delta Spirit
- Dirty Pretty Things
- Disney
- Docudrama
- Documentary
- Doug Trumball
- Download
- Dr. Dog
- Dr. Strangelove
- Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
- Drama
- Dreams
- Duncan Jones
- Ealing
- East is East
- Eddie Murphy
- Edgar Wright
- Emeric Pressburger
- Epic
- Eraserhead
- Erotic Thriller
- Escape from New York
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Fairy Tale
- Fantasy
- Film noir
- Film Reviews
- Films of the Year
- Fire in Babylon
- Flash Gordon
- football
- Found Footage
- Four Lions
- Franc Roddam
- Francis Ford Coppola
- Franklin J. Schaffner
- Fred Schepisi
- French New Wave
- Fritz Lang
- Gavin Millar
- Gene Saks
- George Cukor
- George Lucas
- George Nolfi
- George Pal
- George Roy Hill
- Ghost Story
- Ghosts of Mars
- Giallo
- Gig reviews
- Gilles Paquet-Brenner
- Godspell
- Gojira
- Gone with the Wind
- Gonna Sing Gotta Dance
- Green Zone
- Gridlocked
- Grindhouse
- Guillermo Del Toro
- Guy Hamilton
- Hallowe'en
- Hammer
- Harold Pinter
- Hayao Miyazaki
- Heartless
- Heaven's Gate
- Hector Babenco
- Hiroyuki Morita
- history
- Horror
- Howl's Moving Castle
- I Know Where I'm Going
- If....
- In Bruges
- Inception
- Independent Film
- Indiana Jones
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- Insomnia
- Into The Night
- Ishiro Honda
- James Cameron
- James Dearden
- James Matthewson
- Jane Sanderson
- Jaume Collet-Serra
- Jaws
- Jean-Pierre Jeunet
- Jerry Zucker
- Jesus Christ Superstar
- Jim Abrahams
- Jim Henson
- Jim Loach
- Jim Sharman
- Joel + Ethan Coen
- Joel Schumacher
- John Boorman
- John Carpenter
- John Hillcoat
- John Landis
- John Michael McDonagh
- Jonathan Demme
- Joseph Losey
- Joseph McGrath
- Josie Cerise
- Juan Antonio Bayona
- Julian Schnabel
- Juliette Binoche
- Karel Reisz
- Katell Quillévéré
- Keeper of the Keys
- Kevin Costner
- Kevin Macdonald
- Kick-Ass
- Kill List
- Kim Spence
- Kind Hearts and Coronets
- Kiss of the Spider Woman
- Kitchen Sink
- Krzysztof Kieslowski
- La Haine
- Ladyhawke
- Lasse Halstrom
- Let The Right One In
- Lime Scurvy
- Lindsay Anderson
- Lisa Cholodenko
- Logan's Run
- Lone Scherfig
- Lord of the Flies
- Love Like Poison
- Lynne Ramsay
- Marc Webb
- Martial Arts
- Martin McDonagh
- Martin Scorsese
- Mathieu Kassovitz
- Matthew Vaughn
- Melodrama
- Memento
- Metropolis
- Michael Anderson
- Michael Cimino
- Michael Crichton
- Michael Frayn
- Michael Powell
- Michael Winterbottom
- Michel Gondry
- Michelangelo Antonioni
- Mike Hodges
- Monster Movie
- Monty Python
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail
- Morgan Spurlock
- mp3
- Mr. Nice
- Mulholland Drive
- Mumbling On
- Mumby at the Movies
- Mumbys
- Murray Lerner
- Muse
- Music
- Musical
- Nacho Vigalondo
- Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
- Neil Simon
- Neo-noir
- New Blog
- New Hollywood
- Nick Cave
- Nicolas Roeg
- No Country for Old Men
- Noah Baumbach
- Noises Off
- Nominations
- Northumberland Gazette
- Nouvelle Vague
- O Lucky Man
- Of Time and the City
- Old Crow Medicine Show
- Oranges and Sunshine
- Orson Welles
- Out of Africa
- Out of Place
- Pantomime
- Paul Crowder
- Paul Greengrass
- Paul Verhoeven
- Pedro Almodovar
- Peeping Tom
- Penny Brown
- Period Drama
- Peter Brook
- Peter Brown
- Peter Hyams
- Peter Jackson
- Peter Sellers
- Peter Weir
- Philip K. Dick
- Philip Ridley
- Piracy
- Pixar
- Plenty
- poetry
- politics
- pope
- Porco Rosso
- Prince of Darkness
- Princess Mononoke
- Prison Drama
- Propaganda
- Quadrophenia
- Queen
- Radio
- Remi Bezançon
- Repulsion
- Review Revisited
- Rhyming play
- Richard Attenborough
- Richard Donner
- Richard Lester
- Richard O'Brien
- Ridley Scott
- Road Movie
- Roald Dahl
- Robert Hamer
- Robert S. Fiveson
- Robert Wise
- Robin Hardy
- Robin Hood
- Rock Opera
- Roger Corman
- Rogue Trader
- Roman Polanski
- Romance
- Romantic Comedy
- Romantic Drama
- Ron Howard
- Sam Wood
- Sarah's Key
- Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
- Saving Private Ryan
- Schnepps
- Science Fiction
- Scott Hicks
- Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
- Sebastian
- Senna
- Sergei Eisenstein
- Shadowlands
- Shine
- Shock Treatment
- Shutter Island
- Silent Film
- Silent Running
- Singer-Songwriter
- Sir Henry at Rawlinson End
- Slasher
- Sleeper
- Sleeping Beauty
- Source Code
- Spetters
- Spike Jonze
- Spirited Away
- Sports Films
- Stanley Kubrick
- Star Wars
- Stephen Frears
- Stephen Hopkins
- Stephen King
- Stephen Schwartz
- Stevan Riley
- Steve Roberts
- Steven Spielberg
- Stop Making Sense
- Studio Ghibli
- Super Size Me
- Surrealism
- Swords-and-Sandals
- Sylvain Chomet
- Talking Heads
- Terence Davies
- Terry Gilliam
- Terry Jones
- That Kefalonia Moment
- The Adjustment Bureau
- The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn
- The American
- The Arbor
- The Bed-Sitting Room
- The Boys from Brazil
- The Cat Returns
- The Clonus Horror
- The Dark Knight
- The Deep Blue Sea
- The Deer Hunter
- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
- The Eagle
- The Elephant Man
- The Fellowship of the Ring
- The First Day of the Rest of Your Life
- The Fog
- The Ghost Writer
- The Go-Between
- The Goon Show
- The Guard
- The Haunting
- The Hermit's Tale
- The Illusionist
- The Kids Are All Right
- The Killer Inside Me
- The King's Speech
- The Lady Vanishes
- The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
- The Lord of the Rings
- The Lovely Bones
- The Magic Christian
- The Man Who Fell to Earth
- The Man Who Knew Too Much
- The Muppet Christmas Carol
- The Ninth Gate
- The Odd Couple
- The Omen
- The Orphanage
- The Others
- The Paradine Case
- The Party
- The Passenger
- The Pink Panther
- The Prestige
- The Proposition
- The Red Shoes
- The Rest Of Your Life
- The Return of the King
- The Road
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- The Secret Garden
- The Skin I Live In
- The Social Network
- The Squid and the Whale
- The Sting
- The Thing
- The Third Man
- The Two Towers
- The Usual Suspects
- The Verve
- The War of the Worlds
- The Who
- The Wicker Man
- Theatre
- Theatre Reviews
- They Live
- Three Colours - Blue
- Three Colours - White
- Thriller
- Tideland
- Tim Burton
- Timecrimes
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
- Titanic
- Tom
- Tom Hooper
- Tomas Alfredson
- Total Recall
- Touching the Void
- Trading Places
- Treetop Flyers
- True Grit
- Twelve Monkeys
- Tyneside Cinema
- Unknown
- Victor Fleming
- Wake Wood
- WALL-E
- War Film
- Warkworth Drama Group
- Watchmen
- We Need To Talk About Kevin
- Western
- Westworld
- What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
- WhatCulture
- Wild at Heart
- William Peter Blatty
- Wim Wenders
- Wind in the Willows
- Wings of Desire
- Winter's Bone
- Witness
- Woody Allen
- World Cinema
- Zack Snyder
-
Reflections - It is weird to read my correspondences from the late August/early September period, being the time of transition between my old function in life to my new ...12 years ago
-
MOTHBALLED - While Mix and Match with Mumby continues on Lionheart Radio, this blog will no longer be updated. Thanks for reading :) Daniel12 years ago
-
Let's wrap things up - Dear all, It's been a while since I posted on here. A lot has happened in the last six months which has prevented me from posting new stuff on here. Gradua...14 years ago
-
0 comments:
Post a Comment