I used to be somebody else...but I traded myself in.
September 4th 2006 03:23
The Passenger
The basic premise of this film is that Jack Nicholson is a well-known journalist travelling in the depths of the Sahara Desert for work. He discovers that the man in the room next to him has died. He seizes the opportunity to take on this man’s identity and decides that man that will be declared dead will be him. He chooses the drastic step of leaving his own life and taking on another person’s. He leaves Africa with the dead man’s possessions, guided by his diary telling him what steps he needs to do to maintain his new life.
Jack Nicholson’s passage of changing his life is haunting with a strong undercurrent that he is taking a big risk into another world that is dangerous. Director, Antonioni uses expressive abstraction. Displaced dramatic action leads to the creation of a stasis occupied by vague feelings, moods and ideas. Confronted with hesitancy, the spectator is compelled to respond imaginatively and independent of the film. Images are there for the viewer to absorb slowly, often making their own sense of the scene.
The cinematography is stunning in this film; in the beginning there are lots of wide shots of the desert. The language is sparse. Presences are evaded, related absences emphasised. The protagonist's fate reflects each individual's own private thoughts about real and/or imagined destiny. The climax of the film, alone - a final sequence lasting seven slow minutes is truly a synthesis of the movie and a tribute to the director's art.
I haven’t seen any of Antonioni's other works, but am keen to do so now. I know that he is revered for his use of silences, for creating ambiguous works that pose difficult questions and resist simple conclusions. At various times, I wondered why Jack Nicholson felt the need to swap his life for someone’s? Surely the risk was greater than the decision to leave his own life? The frustration of this experience reflects that felt in the lives of Antonioni’s characters: unable to solve their own personal mysteries they often disappear, leave, submit or die. Apparently, the idea of abandonment is fundamental to Antonioni’s formal structuring of people, objects, and ideas. This film is enigmatic; it shows that the systematic organisation of reality can be a process of individual negotiation.
| 95 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
I hope to get to the Chauvel next week for a screening and plan to buy the DVD soon after.
Comment by Movies and the meaning of life
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
On the Antonioni front Blow Up is one of his most accesible and also most influential works.
Im not a massive fan of all his films but the ones that resonate stay forever.
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Comment by Bob Short
To throw in my two cents worth,
Why does Nicholson change his life? Just like the jeep in the opening scene, he is bogged down in the sand. He sees a different life passing by and decides to jump ship thinking the problem isn't so much him as the package he has wrapped himself in.
You are so right about how this movie stays with you. I watched it a week ago and I still keep thinking about it even though a whole lot of DVDs have passed through the machine since then.
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Thanks for your comments on my blog. I really liked what you said about the best bits of life like being in a film without the dud bits. That's a great analogy. Maybe it's like seeing a good film on telly and not watching the adverts?
Yes, you are right about why Jack Nicholson chose that path. I like it when films get me to ponder and question and I especially like it when the answer is open to some ambiguity like The Passenger. I really don't like films that hand me all the answers on a plate.
What a film, now I'm thinking about it all over again and that's great, thanks.
Comment by Bob Short
I have no particular problem with brain dead films because there are times when one needs them. After a long day at work dealing with folk you would rather cross the road than speak to, you really need a large chunk of stupid in your day.
I think the trouble now is that everyone is doing stupid and no-one is out there pushing the limits in the same way as Antonioni. That's a bit of an exaggeration but you know what I mean. I'm racking my brain trying to think of a film that left any kind of lasting impression in recent years and I can only think of Gus Van Sant's "Elephant".
Like him or loathe him, Antonioni does leave a mark.
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
I just noticed that there is a whole Antonioni segment in this year's Italian Film Festival and Blow Up is included: http://www.italianfilmfestival.com.au/.