The Passenger (2005)

the audience applauded

Must See Movie...

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

It is difficult to explain the magic of Antonioni's films. Like many other films of this fantastic filmmaker, this "passenger" is also a slow film, with long sequences without dialogues but full of meanings, that addresses the same themes of the emptiness of the human condition, of alienation, of the attempt to escape a certain existence, the bankruptcy of relationships, the inability to communicate. The filmmaking of this filmmaker is beautiful and unique, it has a hypnotic effect on us, viewers. Even when he films banal things, we are delighted and dazzled by what we see. In this film, the final 7-minute sequence filmed from the bedroom window where Jack Nicholson stands is anthology.

Antonioni's quietly minimalist approach to storytelling has never really resonated all that well with me. In "The Passenger" his style is very much intact, giving us several good settings, two mysteriously interesting characters and some very nice moments of high quality dialog. But all this in a way I found a bit frustrating.Maybe I'm too used to today's direct, explanatory style of storytelling and can't read between all the subtleties, as the overall impression I was left with was one of a diluted movie. Still, this is a very smart thriller that has a very real sense of the unknown in it.

Across the sands of time there is little comfort for the identity of loneliness...I've been willing to write about Michelangelo Antonioni's Masterpiece. It's just that when you sit down to describe and reflect upon such a monumental artwork, you need time and patience to be able to focus on the most important conclusions. For me it is always important to see the consequence of implications which you get from a movie. And I am pretty sure that "The Passenger" is indeed one of the best film I have ever seen.The psychological drama about loneliness, alienation and the trouble of finding one's identity stars Jack Nicholson as a television journalist who assumes the identity of a dead arms dealer in Chad and then escapes his own identity and life cycle. We witness the typical 1970's movies feel of losing something real while trying to live the life. I am unsure if this film's intelligent script would've had the same impact if there were no such beautiful landscapes which complement the psychological transformation of the main character David Locke. The cinematography by Luciano Tovoli is distancing the characters of the film one from another. A deliberate alienation which represents a person's desire to escape oneself. Losing his identity Locke finds during his journey a soul mate - an architectural student in Barcelona (Maria Schneider). We witness their unconventional relationship and route through exotic and deserted villages and cities.At the same time Locke's real life (represented by his unfaithful wife) tries to reach and find him. The main character is deliberately avoiding being found and desperately is trying to not go back to his original existence. France and especially Spain present us with both fascinating and haunting images of nature and architecture. It is very important for the viewer to notice Nicholson's character being "blown by the wind" from one deserted place to another. David Locke is a traveler through time and space who is attracted to his young female companion and spiritual soul mate, but ultimately is troubled only by his own escapade.And although his new arms dealing identity finally takes its toll, he is presented as a newborn soul, freed from the constraints of his ordinary life. This alienated freedom provokes many viewers to try to find what is not right in their own lives and reflect upon how to change that. My feel about "The Passenger" is very similar to what I got from Antonioni's "Zabriskie point", "Blow-Up" and his trilogy "L'Avventura", "La Notte" and "L'Eclisse". A distant both haunting and beautiful cry about longing for a change and true meaning of one's life. It is very inspiring to see how a genius director can evoke true feelings in us with this enigmatic and intricate movie of possibilities. And there is no better example for this than the penultimate 7-minute tracking shot at the end of "The Passenger"...

I won't say Antonioni's masterpiece, because he made them in the plural, but this is unquestionably one of them. One of the great films of the 70s, full of mystery and mood. Nicholson is wonderful. Watching him one realizes what an amazing and underrated actor he is and has been. In the commentary he sounds a little self-important though he has a right to be proud of his work on this. Visually too this is a marvel, sort of a vicarious trip to north Africa and the south of Spain. The narrative? It's Antonioni so it's very avant-garde. One can never be sure of what's happening. Relax, that's what makes it such a trip. See this film and you'll remember it.