Michelangelo Antonioni's The Passenger (1975)

This past week I was able to watch Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger starring Jack Nicholson, who at the time was the leading star in Hollywood. The film itself is noteworthy simply because of its director, Antonioni, whose authorial style has to be taken into consideration to understand and appreciate what the film tries to do. Antonioni for the most part is considered an Italian Neorealist art film director, which means that his films differ greatly from other styles. Most importantly, the viewer must go into the viewing of the film with an open mind, free of the expectations that the average Hollywood film has, featuring logic, drama and romance. Antonioni’s work is a mixture between the authentic realities he is trying to visualize along with his own artistic style of filmmaking that can only be understood as an overall piece of art on screen.
In The Passenger, Jack Nicholson’s character David Locke is discontent with his life as a war journalist and decides to assume the identity of a dead tenant in the hotel he is staying in, and consequently cannot escape the ghosts of his past as well as the unhappiness he previously felt. The film is shot on 35mm at 1.85:1, but is almost completely lit with natural light that comes from the African daylight sun. This constant brightness allows the viewer to almost feel the never-ending heat that Locke experiences. When filming, the director used all sorts of shots but for the most part, does not feature any point-of-view shots, as a way of expressing Locke’s emotion, instead, mostly everything is kept at medium close up and further, and even with this style, the film still features lengthy portions that contain very little dialogue, and subsequently do not need any. The director is able to tell all that needs to be told with visuals. One of the most intriguing components of film is the way the camera moves away from the action on screen during certain shots. It becomes a recurring theme of the film. A shot may begin with Locke in his hotel room sitting at a table with no shirt on, and the camera will pan to the left to look at what seems to be a pointless spot on the wall, or an open window. The camera then pans backs to the right and Locke is standing up now, reading a piece of paper, and wearing a shirt. The camera pans and in the process, the viewer misses the action of Locke doing something. At first these types of movements are not that noticeable, but they grow as the film moves on, and the second to last scene, one of the most famous in movie history, exemplifies this artistic technique with a moving camera shot that takes the viewer away from Locke in the final moments of his life, and returns a minute later to find him dead. The style of shooting makes the film much more interesting than just the plot and this is the point; the film is art and needs to be viewed as a piece of art to be appreciated, thus the plot takes a backseat to the film techniques and acting. Antonioni has long been lauded for his talent and innovative style, and The Passenger is sound example of his many skills.