Saw Antonioni’s The Passenger at the Music Box on Thanksgiving night with Vivian and Amy, her partner in academic skullduggery.
Plot: Jack Nicholson plays David Locke, a British-born, American-raised journalist. As the film opens, Locke is in an un-named African country, to cover some sort of insurgency or civil war. We see him attempt to find some information about the situation by driving out into a mountianous, desert area, presumably to locate some rebels, before he skulks back to his hotel in frustration. After a shower, Locke discovers that, Robertson, the man in the room next to him, has died. As a tape recording of a conversation with Robertson plays in the background, and as we see flashbacks of the dead man from Locke's point of view, Locke fixes his own passport photo to Robertson’s. He then tells the unwitting hotel employees that Mr. Locke has died.
After returning to
I really enjoyed The Passenger. I've always been a sucker for film-makers that emphaize character and mood over plot, and Antonioni is certainly that style's master.
It was also amazing to see a young, slim Jack Nicholoson that refrained from hamming it up like the "Jack" we all know now. In The Passenger, Nicholosn is a sharp as a razor. He plays Locke with a self-hatred that's so intense it's hard to watch. Maria Schneider was a revelation too. Like many, I'd only seen her in Las Tango in Paris, where, at best, I thought her inadequacy as an actress matched up well with the character of the confused young woman that she played. Here, she's amazing. She plays her character with such calm and assuredness, that she seems one of those people that has known and seen more than us. She seems older and wiser than Nicholson, making his character's ultimate decision that much more plausible.
And speaking of that crucial decision, I apologize to all two of you who read this blog, but I’m going to cut to the chase and talk about the ending of the film.
Since Locke’s wife, the arms buyers, and the Spanish police are all after him, Locke and the woman go on the lam in
In one of those extraordinary Antonioni shots, the camera slowly moves from one side of Locke’s hotel room toward the window. The camera stops at the window, and for about five minutes, focuses on the action in the hotel’s courtyard. We see various passers-by, then the woman, (walking around purposelessly,) and finally a man that looks like he might have been one of the arms buyers. We see him go toward the hotel entrance. The camera stays at the window, looking out, while we hear a brief, very muffled struggle in Locke’s room. Then Locke’s wife shows up and she, the woman, and the hotel staff discover Locke’s dead body.
Here’s what I want to know about the ending: Does the woman know that she is helping Locke on his way to death? I think that she has to understand that when she tells him to commit to being Robertson that there’s a lot of danger involved with that choice. Or does she not understand? Does she still really have no idea what it means for Locke to be come Robertson? Forgetting the woman for a second, I think the important thing is that Locke understands what it means for him to choose to keep Robertson's appointment. He knows it means his death. But whether his decision to choose death is a good or bad thing remains an unanswered question.
