The Passenger (1975 film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
The Passenger (Professione: reporter) is a 1975 drama art film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Written by Mark Peploe, Peter Wollen and Antonioni, the film is about an Anglo-American journalist, David Locke (Jack Nicholson) who assumes the identity of a dead businessman while working on a documentary in Chad, unaware that he is impersonating an arms dealer with connections to the rebels in the current civil war. Co-starring Maria Schneider, The Passenger was the final film in Antonioni's three-picture deal with producer Carlo Ponti and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, after Blowup and Zabriskie Point, and competed for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
David Locke (Jack Nicholson) is a television journalist making a documentary film on post-colonial Africa. To finish the film, he is in the Sahara desert seeking to meet with and interview rebel fighters involved in the Chadian Civil War. Struggling to find rebels to interview, he is frustrated when his Land Rover gets stuck on a sand dune. After a long walk through the desert back to his hotel, a thoroughly dispirited Locke discovers that an Englishman, Robertson (Charles Mulvehill), who has also been staying there and with whom he had struck up a friendship, has died overnight at the hotel from a heart condition.
Locke decides to switch identities with Robertson; he is tired of his work, his marriage and his life, and sees an opportunity for a fresh start. Posing as Robertson, Locke reports his own death at the front desk, where the hotel manager mistakes Locke for Robertson, and the plan goes off without a hitch.
In London, Locke's wife Rachel (Jenny Runacre) has been having an affair. She feels guilt-ridden and torn when she is informed of her husband's death. She approaches Locke's friend, Martin (Ian Hendry), a producer at the BBC, in an attempt to get in touch with Robertson to try and learn more about her husband's last days. Meanwhile, "Robertson" (Locke) has flown off to Europe with the dead man's belongings, including his appointment book.
Locke soon learns that Robertson was gunrunning for the rebels whom, as a reporter, Locke had been trying to contact in the desert. When he goes to check out an airport locker listed in Robertson's diary, Locke is tracked down by the rebels' point man in Europe. He is there to complete the weapons sale. Since neither man has ever seen the other before, Locke's false identity is not revealed, and he hands the men the documents from Robertson's locker, and receives the first down payment for the set-up arms deal with Robertson before his death.
Later, Locke accidentally spots his friend Martin on a street in Barcelona, as the latter tries to track Robertson down on behalf of Rachel. Locke backtracks and at this point bumps into an architecture student (Maria Schneider) while trying to hide nearby. He asks her to fetch his belongings from the hotel, so he won't be seen there by Martin who camped out to catch up with "Robertson". Martin overhears that she is collecting Locke's baggage, and requests she take him to meet "Robertson". She manages to evade him, and join Locke, who leaves Barcelona. They become lovers, and later, while trying to explain his rather odd behaviour, Locke confesses that he has stolen a dead man's identity.
Locke is flush with cash from the down payment on the arms he cannot deliver, yet he is drawn to keep the meetings listed in Robertson's note book. In the meantime, Rachel has received his left-behind belongings, which were returned from Africa. Having heard from Martin of his unsuccessful chase of the elusive "Robertson", Rachel is shocked as she opens Locke's passport, seeing Robertson's photo pasted inside. Having realised why "Robertson" was so elusive, Rachel now heads off to Spain to track down Locke, who is fleeing from the Spanish police, brought in by Rachel to track Robertson. The student girl is, however, still loyal to Locke and helps him to evade them, providing rational advice, but Locke sends her away, intending to meet later in Tangiers.
Reaching the Gloria hotel in the Spanish town of Osuna, province of Seville, Locke finds out that the girl has already booked them a double room, but then again he persuades her that she had better leave. Taking her time, she wanders around the dusty square outside. Shortly afterwards the rebel agents in pursuit of Robertson arrive at the hotel. There Locke's assassination takes place, mostly off-screen during one long take, ending with a single gun shot. The rebels leave the scene minutes before the police arrive with Rachel, to find Locke motionless in bed. There his wife says to the police officers that she "never knew" the dead man, while the student girl identifies him as Robertson.
Cast
- Jack Nicholson as David Locke
- Maria Schneider as the Girl
- Steven Berkoff as Stephen
- Ian Hendry as Martin Knight
- Jenny Runacre as Rachel Locke
- Ambroise Bia as Achebe
- Charles Mulvehill as David Robertson
- José María Caffarel as Hotel Keeper
- James Campbell as Witch Doctor
- Manfred Spies as German Stranger
- Jean-Baptiste Tiemele as Murderer
- Ángel del Pozo as Police inspector
