The great movie scenes: Antonioni’s The Passenger

Jack Nicholson gave perhaps his greatest performance as journalist David Locke. Youtube

Author

Bruce Isaacs
Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, University of Sydney

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Bruce Isaacs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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What makes a film a classic? In this monthly column, film scholar Bruce Isaacs looks at a single sequence from a classic film and analyses its brilliance.

The Passenger, 1975.

This month we look at Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger (1975), a film which featured Jack Nicholson in what Nicholson once said was his greatest performance.

In this scene journalist David Locke (Jack Nicholson) is in North Africa, seeking to escape his work, wife and life by stealing the identity of a new acquaintance who has just dropped dead of a heart attack.

In a brilliantly considered exploration of time, memory and identity, Antonioni offers one of the most famous and influential camera moves of 1970s cinema.

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