126 - The Passenger

Eavesdropping at the Movies · Jan 20, 2019 · 39m

A remarkably lean Jack Nicholson steals a man's identity in an attempt to leave his life behind in The Passenger, Michelangelo Antonioni's existentialist thriller from 1975. Though the film contains many of the raw ingredients of a Bond film or Graham Greene novel - a charismatic leading man, a beautiful European love interest, criminal activity, subterfuge and globetrotting - Antonioni cooks up a deeply atmospheric, contemplative work about identity, dispossession and escape. In the four days between seeing the film at the BFI Southbank and recording the podcast, the film grew in José's…