In The Footsteps Of The Passenger

After forty years or so this still remains one of my absolutely favorite films ever made.

I just watched it for possibly my 30th time with my partner Tammy (it was her 3rd time around).

This viewing featured an overdubbed commentary by the lead actor in the film, Jack Nicholson — one of the extras on the DVD release of the film.

(We tried the other commentary, with screenwriter Mark Peploe, but found it digressive, boring and not adding much to the enjoyment of this masterpiece.)

We'll be watching the film again soon. Minus any commentary.

When I went to Europe in 1985 (with fabric-meister Kate P. ) we visited numerous sites where the film was shot - which serves as an amazing introduction to the brilliant architecture of Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona.

Finding a film's locations is a wonderful way to discover new places — and so we traveled to a small town in Spain named Osuna to see the Hotel de la Gloria (where the famous ultimate scene is filmed).

To our surprise we learned that not only was there no such hotel in Osuna, but that the hotel in question had been fabricated specifically for the film in a town named Vera, hundreds of miles away from where we were.  

So what? We were rewarded with an unforgettable visit to a place seldom discovered by tourists. 

Osuna, Spain

Ramblas, Barcelona

Hotel Oriente, Barcelona

Returning to Spain last year with my partner Tammy we visited some of the locations from the film in Barcelona, exploring the Gaudi archirecture all around the city. 

With the advantage of digital cameras (in 1985 the best possibility was a roll of film with 24 photos) we took some imitative images.

   

[It was an amazing 2+ week journey through Spain & Portugal. Video HERE.]

Jack @ Casa Mila, Barcelona

AleXander @ Casa Mila, Barcelona

The Anomalous Duo — life imitating art — Casa Mila, Barcelona

I saw the film for the first time at the Bleecker Street Cinema in the late 1970's. After the initial viewing I dragged my willing friends to see it again and again.  

There is something fascinating to me about the idea of switching identities. My introduction to the genre was courtesy of Mark Twain's immortal "The Prince and The Pauper" which I read and watched as a kid.  

Since then any storyline that tracks a character exchanging identities is sure to get my attention.

"The Passenger"is about a journalist, David Locke (Jack Nicholson) who assumes the identity of a dead businessman while working on a documentary in Chad about a clandestine war, a war he seems unable to find. He befriends another man staying at the hotel, a man who simply says he's in the country "on business". When Locke discovers that the businessman, Robertson, is dead—and notes a resemblance on their passports—he assumes Robertson's identity, leaving his own papers and belongings with the corpse.  He will slowly discover that the man he has chosen to become is an arms dealer with connections to the rebels in the current civil war.

Penelope Gilliant wrote in the New Yorker: " . . . “The Passenger” is the story of a man trying to fly the coop of himself. He has come to a critical moment of alienation from his English life and work. His identity and his past both seem to him matters of dislocation, and the resulting laxness has nearly consumed him. Not quite. With the courage of an almost beaten man attempting a probably final throw of the dice, he seizes the opportunity to pretend himself dead and to assume the character of a man facially very like him, victim of a fatal heart attack, whom he has met in a remote part of Africa by chance." 
[Full review HERE.]

I watch the film with wonder and awe each and every time.  Some find it slow (I love slow films* ) and lacking plot — yet I find its deep inner attempts at movement forward holding me fascinated throughout. 

The cinematography, the conversations, the characters, the extremely sparse music —all part of an adventure of the mind and heart. 

If you count those actions of the subtlest kind then "The Passenger" is even an action film. There is even a mysterious love interest and a car chase scene.

If you haven't seen it, DO— and if you have, I hope this incites you to revisit this masterpiece of cinema. You will be richly rewarded.

AleXander at Umbraculo (Parc de la Ciutadella) 

Jack at Umbraculo (Parc de la Ciutadella) 

* Werckmesiter Harmonies by Bela Tarr remains another favorite film. 
    Trailer HERE. / Review by Roger Ebert HERE.

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