Professione: reporter (The Passenger) (1975)
89%RT Audience Score: 85%
Awards & Nominations: 6 wins & 3 nominations
Antonioni’s classic, a tale of lonely, estranged characters on a journey though the mysterious landscapes of identity, shimmers with beauty and uncertainty
The Passenger is like a game of musical chairs, but instead of music, it’s a thrilling plot about swapped identities in a foreign country. The cinematography is breathtaking, and Jack Nicholson’s performance is reflective and moving. However, if you’re looking for a film to keep you on the edge of your seat, this might not be it. It’s more of a slow burn that leaves you with a sense of existential alienation, but hey, at least it’s not as insufferable as some critics make it out to be.
Production Company(ies)
Bridgit Folman Film Gang Les Films, d’ Ici Razor Film Produktion GmbH,
Distributor
Sony Pictures Classics
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Fort Polignac, Algeria
MPAA / Certificate
PG
Year of Release
1975
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Mono
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:1h 59m
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Language(s):English, Spanish, German, French
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Feb 28, 1975 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 25, 2006
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry, Steven Berkoff, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, written by Michelangelo Antonioni, Mark Peploe, produced by Carlo Ponti, drama, PG rating, box office gross, $619.7K, reviewed by Nigel Andrews, Penelope Gilliatt, David Parkinson, Carina Chocano, Peter Bradshaw, Tom Dawson, John Simon, Yasser Medina, Nathanael Hood, Antonio Lara, Antonioni’s classic, swapped identity, arms dealer, Africa, existential alienation, beauty, uncertainty, Antonioni’s masterpiece, Patricia Highsmith, bleak, moving, reflective performance, hypnotic quality, insufferable, pretentious, boring, slow-paced, eye candy, stunning cinematography, arid landscapes, picturesque, white-stucco settlements, enigmatic long take, haunting, tragedy, ambiguous, randomness
Worldwide gross: $768,744
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $4,625,607
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,202
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 504,428
US/Canada gross: $620,155
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $3,731,532
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,888
US/Canada opening weekend: $24,157
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $145,355
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,798
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Maria Schneider – Girl
Jenny Runacre – Rachel Locke
Ian Hendry – Martin Knight
Steven Berkoff – Stephen
Michelangelo Antonioni – Director
Director(s)
Michelangelo Antonioni
Writer(s)
NA
Producer(s)
Carlo Ponti
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
6 wins & 3 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (74) | Top Critics (23) | Fresh (65) | Rotten (9)
The Passenger is almost a masterpiece. Almost? That’s because the plot, a thrillerish tangle about swapped identity in a menacing foreign country, begs for the pen of Patricia Highsmith.
January 2, 2019 | Rating: 4/5
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times
TOP CRITIC
Earlier Antonioni films have often seemed studied, but not this one. Its details are easy and apropos.
January 14, 2013
Penelope Gilliatt
New Yorker
TOP CRITIC
A bleak and moving drama with reflective performance from Jack Nicolson
September 23, 2006 | Rating: 4/5
David Parkinson
Empire Magazine
TOP CRITIC
What in different hands would have been a bombastic psychological thriller becomes a stark study of existential alienation.
August 12, 2006 | Rating: 5/5
Carina Chocano
Los Angeles Times
TOP CRITIC
A classic of a difficult and alienating kind, but one that really does shimmer in the mind like a remembered dream.
June 24, 2006 | Rating: 4/5
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
Thanks to Luciano Tovoli’s magnificent cinematography of the African desert and the arid Spanish countryside, we gain a potent sense of Locke’s internal emptiness.
May 30, 2006 | Rating: 5/5
Tom Dawson
BBC.com
TOP CRITIC
If vacuity had any weight, you could kill an ox by dropping on it Michelangelo Antonioni’s latest film, The Passenger. Emptiness is everywhere: in landscapes and townscapes, churches and hotel rooms, and most of all in the script.
August 4, 2020
John Simon
Esquire Magazine
This Antonioni film has a hypnotic quality that arouses deep reflections within me. [Full review in Spanish]
July 15, 2020 | Rating: 8/10
Yasser Medina
Cinemaficionados
The entire film feels like one long held breath as its characters fidget in anticipation of things they can’t foresee or understand.
May 25, 2020 | Rating: 8/10
Nathanael Hood
Unseen Films
The Passenger, like its protagonist, wanders about in such a state of deathly boredom that watching the film is rather like taking a sleeping pill.
December 4, 2019
LAFP Staff
Los Angeles Free Press
Michelangelo Antonioni’s new film The Passenger is a visual masterpiece, frame for frame one of the most beautifully realized films in years.
July 24, 2019
Donald McLean
Bay Area Reporter
This is one of the most insufferable, pretentious, and boring movies I’ve seen in my life. [Full Review in Spanish]
July 10, 2019
Antonio Lara
El Pais (Spain)…
Plot
A journalist researching a documentary in the Sahara Desert meets a gunrunner who dies suddenly. When the journalist notices that they have a similar appearance, he assumes the recently-deceased’s identity and accepts the consequences that it brings.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
The Passenger features a “world-weary” performance from Jack Nicholson as the lead character.
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