49 The Passenger

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Gordon
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2004 8:03 am

#26 Post by Gordon » Thu Jul 14, 2005 8:28 am

The European 125 minute version, title Professione Reporter is now in the hands of Columbia/Sony who will presumably now be seeking out theatrical markets before the title eventually makes itsway onto DVD.
Oh, joy! Wait, where did your friend hear aboot this? I'm sure that Sony acquired the O-neg from Italy (or is it stored in the U.S.?) and are making new prints and a HD-transfer. This seems to be the common practice at Sony when the acquire new films.

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ellipsis7
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#27 Post by ellipsis7 » Fri Jul 15, 2005 5:39 am


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Andre Jurieu
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#28 Post by Andre Jurieu » Fri Jul 15, 2005 9:42 am

Guys, in June Jeff posted this same news regarding Sony acquiring the US rights and re-releasing the film in October. It's on the first page of the thread.

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ellipsis7
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#29 Post by ellipsis7 » Fri Jul 15, 2005 10:29 am

Yes, you will see I had quite a part in ferreting this out in the 1st place! It seemed then to get lost among the later assembled discussants in this thread... Thus my post is intended to be a necessary reiteration rather than fresh news...

BWilson
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#30 Post by BWilson » Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:35 pm

I'm I the only one aware of this? I saw the poster at my local arthouse last night.

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Andre Jurieu
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#31 Post by Andre Jurieu » Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:39 pm

BWilson wrote:I'm I the only one aware of this?
It's been discussed over in this thread, where Narshty and Jeff have both mentioned the upcoming re-release, though I have no idea why it remains in the Warners General Discussion section.

BWilson
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#32 Post by BWilson » Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:45 pm

Andre Jurieu wrote:though I have no idea why it remains in the Warners General Discussion section.

No wonder I didn't know about it.

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Kirkinson
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#33 Post by Kirkinson » Wed Aug 17, 2005 5:00 pm

It is significant to point out, however, that the running time on Sony's web site is now stated as 126 minutes whereas before it was 119. So that confirms flixyflox's earlier report that Sony is releasing the European cut.

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tavernier
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#34 Post by tavernier » Sun Aug 21, 2005 5:19 pm

The New York Film Festival's website http://www.filmlinc.com lists the version of THE PASSENGER that they're screening as 119 minutes.

Edit: I just found out from the Film Society of Lincoln Center that the website is wrong: they will be showing the 126-minute version (Antonioni's original cut) at the NY Film Festival, and that Sony Pictures Classics will also be re-releasing that longer version.

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ellipsis7
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#35 Post by ellipsis7 » Thu Aug 25, 2005 3:34 pm

Antonioni retro (similar to that at NFT London in June) at AMPAS LA in September.... Kicks off with An Academy Salute to Michelangelo Antonioni and a screening of the new Sony print of THE PASSENGER (Showing R/T of 123 mins). MA to be present, with his GAZE OF MICHELANGELO short preceding the feature... Details here...

yoshimori
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#36 Post by yoshimori » Fri Sep 16, 2005 2:03 pm

a bit o/t, but I thought I'd pass along this 'report' from a friend of mine re last night's screening of the new print of The Passenger at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:

"Yah. Still lots of gaps in the sound. And the best print in the world isn't gonna miracle this clunkily acted, awkwardly organized, horribly lit flic into a masterpiece. The evening's real highlight came pre-screening. Marsha Kinder, some kind of USC Film Theory prof, after a intro that was all about how L'avventura changed her life -- check the program, Marsha! -- 'moderated' a panel discussion including Jack, Antonioni, his wife, and a little man, presumably a translator, who never stopped whispering into the maestro's ear. The prof first asked Jack if he could talk about why the film had been out of circulation so long. He seemed to take it personally and said, "well, back then I thought genius film makers' films were getting a bit too much exposure, and I didn't want to see that happen." OK. He then went on to enthuse, way way way over the top, about what a 'great man' Antonioni was. "Look at him", pointing to the immobile man in the wheel chair, "how ELEGANT, how MANLY." He said this several times. We were starting to think that either Jack was drunk or that he was, shockingly, making fun of the guy. Jack wouldn't give up the mic, and Antonioni's wife kept staring at Nicholson with suspicion while the little man whispered. Kinder didn't even try to stop him or steer the discussion. Strangely, Jack then went off on what a GREAT ELEGANT MANLY WRITER AND DIRECTOR Antonioni was. "Watch me say 'Water'," he said. He couldn't express how much he'd learned from a man who "believed actors were volumes passing through space." Was he joking? By now Antonioni's wife looks like she wants to kill Jack. Then, Jack goes off on what a COMIC genius Antonioni was. He described the plot of The Passenger as if it were a light Shakespearean comedy of false identity. "It cracks me up!" There was a brief back and forth between Jack and Marsha -- Nicholson saying Antonioni was unique, sui generis; Kinder suggesting we could see his legacy in directors like Erice; Nicholson saying that, well, if this were a DEBATING SOCIETY I guess I could point to Carl Dreyer as an influence on Antonioni, too -- but the piece de resistance coming when Jack decided it was time to hear from the ELEGANT MANLY stroke victim himself. Nicholson then picked up a mic and walked over to Antonioni, kneeled before him and stuck the mic right in his face. Everyone was shocked. Kinder stood up, held her mic to her face, but couldn't seem to say anything. By now the audience, who'd been in stitches at Jack's humor earlier, had no idea what was going on. Jack just kept kneeling, jabbing the mic towards the mute man in the wheelchair, saying something like "Speak. Speak." Finally, Kinder said that she'd "got the signal" that the time allotted for the panel was over. Jack got up, led the audience in applause for the maestro, and then, edging the wife aside, wheeled him off the stage himself. Wow."

Were any of the LA board members there?

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Gordon
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#37 Post by Gordon » Fri Sep 16, 2005 5:05 pm

Jack Nicholson hasn't said anything sincere since 1987. He's a buffoon.
But I love his 70s films. I can imagine how Mrs Antonioni felt.
Just get the 125-minute version out on DVD with a great anamorphic
transfer, Sony.

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kinjitsu
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#38 Post by kinjitsu » Fri Sep 16, 2005 6:00 pm

Yah. Still lots of gaps in the sound. And the best print in the world isn't gonna miracle this clunkily acted, awkwardly organized, horribly lit flic into a masterpiece.
I suppose that is a matter of opinion:
David Thompson wrote:The Passenger (1975), in which Jack Nicholson is a disillusioned foreign correspondent. In a fly-blown hotel in North Africa, he meets another man — a look-alike. This stranger dies, and without apparent thought or any explanation, Jack takes on his identity. He simply unhooks himself from the vehicle of his own life and transfers to another. This blind journey will take him to Germany, to Barcelona and southern Spain. It will encounter Maria Schneider in a Gaudí building — a passerby, or maybe the angel of death. And in one of the greatest journeys through space ever executed in movies, the spirit of the reporter will rise from his bed, pass through the railings on another hotel window and slip out into the dusty evening courtyard of a place called the Hotel de la Gloria.

The return of The Passenger is an occasion. For years, the film that flopped on opening has been owned and protected by Jack Nicholson. Now it is restored and coming to DVD, and on September 15, Antonioni will be in Los Angeles to present it in a gala screening at the Academy. Yet, fate has worked out like an Antonioni film: The director is over 90, mentally present, but the victim of a stroke — and so not quite here, or even there. It is a state to which his art was always aspiring. He is a great filmmaker, but he is an architect, too — the provider of squares, courtyards and enclosures where we long to live, no matter that they may signal our futility. -- LA Weekly
Last edited by kinjitsu on Sun Aug 10, 2008 12:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Dylan
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#39 Post by Dylan » Fri Sep 16, 2005 6:00 pm

Good God, what a travesty that must have been. Jack Nicholson seemed completely different in his narration on the Criterion DVD of "L' Avventura," different in that he seemed more loving of the artist Antonioni is, and not even the least bit of the mockerer he seemed to be at that screening. My guess is that Nicholson was somewhat intoxicated, or more likely that he was sincerely trying to inject dry humor into the conference (which, obviously, went completely out of hand). I hope he didn't offend Antonioni, but then again, Nicholson keeping "The Passenger" to himself for thirty years isn't exactly treating Antonioni fairly, either.

I've posted this elsewhere, but (like most) I haven't seen this film, and as a great admirer of Antonioni, I look incredibly forward to it.

Dylan

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ellipsis7
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#40 Post by ellipsis7 » Sat Sep 17, 2005 6:23 am

Trust me. I am not God, but I am Antonioni'

As Peter Bowles discovered while receiving direction from Antonioni on BLOW UP... Full story here

For me he is pretty much THE MAN (along with a few others)!

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Barmy
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#41 Post by Barmy » Mon Sep 19, 2005 12:35 pm


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Fletch F. Fletch
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#42 Post by Fletch F. Fletch » Wed Oct 26, 2005 1:50 pm

Here's an excellent write-up of the film and a particularly interesting passage regarding the different versions of the movie:

[quote]Nicholson was unhappy with all suitors for a theatrical and subsequent DVD release until discussions began with Sony Pictures Classics in early 2003, with a deal finalized in May 2004. In the meantime, Professione only rarely popped up on the special exhibition and festival circuit: in Canada, Cinematheque Ontario's 1998 screening as part of its comprehensive Antonioni retrospective amounted to a sighting of Halley's Comet. The new release print is culled from elements that have resided in reportedly excellent film vaults.

But nothing is ever simple with The Passenger. Sony Classics was originally intending to release Antonioni's hated MGM edition. As part of the research for this essay for Cinema Scope, I came across Antonioni's unqualified condemning statement (on page 218 of the edited compilation of the director's writings and interviews, The Architecture of Vision) and passed it along to Michael Barker, co-President of Sony Classics and Richard Pena, director of the New York Film Film Festival, where the film is receiving a special presentation. The evidence, fortunately, was convincing enough for Sony Classics to pull the MGM version and instead release the longer version, which will retain the title of The Passenger. (These changes won't affect the scheduled Los Angeles premiere in mid-September and the New York Film Festival screening prior to release.) That there has been no apparent effort to search for the 20-odd minutes' worth of material (described vividly by Antonioni in The Architecture of Vision, in a chapter tellingly titled “The Passenger that you didn't seeâ€

rossbrew
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#43 Post by rossbrew » Sat Oct 29, 2005 1:02 pm

The Passenger will be playing here in vancouver at the Cinematheque during the 3rd week of November along with Pickpocket....gonna be awesome!

Tim
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#44 Post by Tim » Sat Oct 29, 2005 7:27 pm

Saw it this evening at the London Film Festival. The print looked terrific and the film was as compelling as when I first saw it on its original release.

BWilson
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#45 Post by BWilson » Mon Nov 07, 2005 4:04 pm

I saw it on Friday. I thought it was excellent. Possibly my favorite Antonioni film. It had two things going for it:

1. It didn't feel as dated as Blow-Up
2. All the usual Antonioni opaqueness and experimental form was placed into a much more conventional thriller/suspense frame work that kept my mind on the film.

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ellipsis7
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#46 Post by ellipsis7 » Wed Nov 09, 2005 6:03 am

Go to Amazon.com and THE PASSENGER DVD webpage - it cannot be ordered yet - but it says...

Availability: This title will be released on May 23, 2006.

Whooppee!!!

rwaits
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#47 Post by rwaits » Sat Nov 12, 2005 3:08 pm

Any guesses on who's releasing this? And what ever happened to the edition of Zabriskie point that Roger Waters' site listed over a year ago??

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a7m4
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#48 Post by a7m4 » Mon Nov 28, 2005 8:12 pm

I was at the Academy screening of the Passenger a few months ago and yoshimori's friends write up is spot on. I mean first of all to have Jack Nicholson and Michelangelo Antonioni 10 feet in front of you is pretty odd to being with but when Nicholson started going off it was extremely awkward. It seemed like the audience wasn't sure if they should laugh or what, but I can honestly say it was one of weirdest experiences I have had.

Aside from the pre-screening discussion the film itself is great. I was planning on seeing it again when It played at the Nuart in Santa Monica a few weeks ago, but I wasn't able to make it. I'm hoping the dvd release will have a good transfer and some decent extras.

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Matt
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#49 Post by Matt » Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:52 pm

Anyone familiar enough with this film to comment on its cinematography? I saw the re-release this past weekend and the print was incredibly grainy. I'm not really complaining--I love the grainy look--but I'm wondering if the heavy grain was intentional or a result of the print being several generations removed from the original negative.

I've never seen an Antonioni film have anything less than crisp, pristine cinematography, and Luciano Tovoli's work is usually a paragon of clarity. At the same time, though, I can see why Antonioni might have thought a rough, grainy, documentary-style look would suit the story, and it was certainly a popular stylistic trope in the mid-1970s.

I've not seen Zabriskie Point. How does its cinematography compare?

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Lino
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#50 Post by Lino » Tue Nov 29, 2005 4:31 am

matt wrote:I've not seen Zabriskie Point. How does its cinematography compare?
ZP should look nothing short of a visual and aural revelation when it hits DVD. Its scope cinematography is one of the very best I've ever seen in any movie and david is right about its vivid colors and the way they burn into your mind.

While I've yet to see The Passenger, I don't believe that Antonioni could have topped himself on a purely visual level after the cacophony of visual delights that is ZP.

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