Director: Michelangelo Antonioni, Fr/It/US/Sp, PG, 126min
Stars: Jack Nicholson, Jenny Runacre, Steven Berkoff
On general release
This stunning anti-thriller from 1975 is one of Antonioni’s greatest films, but because of some inexplicable rights issue it has been the least available of his back catalogue. The opportunity to catch this much admired film on a big screen is not to be missed.
Nicholson plays a reporter in a nameless African desert state, searching for a war he is meant to be documenting. There’s a cynicism in his demeanour that suggests profound disillusionment, but nothing to prepare the audience for what happens next: he casually switches identities with the dead Englishman in the hotel room next to him. He keeps the man’s appointments, wearing in his new persona like a pair of shoes.
Advertisement
Antonioni uses visual repetition and rhythms to pace the story, and gives his sparse narrative room to breathe with plenty of airy wide shots. But the camerawork is the main reason people seek out this picture, specifically the dazzling seven-minute sequence that ends the film.
WENDY IDE