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I must disagree with Krin Gabbard's unimpressed view of THE
PASSENGER, a film well ahead of its time insofar as it deals with the
media's role in postcolonialism in addition to the usual modernist identity
questions expected of Antonioni. But I share his dismay at the general
unavailability of the film, and was annoyed that Antonioni's sense of time
and rhythm couldn't be respected by a rapid-fire MTV montage of clips. Too
bad the Academy was never able to put together a fast-moving segment of
Mizoguchi or Ophuls clips!
THE PASSENGER reminds me: is there any career (except perhaps Terrance
Malick's) as significant and brief as Maria Schneider's?? She works with
Antonioni and Bertolucci, against Nicholson and Brando, and then basically
vanishes (although I'm aware she's worked in minor films).