Page 52 - Cinematic Thinking Philosophical Approaches to the New Cinema

42 Alison Ross

makes available as experienceable form otherwise nebulous ideas and
projects. For instance, in keeping with the aesthetically driven motives
of his cinema, the episodic form Antonioni gives to the life of the central
character needs to be understood less from the perspective of the nar-
rative content of this film than in relation to the specific techniques by
which the "project" of losing one's identity is staged in and, to put this
point more emphatically, as the composition of particular scenes. This
"project," it seems to me, becomes comprehensible as an effect of an aes-
theticizing intention. Antonioni s treatment of Locke's life, according to
an episodic structure, foregrounds the aesthetic composition of scenes
at the expense of narrative content; or better, the theme of the loss of
identity is the narrative device that reverses the emphasis on conventional
narrative in favor of formal cinematic elements. In this respect it would
not be too much of an exaggeration to say that narrative is the vehicle of
its own demise in The Passenger?

Meaning and Narrative in The Passenger

The Passenger seems to raise two different kinds of questions: first,
what kind of life would one have if one embarked on a "project" to lose
one's identity and all the ties and habits that constitute a life? Second, what
kind of life or experience would motivate such a "project"? As I suggested in
my opening remarks, this narrative device of a "project" to lose identity is
the pretext Antonioni needs for the episodic construction of The Passenger.
Yet the film does not address these questions as such; indeed, Antonioni's
final cut of the film removed scenes that would contribute a context of mo-
6
tivation for the protagonist's actions. Rather, the film shows the temporal
experience of dispersed identity in the episodically constructed life of the
main protagonist and thereby opens up an aesthetic constellation in which
a life is treated without any teleology of meaning.
In The Passenger Jack Nicholson plays the character of David Locke,
a British journalist who is making a documentary film in Africa. After he
returns to his hotel from an unsuccessful attempt to contact members of
a guerrilla insurgency, Locke discovers the body of David Robertson, a
fellow Englishman he had met earlier and a guest at the same hotel. The
rough physical resemblance between the men is the premise for the film;
after a brief perusal of Robertson's belongings—which include a diary of
planned meetings; an airline ticket with stops in London, Munich, and