For three days only – 3/10-3/12 – the Kentucky Theatre is screening the restored version of Michelangelo Antonioni’s little-seen 1975 film The Passenger starring Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider (“Last Tango in Paris”). Nicholson has for many years jealously protected the distribution rights to the film for a proper release. Don Delillo presented it at last year’s Telluride Film Festival. It ends with a famous seven minute-long tracking shot which required a crane because the camera moves from the interior of a hotel room, through the bars of a window, meanders in a courtyard, and returns to the room.
Though Antonioni’s influence is scarcely discernable in American films (Todd Haynes’ “Safe," Eric Mendelsohn’s “Judy Berlin,” and Jon Jost's films are notable exceptions), his influence pervades the work of many leading contemporary international film-makers -- such as Wong Kar Wai (Hong Kong), Tsai Ming Liang (Taiwan), Bruno Dumont (France), Lucretia Martel (Argentina), Jia Zhanke (China), Michael Haneke (Austria), Abbas Kiarostami (Iran), Hong Sang-soo (Korea), Nuri Ceylan (Turkey), and Carlos Reygadas (Mexico).
My hope is that if enough folks show up to see this film, it might encourage the Kentucky Theatre to be more ambitious in its selection of international fare.
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