Professione: reporter (1975) - part1 - Michelangelo Antonioni

"Another movie, another planet".
This week let's take a close up onto the rarest movie by one of the few remaining Master of the Cinematograph : Michelangelo Antonioni.

Professione: reporter aka The Passenger has achieved a cult status among most of the people who had the chance to see it since 1975. For many years, Jack Nicholson, the leading act, owned the rights of the movie & for reasons i don't know blocked any viewing and video releases. However in 2001, It's true that Japan Company Imagica released a region 0 DVD but as it's really nearly impossible to get, i thought that Professione: reporter deserves to be honoured on this blog.

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But before going any further, i'm glad to announce that Sonyclassics will re-releases it in October 2005 in the US theaters. So maybe we can expect a true DVD release in 2006.

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Luciano Tovoli is the cinematographer.
2 years after he'll do Suspiria by Dario Argento.

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Once again Maria Schneider is gorgeous in what is may be her best movie.
Unfortunately she's well know for her part in Bertolucci's Last Tango In Paris but i think this movie is a bit dated nowadays.

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I love this sequence filmed in Barcelona at the famous La Pedrera built by Antonio Gaudi. Antonioni also shots at Palau Güell where Jack Nicholson & Maria Schneider met.

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You should read this essay about Antonioni
on the great Senses Of Cinema website.

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This was the first 12 frames i'll post of this movie.
Next monday you'll see the last 12.
In the meantime, any comments will be appreciated.

The Rain People (1969) - part2 - Francis Ford Coppola

So this is my last 12 frames taken from
The Rain People by Francis Ford Coppola.

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There was a band in the eighties named Rain People. They only released one album on Epic records (1988). Was it of any good ? i don't know.

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Coppola admitted that his fourth movie was under the influence of Tennessee Williams. He also mentioned in this interview to Christopher Frayling (BBCOnline) that "There was quite a specific script. It was the first of two films that I got to write and make as I had hoped all my films would be".

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Of course apart from Shirley Knight, this movie is famous for the performance of Robert Duvall & James Caan as you've never seen him.
He is astonishing.

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PLOT
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Of course, as i took again great liberty with the script, you need the plot to understand the story :
Knight is outstanding (in a superb cast) as the pregnant woman who runs away in quest of the identity she feels she has lost as a Long Island housewife, and finds herself increasingly tangled in the snares of responsibility through her encounters with a football player left mindless by an accident (Caan) and a darkly amorous traffic cop (Duvall). Symbolism rumbles beneath the characterisations (Caan as the baby she is running from and with, Duvall as the sexuality and domination she is trying to deny) but it is never facile. Time Out Film Guide.

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NOTES
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These frames are taken from a Broadcast on TCM France in March 2005.

bonus :

bye bye now...
See you next friday.
In the meantime, you can can listen to my new Radio-Blog dedicated to a movie by Leos Carax named Mauvais Sang. It's an hour-long mix of eclectic songs & dialogues taken from the movie.
Enjoy !!