Michelangelo Antonioni (1912–2007)

The original French title of this film ('Profession:Reporteur') gives a better idea of what this film is about, with its suggestions of being an observer rather than participant, of always being restless and moving on, of a deep form of superficiality. Basically a story of how a man tries to disappear by adopting another man's identity and then finding that man's life even harder to live, the film has two very good performances in the leads. Jack Nicholson is deeply unlikeable but very right for the reporter, and Maria Schneider's performance as the young woman he finds en route is more multi-dimensional than in 'Last Tango in Paris' which she made only a couple of years earlier. She has changed physically too and manages to embody distance alongside sizzling heat. The ending of the film, where the surroundings seem to swallow up life, is a masterpiece of direction.

The only thing that seems unlikely is that the 1970s Spanish police would devote so much time and effort to chasing around on the basis of very vague information about someone who is not even Spanish. But the wife's involvement lends an essential extra side to the story.… (more)