I was admittedly rather tired last night when I fell asleep early on in this film but when I went back to the beginning and tried again I discovered that, tired or not, the film is really pretty stultifying in some ways; it's easy to break concentration or just plain doze off while watching a film like this. It's sloooooooow. With a lot more 'o's than I've used, even. 'Deliberately paced' doesn't cut it as a euphemism this time, I'm afraid. And I am not of the MTV Generation, though early on in the piece I simultaneously wondered if (a) this was going to be one of those meandering films that doesn't tell you anything, even if not overtly telling you or spoonfeeding the audience, and (b) that even in today's cinema where average shot lengths of a few seconds duration are considered 'lingering,' having shot lengths that appear to be on average about 25 minutes was not really much of an antidote.
Soon enough, though, my fears were at least partially allayed when a bit of the backstory filled in. Yeah, to Antonioni all that may matter at first is that the dude's looking for something, whereas we quite naturally want some idea of what exactly he's doing; I can't begrudge the director for making us wait a while longer for that information, really. To be honest, though, the story's still a little confusing and kind of wanders here and there, but somehow I get the feeling that the director was less interested in telling a narrative story and more interested in painting a visual journey. To me, really, that's what saved the film and makes it worth watching and already increasingly estimable in my view.
In a more conventional film, perhaps Jack's character would have continued the charade and gone further into the arms-dealing world (in fact, that's what I thought he was, as a journalist, doing all along) but if that was his intent it's sure not very clear. And, again, in the end it doesn't really matter (not to say that such a story wouldn't make a great film in its own right!).
The film is stunningly framed and shot and composed very thoughtfully. That much is obvious from the opening frames. Magnificent use of locations, too, and of local people. Even though, at first (and, ultimately, at the end) I wasn't sure what was happening, I still enjoyed watching the screen and seeing those impressive visuals unfold. The film is of its time in that the pacing is NOT of breakneck velocity, and of course I love the '70s-ness of the dress and all of that cool stuff, but it's shot with such care and timeless vision that the actual film itself and the way the pictures unfold is anything but dated and, in fact, still holds its own among the best products of contemporary directors influenced by the likes of this guy.
Maria Schneider has an alluring quality about her and all the rest of the players involved are fine, but it's Jack's film. It may be his best screen performance, at least of the ones I've seen, and at the very least it's certainly high on the list. I just recently saw him in "The Crossing Guard," in which I thought he revealed again just how good he can be, but here he is similarly perfectly natural and very much believable in the role. I'm neither a huge fan nor a huge detractor of jack Nicholson, and even when I think he's just kind of walking through his role or phoning it in -- and, really, he DOES play 'Jack' a LOT -- he's still a compelling presence and his stock Jack character remains an appealing one. Here he's even better than usual. He has to be, too, because all those great visuals alone aren't enough to carry a film.
In the end, what made me like this film and feel compelled to write about it is that the director's incredible abilities (coupled with, I assume, input from a very talented DP and others) created a visual tapestry that made the main character's external and internal journeys come alive. The acting was good, too, and a few of the lines very much packed with universal truths. That final shot is the real payoff, in some ways, because it really sums up how this film makes its point; at first I started to wonder just when the camera was going to cut to, you know, like, TELL US THE STORY, but suddenly I became aware of something very odd ("hey, wasn't the camera behind bars a second ago?") and as it continued I sat there quite literally amazed at the skill of this filmmaker. It's like the long-lost twin of the opening to "Touch Of Evil," separated by a couple of decades but very much a similar device and just as skilfully rendered. The fact that a brief perusal of this discussion board reveals I was likely wrong in my conclusion regarding the rather open-ended final scene (to be honest, me thinking that our hero had killed the bad guy and escaped in the driving-school car was a result of paying more attention by that point to that amazing shot than to some of the actual details within it). Then again, I think, the actual story was not really the movie's point.
I may never again feel the need to see this film again, but the fact that I already like it more than when I finished watching it, and the mere fact of that almost-final shot EXISTING, says a lot about this film's impact. Glad I woke up for it...
Soon enough, though, my fears were at least partially allayed when a bit of the backstory filled in. Yeah, to Antonioni all that may matter at first is that the dude's looking for something, whereas we quite naturally want some idea of what exactly he's doing; I can't begrudge the director for making us wait a while longer for that information, really. To be honest, though, the story's still a little confusing and kind of wanders here and there, but somehow I get the feeling that the director was less interested in telling a narrative story and more interested in painting a visual journey. To me, really, that's what saved the film and makes it worth watching and already increasingly estimable in my view.
In a more conventional film, perhaps Jack's character would have continued the charade and gone further into the arms-dealing world (in fact, that's what I thought he was, as a journalist, doing all along) but if that was his intent it's sure not very clear. And, again, in the end it doesn't really matter (not to say that such a story wouldn't make a great film in its own right!).
The film is stunningly framed and shot and composed very thoughtfully. That much is obvious from the opening frames. Magnificent use of locations, too, and of local people. Even though, at first (and, ultimately, at the end) I wasn't sure what was happening, I still enjoyed watching the screen and seeing those impressive visuals unfold. The film is of its time in that the pacing is NOT of breakneck velocity, and of course I love the '70s-ness of the dress and all of that cool stuff, but it's shot with such care and timeless vision that the actual film itself and the way the pictures unfold is anything but dated and, in fact, still holds its own among the best products of contemporary directors influenced by the likes of this guy.
Maria Schneider has an alluring quality about her and all the rest of the players involved are fine, but it's Jack's film. It may be his best screen performance, at least of the ones I've seen, and at the very least it's certainly high on the list. I just recently saw him in "The Crossing Guard," in which I thought he revealed again just how good he can be, but here he is similarly perfectly natural and very much believable in the role. I'm neither a huge fan nor a huge detractor of jack Nicholson, and even when I think he's just kind of walking through his role or phoning it in -- and, really, he DOES play 'Jack' a LOT -- he's still a compelling presence and his stock Jack character remains an appealing one. Here he's even better than usual. He has to be, too, because all those great visuals alone aren't enough to carry a film.
In the end, what made me like this film and feel compelled to write about it is that the director's incredible abilities (coupled with, I assume, input from a very talented DP and others) created a visual tapestry that made the main character's external and internal journeys come alive. The acting was good, too, and a few of the lines very much packed with universal truths. That final shot is the real payoff, in some ways, because it really sums up how this film makes its point; at first I started to wonder just when the camera was going to cut to, you know, like, TELL US THE STORY, but suddenly I became aware of something very odd ("hey, wasn't the camera behind bars a second ago?") and as it continued I sat there quite literally amazed at the skill of this filmmaker. It's like the long-lost twin of the opening to "Touch Of Evil," separated by a couple of decades but very much a similar device and just as skilfully rendered. The fact that a brief perusal of this discussion board reveals I was likely wrong in my conclusion regarding the rather open-ended final scene (to be honest, me thinking that our hero had killed the bad guy and escaped in the driving-school car was a result of paying more attention by that point to that amazing shot than to some of the actual details within it). Then again, I think, the actual story was not really the movie's point.
I may never again feel the need to see this film again, but the fact that I already like it more than when I finished watching it, and the mere fact of that almost-final shot EXISTING, says a lot about this film's impact. Glad I woke up for it...