Went to see The Passenger at the Brattle tonight. The only other Anotnioni film I’ve seen was Blow Up; The Passenger made me feel much the same way: it’s a great film, masterfully made, it will stick with me, but I don’t really share an obsession with the issues he’s dealing with. It’s all about identity, and seeing, and reality, and truth, and escape. Oh, and sports cars. I think I prefer The Passenger. All the heady intellectual stuff came more organically from the plot and characters; Blow Up puts it backwards, and everything feels staged to get some ideas across. It was nice to see so much of Barcelona in 1973. One scene between Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider takes place on the roof of La Pedreira, apparently before it was museummified, because there were clothes hanging on a line and people living in one of the apartments. Can’t imagine that happening now. And, hey, Jack Nicholson was good back in the 70’s before he became “Jack Nicholson”, wasn’t he?

Currently? I am sitting on the couch with Suki on my lap (purring and occasionally sinking a claw into my chest out of happiness) with Storefront Hitchcock on in the background, just to hear “You and Oblivion”, with a nightcap of Maker’s Mark.

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