“¿Es bonito, verdad?”: “The Passenger” (“Professione: Reporter”) as a Horizontal Transcendence

Sławomir Masłoń

Abstract

Contrary to the typical existentialist and formalistic interpretations of the film The Passenger, the author argues that the core of this work lies in the scene showing pure political violence, which is inextricably linked with the famous penultimate shot. Antonioni’s aim in the penultimate shot is the achievement of such a level of visual intensity, that would be equal to the most horrid sequence of the film, that is the execution. A direct re­lationship between the most horrible and the most beautiful moments in the film establishes the necessary stereoscopy. The existence of suffering in the world is undeniable, however, only the intensity of the gaze permits one to see the ugliness from the right perspective, because it permits engagement into the world for its own sake, and not for narcissistic aims. Visual experience, which we are experiencing in the last two shots, teaches us that the one true transcendence is not vertical (apotheosis), but it is a horizontal leaving of oneself, into an intensified, vision like experience of the world.