“¿Es bonito, verdad?”: “The Passenger” (“Professione: Reporter”) as a Horizontal Transcendence
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.
Keywords:
Michelangelo Antonioni, violence, transcendenceReferences
Antonioni, Michelangelo, Interviews, ed. Bert Cardullo, Jackson: University Press of Mississippi 2008.
Google Scholar
Arrowsmith, William, Antonioni: The Poet of Images, ed. Ted Perry, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Google Scholar
Carroll, Lewis, The Complete Illustrated Works, London: Chancellor Press 1993.
Google Scholar
Chatman, Seymour, Antonioni or, the Surface of the World, Berkeley: University of California Press 1985.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520907669
Google Scholar
Królikiewicz, Grzegorz, Anty-Faust. Próba analizy filmu Michelangelo Antonioniego „Zawód reporter”, Łódź: Studio Filmowe N 1996.
Google Scholar
Rohdie, Sam, Antonioni, London: British Film Institute 1990.
Google Scholar
Authors
Sławomir Masłońkwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
University of Silesia Poland
Adiunkt w Instytucie Kultur i Literatur Anglojęzycznych Uniwersytetu Śląskiego. Opublikował: „Pere”-Versions of the Truth: The Novels of J. M. Coetzee (2007), Stating the Obvious: Celan - Beckett - Nauman (2012), a po polsku: Coetzee. Przewodnik Krytyki Politycznej (2009).
Statistics
Abstract views: 40PDF downloads: 34
License
Copyright (c) 2016 Sławomir Masłoń
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
Most read articles by the same author(s)
- Sławomir Masłoń, On a Pilgrimage to Zabriskie Point - Antonioni and the Idyll Called USA , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 107 (2019): Journey, (E)migration, Pilgrimage
- Sławomir Masłoń, The Sense in the Machine – Buster Keaton and the “The General” , Kwartalnik Filmowy: No. 99 (2017): Tricks, Special Numbers, Attractions