MovieChat Forums > Professione: reporter (1975) Discussion > a great movie let down by schneider's pe...

a great movie let down by schneider's performance?

posted 17 years ago by Hudsucker111
34 replies | jump to latest

I just watched The Passenger and loved many aspects of it - Nicholson's wonderfully understated performance, intriguing story, great cinematography and evocative locations... BUT... it was let down terribly on the casting front.

I found it hard to watch Maria Schneider's painfully wooden performance. She is just so out of her depth, especially playing next to Nicholson that I think what could have been a masterpiece is seriously compromised.

Am I alone in thinking this? Or am I missing something? I'd love to know.

[–] robfwoods 17 years ago

Yes - she seemed to be awkward - but isn't that how she naturally would be - close to half the age of JN - etc.

I've no problem with her in this film just as it was made.

[–] thebigheat 16 years ago

robfwoods is sort of right IMO. Just made things between her and JN seem natural.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] metajohn 12 years ago

She probably was drugged,-- self administered. She suffered from drug abuse for most of the 1970s after "Last Tango In Paris" character, Jeane, was publicly humiliated by her director and co-star. It wasn't until 1980 that she got sober again. See her Wikipedia bio for full details.

[–] www.wedd 17 years ago

Perhaps it's not technical acting ability, but I thought her guilelessness translated into a fairly naturalistic seeming performance that worked for the movie- whether it was on purpose or not.
By the way, I like the fact that you give the title of your thread as a question, and leave some room for debate, rather than just making it a statement, and proclaiming that you're in the right.

[–] jacksflicks 17 years ago

I agree. Antonio is like Rossellini, who goes for non-professional, "naturalistic" acting. Though Schneider's boyish beauty -- the cherubic face and those slim hips -- would have been enough for me, I think she effectively projected the image of the wandering waif. Guileless, apparently, but still a bit ambivalent. Was she really a plant, waiting for him at the Gaudi house? Maybe she really was innocent, but given the way Schneider plays her and that business out in the square of the final sequence, one can't be sure.

"What the *beep* are you doing here with me?" Indeed.

[–] Eumenides_0 17 years ago

Could it be it was not the fault of the actress, but that the role itself didn't have much for her to do? She's a walking mystery. How can anyone play something like that?

Tu sei la prima donna del primo giorno della creazione.

[–] dmitry-gurevich 17 years ago

It's interesting,my original reaction was quite opposite! I saw this movie for the first time in Russia around 1978. I loved it from the first sight, but it was Maria Schneider who made the biggest impression on me! Perhaps I would think very different now, but.. I would never be able to see this film with fresh eyes...
The last sceen is truly genious, it's my favorite director at his best..

[–] todtomorow 17 years ago

the chess board at the beginning of the film in Robertson's room! There's a continuity goof: one moment it's by his head then it's nearer to his feet!

[–] retributive-justice 17 years ago

Her performance was painful. The writing was great, but the lines that came out of her weren't executed well at all.

Thankfully Jack had enough talent for the two of them.

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] cockerspaniels3 17 years ago

in context of the movie, it fitted. bravo

[–] DC1977 16 years ago

What has that got to do with Maria Schneider??

You're obsessed with the moving chess set! Are you on commission or something and you get paid each time you write about it?

In any case, I've given my reasons for the chess set moving:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0073580/board/thread/84344869?d=114519330&p=1#114519330

[–] wilsonbond_99 16 years ago

On the commentary track for the DVD, Jack Nicholson remarks a couple of times that Maria Schneider had hurt her back before shooting this film. This might explain her slowness of movement, and the low-key, affectless quality to her performance might be the result of painkillers. It would certainly explain the difference between her acting styles here and in Last Tango in Paris!

I for one don't believe that this detracts from the fascination of her character. It just makes her more inscrutable, like a somnambule moving in and out of Locke's life.

"Mollymauk doesn't park. He makes lazy circles in the sky."

[–] TheRepublicOfMiranda 16 years ago

Schneider's performance is totally coherent with the feel of the film. Its narrative pace is complemented by her sometimes awkward detachment.

Anyone that finds a problem with Schneider in the Passenger has to learn how to watch it with a better understanding of The Girl within the narrative logic of the film. The anonymity that is desired by the protagonist finds its counterpoint in the Girl as a generic actant (in English: as a generic stock character, but filled with narrative functions; the mysterious woman/girl, etc.)-- And her beautifully acted scenes with Nicholson fulfill the roles traditional genre films would have her play, but with a degree of subtlety.

[–] filterite 16 years ago

I personally thought her performance was really good. It seemed the perfect fit for Antonioni's purposes for the film.

[–] psychorobotape 16 years ago

I thought schneider's performance was outstanding and not wooden in the slightest. In fact, both times i've seen it, she's come off to me as the most passionate character in the film while at the same time managing to play her role with much subtext and mystery that establishes herself as the central enigma of the film. I'd even go further to say that it is her "restraint" in certain situations that reveal her character's true identity and motives in the film.