MovieChat Forums > Professione: reporter (1975) Discussion > Differences between the two versions?

Differences between the two versions?

posted 19 years ago by kaream
8 replies | jump to latest

Until watching the new DVD of Antonioni's preferred 126 minute version, I had not seen The Passenger since its original 1975 theatrical release which was apparently the 118 minute US version; I've never seen the VHS.

My strong, but very possibly mistaken, recollection from 30 years ago was that the closing shot was not of the driving school car leaving the plaza and turning down the road followed by hotel proprietor walking up the road toward the beginning dusk, but rather of that car slowly circling in the plaza, in an even deeper dusk.

Is my memory just out of whack? What other differences has anyone noticed?

[–] roy_rutter-1 18 years ago

We haven't got the new dvd over in Britain yet, but I have the original video, and yes, in the end of that, the learner car turns out of the square and up the road, the proprietor goes round the corner for a smoke, his wife comes out and peeks round the corner to see where he's gone, then it's still till the end of the music.

[–] kaream 18 years ago

Thanks for the info.

I suspect your video will be identical to the DVD, with Antonioni's preferred European version rather than the US original theatrical release, which was about 8 minutes shorter. I'm sure part of the difference between the two is the firing squad execution, which I didn't recall having seen before.

But I still have the impression that the (US) original didn't have ending credits over the hotel and sunset, instead fading to black on the car slowly circling in the plaza, with its headlights and the 'L' plate rather like the Cheshire Cat's grin, as the camera pulled back. But maybe I'm just imagining this (or maybe it was me fading out?) I don't think so--I was very impressed by it, and long puzzled over the significance of the learner car in terms of the title 'The Passenger', and the themes of the movie, so the car wouldn't have been simply the incidental that it becomes. Actually, one of the things I also wondered was whether the 'L' plate is an internationally recognized symbol for a driving school learner--I think it is (was?) in the UK, but it isn't in the US.

Did anyone see the movie in the mid-'70s?

[–] i3000 18 years ago

As far as I know the main difference between the two verisons is that in the US verison the scene when Locke secretly visits his house in London was cut out.

Mind you I have seen the film in 1976 when I was 16. It was in Soviet era Moscow, and one can imagine the shock I had experienced seen that kind of a film in that kind of a country at that age. I still consider it to one of the most deep reacing films I ever seen in my life. This is really strange that now in 2006 it is still as impressive as back 30 years ago.

Igor

[–] DC1977 18 years ago

I got hold of a copy of this film about 8 years ago. When Locke visits the house in Holland Park (which I've visited incidentally), he goes up the steps to the front door and then walks away.

He never enters the house. I'm assuming something was cut here.

[–] debblyst 18 years ago

I saw "The Passenger" on its original release in Brazil in 1976 3 times (it's still one of my favorite films) and some 3 or 4 more times in the following years whenever it screened in Rio's cinemathèque (until it stopped showing up in the mid-80s). I really don't recall differences between the finale then and in the new DVD, and I do seem to recall the closing credits.

I really don't remember seeing the following scenes in the original release version:
- the scene outside the African hotel where the employee and an officer discuss with Locke about Robertson's funeral
- Locke entering his former London house scene (which reveals his wife has a lover)
- the tree scene with Locke lying on the grass and the girl picking up a fruit (the tree of knowledge?)
- the whole following sequence where the girl suddenly decides to leave and gets into the back of a miniminivan and then changes her mind to go on with Locke, up to the van's driver shutting the back door on us.

I'm POSITIVE the above scenes weren't in the original release version because I was totally surprised by them when I saw the new DVD. Maybe there are other minor scenes which have been included but frankly I couldn't tell. On the other hand, I clearly recall the execution scene WAS in the original movie.

[–] DC1977 18 years ago

I have this on the new DVD and old VHS copies. The VHS includes a scene where Locke is asking for directions to the Umbraculo, this isn't on the DVD.

[–] zytt 17 years ago

Yes, you're right, I'd forgotten that one.

[–] wilsonbond_99 12 years ago

There's also the entire scene of the conversation between Locke and the old man on the park bench in the Barcelona plant conservatory. Wonder why that one is missing from the DVD? And why wouldn't Jack Nicholson want to preserve it?

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