MovieChat Forums > Professione: reporter (1975) Discussion > The Begining is strong

The Begining is strong

posted 19 years ago by chandler-47
3 replies | jump to latest

I always found that the begining of this movie is the strongest part. As I recall there is not spoken any word in the first ten minutes or so, but it builds up a very unique atmosphere. You can feel how tired Nicholsen is, not physically but mentally. This is well acted.
In the following the movie gets problems with keeping the promise it made.
Reading some threads on this board there seems to be a bigger interest in one of the last sequences with the camera moving in or moving out of a window. This looks more like a hitchcockian gimmick to me ;)

-------------------------------
"They don't give you the leads, they don't give you the support, they don't give you dick." (Dave Moss)

[–] Narrator_Jack_dot_com 19 years ago

I think some of Jack messing around in the desert in the beginning could have been cut. The movie really starts to look good right before he finds the dead agent. The pans that almost put him in two places at once are great. And later when he and Schneider are sitting outside a bar and the camera does quick pans with the cars that pass--much needed weirdness.

[–] chandler-47 19 years ago

"I think some of Jack messing around in the desert in the beginning could have been cut. The movie really starts to look good right before he finds the dead agent."

I think you are right. It's a time ago since I saw this movie ;) I wanted to say the scene in the hotel hits nails. Nicholsen finds the dead man and is something like surprised (surprised in a way a depressive man is surprised) and he sees his chance. He does not expect anything except a change. Bloody good played by Nicholsen. All is to your imagination.
The longer the movie went I lost my interest since there were not such intense scenes anymore. Antonioni imo is a master in freezing moments, but not that good in telling stories ... the stories he tells do not make the biggest sense.

-----------------------------------
"They don't give you the leads, they don't give you the support, they don't give you dick." (Dave Moss)

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]