The Passenger

A television journalist working in North Africa swaps identities with a man he finds dead in a hotel room. He takes the dead man's appointment book and starts living his life. He learns late that the man was an arms dealer. The film treats the escape not as adventure but as the question of whether one can get out of an identity at all. The shot before the ending, an unbroken take that moves the camera out of a room through a window and around outside for seven minutes, is discussed on its own in film history. Michelangelo Antonioni directed, with Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider. It was shot in Spain, Algeria and London. Who it's for: those who like slow, philosophical, cold cinema. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a spy thriller; the film lowers the tension on purpose.