Boring

Better Late Then Never

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Antonioni's "The Passenger" is probably my favorite film. It's a singular work which manages to have the highest philosophical ambitions without seeming the least pretentious. That's not to say that Antonioni never seems pretentious. He sometimes is very much so, and this is a case in point. I wouldn't describe this as a good movie exactly- it's a bit too self-absorbed, with some lousy dialog and a howlingly funny leading man, who seems like an SNL parody of an Italian leading man. But having said that, it's still vintage Antonioni, and he was a master. For every moment that makes a fan wince, there are others of exceptional compositional beauty: street scenes in which "extras" take on inarticulable metaphysical weight, moments, such as a scene where the protagonist is lost in fog, that seem to depict the invisible. The theme of the film could seem misogynistic, and in a way it is. But really, this film is about the unknowability of the Other, and the way that black hole nonetheless illuminates Being.

Let us ask ourselves two frank yet simple questions about a modern day phenomenon called Italian cinema.Are Italian films difficult to understand ? Are films by Antonioni difficult as they are Italian ? Whatever might be the answer,it is somewhat true that Identification of a woman is an absolutely hard to please work of cinema.This is because the film is not at all about ways to identify a perfect woman. It is more about the attempts made by a filmmaker to identify two women.There is a perfect woman as well as an imperfect woman.Since there is no concept of a perfect woman,what the viewers see is a search for an imperfect woman.As disappearance appears to be the leitmotif of Antonioni's works,he has decided to augment it by showing the boredom of upper middle class section of Italian society.Antonioni has done a good job by portraying a film maker's frustration.He shows us things that go in the mind of a filmmaker before the birth of a film.This film requires multiple viewing sessions in order to be understood well by its audience.Identification of a woman could easily be rated as a crowd puller at some obscure film festival whose audience consists of people eager to see some action oriented flick. 25 years ago a film like this one was appreciated worldwide as it won a prize at Cannes International Film Festival.These days,there is a possibility that no many people will care about this film as they have lost all patience for films whose comprehension is beyond the range of ordinary knowledge or understanding.

(sort of spoilers, i suppose)Identification of a Woman was Antonioni's first film in Italy since the beautiful Red Desert. And its a quieter, more mature film than his international films.I'm glad I saw Identification of a Woman because it contains one of Antonioni's most beautiful sequences: the scenes in the fog, with people disappearing and reappearing. And also because we have something here we don't always have: characters and what almost resembles a story.We have an Antonioni-esque film director looking for the ideal female face for his next film.I think the film's about how men misunderstand women. They're only spying on them (spying is a recurring motif in the film), looking on from the outside, as if they were merely faces: I think this is why the (approximate) story of the film centres on a man looking for the perfect face for his new movie (ie, not the perfect woman).Be prepared, though, to not hold up hopes that Antonioni will stick with this story - because its left for you to decide whether a face, or a woman, are identified. This is not a flaw in the film - it was Antonioni's trademark.But if you only had so many hours of your life to spare for Antonioni films, i don't recommend you use up two on this one.It definitely doesn't have the passion and enthusiasm of Zabriskie Point - aside from his great works (L'Avventura, La Notte, L'Eclisse, Red Desert, The Passenger), i'd recommend you see the visually exhilirating Zabriskie Point instead of this.Caution: fairly extreme nudity and sex, mostly not of an erotic nature, but fairly intense (not rape or anything like that... just fairly hungry, physical sex).

This is probably obvious, but if you don't like Antonioni, stay away from Identification of a Woman. If you've never seen another, check out one of these films first: L'Avventura, La Notte, L'Eclisse, Red Desert, Blowup, The Passenger, or Zabriskie Point. If you are a fan of Antonioni, like myself, please do check out this film. It is definitely one of Antonioni's weaker films, but it is still undeniably in his style and containing his regular themes. This one is about a film director who can be said to fall in love with a woman (who, incidentally, looks a lot like a very young and extraordinarily thin version of Monica Vitti), but he can't express that love. The woman is upset at this and disappears. In some ways, this is like a weaker version of L'Avventura. The man tries to get on with his life, begins dating again, but eventually realizes that his mind revolves around the girl who abandoned him. This film is disappointing, especially if you're in love with Antonioni the director. The direction is generally flat. Only a few scenes show his supreme visual style. 6/10.