Film of the Alternative cinema: Authors' Collections series
Original title: Professione: reporter Italy / Spain / France — 1975 Runtime: 121 min
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Maria Schneider, Jenny Runacre, Ian Hendry, Steven Berkoff, Ambroise Bia, José Maria Caffarel, James Campbell, Manfred Spies, Jean-Baptiste Tiemele, Ángel del Pozo, Charles Mulvehill, Narciso Pula
David Locke is a television reporter on location in Africa's Sahara Desert. It's hot, humid, and everything seems to be dirty. Returning to his hotel after getting lost and bogged in the desert, he discovers that the man in the room next to his has died. After deciding that his own life wasn't worth living anymore, he switches identities with the dead man, taking the man's passport (with his own photo swapped in), his luggage, and his appointment schedule. Leaving Africa, he heads off to keep the dead man's appointments, hoping that his new life will be more interesting than his old one was.