Fiction

BAD TIMING

Nicolas Roeg
GBR 1980
123 min
V'11

Amid the decaying elegance of cold-war Vienna, psychoanalyst Dr. Alex Linden becomes mired in an erotically charged affair with the elusive Milena Flaherty. When their all-consuming passion takes a life-threatening turn, Inspector Netusil is assigned to piece together the sordid details. Acclaimed for its innovative editing, raw performances, and stirring musical score – featuring Tom Waits, The Who, and Billie Holiday – Nicolas Roeg’s Bad Timing is a masterful, deeply disturbing foray into the dark world of sexual obsession. Roeg’s achievement, through the 70’s and 80’s, was to construct a form that might not have approached Greed in physical length but whose glittering piecemeal construction was another way to create this density of suggestion. Many critics who only noticed the glitter accused Roeg of being merely a glorified cameraman, dressing up the job he had previously carried out for other directors. But photography is no more important in this scheme than editing and production design. The turn-of-the-century Viennese art world is part of the emotional texture of Bad Timing, the contrast between the romantic shimmer of Gustav Klimt and the psychological darkness of Egon Schiele. (Richard Combs)

Credits
  • Art Garfunkel - Alex Linden
  • Theresa Russell - Milena Flaherty
  • Harvey Keitel - Inspektor Netusil
  • Denholm Elliott - Stefan
  • Yale Udoff
  • Nicolas Roeg
  • Anthony Richmond
  • Alan Bell
  • Tony Lawson
  • Richard Hartley
  • David Brockhurst
  • Marit Allen
Recorded Picture Company The Rank Organisation
Park Circus
35 mm
col
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