Bad Timing | | Cast : | Art Garfunkel, Theresa Russell | | Director : | Nicolas Roeg | | Studio : | Criterion Collection | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | October , 1980 | | DVD Released Date : | September 27, 2005 | | Language : | English (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | August 03, 2005 | | Summary | Roeg's last great film: a troubled picture about a troubled romance | Content
 | Seen a quarter of a century on, 'Bad Timing' stands out as one of Nicolas Roeg's most satisfying and complex films and yet it can be one of his hardest to discuss. It's a film I feel a little guilty about writing so little about, but even on a second viewing it's still rather overwhelming. It's interesting how it manages to be so genuinely multi-layered, more like a novel than a film - the way it mixes voyeurism, spying and emotional, psychological and legal investigation (with Keitel's investigation of the suicide scene placing him firmly in scenes as an unseen voyeur through Terry Rawlings typically brilliant editing) is remarkable enough, but the film manages to do so much more besides. And the performances are incredibly brave - how many leading men can you think of who would effectively (and quite deliberately effeminately) play the woman's role during the lovers' initial meeting? Russell in particular shows an astonishing range in what should be an impossible part, making her inability to find decent roles these days even more disappointing.
True it falls apart in the last couple of reels when the performances don't quite ring true, but it's still the last great film Nic Roeg made before settling into prolific mediocrity. It's as a brilliantly edited post-mortem into a mutually destructive relationship rather than a police mystery that it really enthralls, even when it doesn't entirely work. Much more impressive than I remembered, it's not a feelgood movie - if anything it's the date movie from hell - but it is a remarkably ambitious and accomplished one.
So why is the film so little-known and perhaps even less-seen? Well, that seems to be down to some bad luck and bad timing of its own.
In the US it hit censorship problems and in Europe it had major problems with its distribution. It was one of Rank's last full slate of British productions, so should have been guaranteed a circuit release on the Odeon chain in the UK. Unfortunately, the head of Rank Theatres was so disgusted by the film (the Rank Organisation was originally started to make religious films and many of the old guard were still in place in 1980) that he refused to book it into a single one of their theatres - the only Rank film to be so 'honored' (although he wasn't much enamoured of Eagle's Wing either). The second biggest circuit was owned by Rank's biggest rival, EMI, who weren't interested in helping out their balance sheet, so it ended up on Lew Grade's very small Classic chain. Rank's distribution in Europe was no more enthusiastic.
(Of course, Roeg's next film and most expensive, Eureka, had even bigger problems, being pulled a couple of weeks after opening due to a libel lawsuit that kept it on the shelf for years. Since then, despite the not really successful brave try with Cold Heaven, he seems to be little more than a director for hire on a slew of disappointing pictures and cable movies.) As a result, it's been very hard to track down since its original release, but it's well worth the effort if you're looking for challenging fare.
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| Rating | | | Date | August 01, 2005 | | Summary | Impressive! | Content
| What an impressive movie.
More than anything else it deals with Milena's (Theresa Russell) Borderline Personality Disorder and the impact it has on the people around her:
on Alex (Art Garfunkel), absorbed by her, loving and hating her and her chaos, probably for the rest of his life, regardless, as the final scene suggests...
on her elderly husband, who so wisely states that love for her has to go beyond one's own dignity...
on the detective (Harvey Keitel), who obviously is or was in a similar relationship and failed to come to terms with it...
Certainly, the movie is dated, but the story is timeless.
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| Rating | | | Date | July 16, 2005 | | Summary | A very good Roeg period piece | Content
| Innovative use of camera and flash-back sequences that might very well have inspired Tarentino distinguish this early 1980s classic, with memorable performances, even from Theresa Russell, and an understated script that reveals more through what is not said. The use of Klimt art work and the overall backdrop of the Vienna of Freud and Wittgenstein underscore the wistfulness of a once-grand intellectual centre in the same slow decay as the relationship depicted between Russell and Garfunkel. Denholm Eliott and Harvey Keitel give brilliantly understated supporting perfomances. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 14, 2005 | | Summary | An Intense Look At Sexual Obsession | Content
| I saw this movie ten years ago at a Harvey Keitel retrospective, but all that is really memorable about it is Art Garfunkel's performance. Art's Lipton Flow-thru Is Right Out There. |
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