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Bad Timing (1980)

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58 out of 62 people found the following comment useful :-
Roeg's forgotten masterwork, 20 June 2004

Author: arturobandini from Burbank

When BAD TIMING: A SENSUAL OBSESSION emerged in 1980, its distributor dropped it like a hot potato. Sex! Surgery! Semen stains! Strippers rolling around on meshy overwire! It was all too much for the Rank Organization, a fading production empire with a long history of releasing family classics like GREAT EXPECTATIONS. (Curiously, Rank did sponsor a 'Win a trip to Vienna, location of BAD TIMING!' publicity contest at early bookings). The only reason they financed the picture, allegedly, was for its Freudian-tinged pedigree. When they saw the finished product, they labeled it 'a film about sick people, made by sick people, for sick people.'

Deviant psychology is but one of the many twisted pleasures in this tragically neglected masterpiece from '70s visionary Nicolas Roeg. With iconoclastic films like WALKABOUT, DON'T LOOK NOW and MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, Roeg pioneered a new kind of film language. He replaced traditional narrative storytelling with stunning photography, explicit carnality and a signature editing style of jump cuts, cross cuts and subliminal flicker cuts Mixmastered into a mosaic of multiple interpretations. (Unlike today's A.D.D.-inducing overkill, Roeg's fragmentary cutting technique always provided insight into character psychology.) To those of us weaned on art cinema in the '70s and energized by the limitless possibilities of the medium, Nicolas Roeg was (and remains) a god. No filmmaker since has picked up the maverick torch that this deity carried for more than a decade.

Trying to encapsulate BAD TIMING's nuanced, character-driven plot is like describing Europe in a postcard. Essentially, it's about an eroticized interpersonal attraction that goes horribly awry, spiraling into jealousy, paranoia and (of course) sexual obsession. Theresa Russell's wild child Milena (the personification of Henry James' headstrong American girl abroad) is compulsively drawn to a fellow Yank stationed in Austria -- the buttoned-down, Freudian shrink/visiting prof Dr. Linden. Their passionate affair has led to a potentially tragic outcome, and it's up to a local police inspector (Harvey Keitel) to sort out what went wrong, why, and whether criminal malice was involved.

What makes this relationship drama so compelling is Roeg's structure: the film starts in the middle, jumps ahead to the end, then back to the prologue within the first four minutes – and continues in a non-linear fashion until the final shot. It takes us viewers a while to get our bearing, but it also elicits our rapt attention to detail. Never are we certain if the cascading flashbacks are meant to be objective on the filmmaker's part, or the skewed perspective of one of the three main characters. Is Russell a victim, or a tramp? Is Garfunkel a creep, or is that just Keitel's projection? Is Keitel a sympathetic doppelganger, or a crafty manipulator? The stars turn in complex, though off-center performances. Keitel turns miscasting to his advantage; never has he underplayed 'menacing' like he does here. Garfunkel's lack of charisma will turn many viewers off, but he's 100% believable as a shrewd, unstable shrink. Yet it's Russell who's the revelation – those who subscribe to the lazy theory that she can't act will be astonished here. What she may lack in formal technique, she compensates with fearless commitment. Hers may be the most passionate performance by a 21-year old ever captured on film.

Tony Richmond's widescreen photography is particularly rich in color and composition (the film's look was based on the art of Gustav Klimt). He shows us a Vienna that's cold, academic, clinical – but electric whenever Russell's on screen. There's a sequence in a university courtyard where he changes lenses, practically from shot to shot, to convey Russell's emotional collapse. (In the background, Keith Jarrett's 'Köln Concert' mourns her sad dilemma.) It's a heartbreaking passage, poetically surpassed only by the connecting shot of Garfunkel brooding through a polarized car windshield at daybreak. Frequently Richmond balances the stars' close-ups on the very edge of the screen, which is why the film's power is neutered on cable TV, where 2/3 of the image is lopped off. In that pan-and-scan atrocity, the screen is forever hovering on backgrounds and earlobes.

The real tragedy is that BAD TIMING has never been released on any home video format, and I fear it may never happen. It was made at a time when music licenses weren't automatically cleared for home viewing. Considering the eclectic soundtrack incorporates Jarrett, Tom Waits, The Who, Billie Holiday, Harry Partch and others, the idea of renegotiating deals at this point would be any lawyer's nightmare. Even worse, Roeg himself believes the few prints that Rank struck are probably lost or damaged beyond repair, and one fears for the state of the negative. My overlong, effusive review here is a direct plea for a rescue operation. Is any entrepreneurial DVD-releasing outfit willing to salvage this forgotten treasure from obscurity and give it the best letterboxed release possible? Once people are able to see this film as it was intended – for the first time in 24 years or more – I believe its reputation will grow immeasurably. There is simply no other film like it, and, based on current popular trends, nor will there ever be.

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26 out of 28 people found the following comment useful :-
intense work from forgotten master, 10 June 2003

Author: p-keane from england

Bad Timing is not an easy film, but one that rewards effort. Art Garfunkel joins the line (Jagger, Bowie) of singers who produced career best acting performances for this director - the scene of him smoking while staring over a bridge into the abyss of his life is worth buying the dvd alone - and Theresa Russell is simply incendiary. The story is a relatively simple one of how two people who should never have got together become obsessed with each other, but is told in Nicolas Roeg's fluid, labyrinthine style with flashes back and forward and disconcerting edits. The sexual content is extreme for some tastes, but raw and painfully honest in a way which defies simple titillation. Intense work from one of the giants of British and world cinema, now sadly neglected, and one of a string of great films, Performance, Walkabout, Don't Look Now and The Man Who Fell to Earth which mark Nicolas Roeg out as a great director.

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21 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
A Creepy, Riveting, Stunner!, 11 February 2000
Author: aaron-71 from Long Island City, NY

This film will always have a soft spot in my heart because it introduced me to Tom Waits' music. His song Invitation to the Blues brilliantly opens this unsettling story of a snobby professor's "ravishing" of a free spirit. I don't know why this film has never been released on video. My viewpoints of the characters has changed over the years in this complex film. Art Garfunkel's obsession with Theresa Russell feels more unnerving with each viewing. It's probably the first and only sort-of mainstream film to represent near-necrophilia. Harvey Keitel's strange motivation for wanting a confession out of Art seems more complicated as the film progresses. Theresa is brilliant in the female lead.

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20 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
Roeg's last great film: a troubled picture about a troubled romance, 5 April 2005

Author: TrevorAclea from London, England

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 hard to track down, but worth the effort if you're looking for challenging fare. Carlton have released a budget DVD in 2.35:1 in the UK which is an acceptable transfer, but the film remains as elusive as ever elsewhere.

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18 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
loved it... and struggled with it, 5 September 1999
Author: Richard van Santen (erichie@bart.nl) from Rotterdam, The Netherlands

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I really couldn't accurately describe the contents of this movie. It's about a destructive love affair between a man played by Art Garfunkel and a woman played by Theresa Russel. Russel has attempted to commit suicide. In the hospital they're fighting for her life as Garfunkel is interrogated by a detective (Harvey Keitel) about what really happened. Slowly the real story unfolds and the viewer learns about the darker sides in both characters.

Roeg switches back and forth in the chronology of the story and that makes Bad Timing an intriguing but difficult movie. The secrets that are uncovered are very shocking but one can still 'empathize' (if not sympathize) with the characters.

In my opinion it's about stretching the line between good intentions and evil doings. The good part is that you can't really tell in which moment the line is crossed.

See it and then see it again.

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16 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
"If we don't meet, there's the possibility that it could have been perfect", 18 January 2005

Author: wilderfan from Australia

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Based on an obscure Italian novel, Nicolas Roeg's upsetting and brilliant film details the doomed affair between a cruel psychoanalyst and a melodramatic free spirit. The film begins with the girl comatose and a detective investigates the circumstances. Through flashbacks, the audience learns a terrifying love story has ended with a criminal act.

What makes this film so uncomfortable is that it relentlessly focuses on a time in our lives that most of us would like to forget- that is, the time when you know is relationship is doomed, but you have to wait until it hits rock bottom before you finally part ways. Roeg understands that people can't divorce themselves from their emotions, even when they know intellectually that something is wrong.

Although Theresa Russell as Milena is the undoubted star of the film- she simply overpowers everything with her vivacity and directness- special mention must be made of the "miscast" male leads. Art Garfunkel gives a superb, selfless performance as Alex Linden. Alex is not a sympathetic character. He's a controlling, possessive person who gathers data on his unpremeditating mistress. Even an innocent game (the Luscher color test) ends up as part of a psychological profile that's handed in to a security agency. He's resentful as he watches Milena kiss other men but doesn't confront her about it until she's helplessly sprawled on the floor. He never relaxes except in post-coital moments and he becomes frustrated that Milena is untamed, unmarriageable and has a past that she won't share or give up.

Harvey Keitel is very charismatic, if unconvincing as an Austrian detective. His performance as the moralistic Inspector Netusil (the name refers to somebody who knows everything who knows one small detail) does not soften the arrogance or the self-righteousness of the character. A thorough investigator who knows that there's more to the case than a suicide attempt- he says plainly "How, Dr. Linden, do you account for a girl getting in such a state- drugs, depressions?" Milena is somebody who has no idea who has no idea what she wants out of life, sees pleasure as an end in itself and is prone to bouts of melodrama and selfishness. The best scene in the film is her drunken outburst at her uncaring lover: "We are celebrating the death of the Milena and the birth of the Milena you do want". It's a powerful sequence, but it begs the question- why would this beautiful, intelligent girl let herself get so messed up? Beautifully shot by Roeg's regular cinematographer Anthony Richmond and filled with small, telling moments (e.g. the handwritten note that says "I wish you understood me less and loved me more"), this is a picture that demands multiple viewings. Roeg at his peak made the busiest films of all time- they're bursting at the seams with ideas and this film, often shocking and heartbreaking, is one of his most accessible. It's unfortunate that this brilliant movie is not more well known- maybe Roeg was right when he said "people don't like it when you hold a mirror to their face".

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11 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
The psychology of sexual obsession artistically exposed, 23 October 2004

Author: emdragon from Reno, Nv

Art Garfunkel in his one great role as an American college psychology professor lusting after student Theresa Russell somewhere in Austria set in the late 70s. The camera work is amazing and keeps the same pace as the subtle plot lines and aesthetically deft sound score. Harvey Keitel plays a systematically intense police detective who has to unravel the near death of Russell following a harrowing sexual attack and drug overdose. Garfunkel is moody, and sophisticated, while never controlling as much as he is controlled by Ms Russell's ingenuous charms. Quite a psychological thriller, and a movie completely in it's own fresh mold. Anybody coming upon this film for the first time will find themselves drawn into the amazing weave which will entice them, and engage self-sexual questioning that is quite capable of opening one's own sexual subconscious. And, just for a treat. . . it almost seems as if every frame of this film is an art-piece in and of itself.

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10 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Complex and shocking and riveting, 2 September 2003
Author: answar7979 from Baltimore, MD

I saw this film when it was originally released and it still ranks as my all-time favorite. From the opening strains of Tom Waits' gritty "Invitation to the Blues" (which is cut off by the wail of an ambulance!) every aspect--music, scenery, the astonishing acting--melds together into a masterpiece.

Theresa Russell is simply a knockout as Milena, a woman who refuses to be "owned". She's beautiful, sexy, carefree, and absolutely infuriating to Art Garfunkel's psychologist Dr. Linden. His compulsion to control her leads to disaster, and Garfunkel's performance is absolutely astonishing. The expression on his face in the final scene is unforgettable. It haunts me still.

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14 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Extraordinary, powerful movie - a masterpiece, 29 July 2000

Author: Kansas-5 from Bluff City, Kansas

This is Roeg at his best. Incredible script, stellar camerawork, dark and convoluted plot. Exquisite exposition of the nature of obsession. I believe the rapid cuts between the emergency room and sexual passion were off putting for many reviewers, and they couldn't see Theresa Russell's magnificent performance in that scene for what it really was.

Roeg is never easy, but neither is Franz Kafka.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
The ultimate feel-bad movie, 16 April 2006
Author: Pete Tha GEEK! from Copenhagen, Denmark

No! This is NOT a good date movie! In fact, it is one of the most unrelentingly grim films, I have seen in a long time. And I loved it! One night in Vienna, a young woman(Theresa Russel) are bought to the hospital, after a suicide attempt with booze and pills. Nicholas Roeg use the same kind of breaks in the ordinary narrative structure, that he presented really good in 'Dont Look Now'. During the operation, it is revealed in flashbacks, how she could take such a drastic action. A pretty dysfunctional relationship with a egocentric psychiatric(Art Garfunkel), put both of them out on the edge, since he cant accept when she act against his greasy mind. Combined with emotional manipulation and her self-destructive behavior, it is all set to end fatal. And it really do! The final between these two, is truly sick and nasty and had Me on the edge of my seat. Teresa Russel is one of these few actresses who can be repulsive without really being it, she really suits the movie well. The characters are all very complex, at one point I cared for them, at another I wanted to beat them real hard. This is really powerful, and sleazy, art-house drama. While I'm not in a hurry to re-watch it, I should not be late to call the movie a masterpiece.

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