303 Bad Timing

[perkizitore]

Cannot agree more, Domino!

[knives]

Especially Don't Look Now which is possibly his best film. The ending is so disturbing and sad that you'll think about it for days.

[tojoed]

Especially Don't Look Now which is possibly his best film. The ending is so disturbing and sad that you'll think about it for days.

Years in my case.

[domino harvey]

I knew what was coming because that Bravo special spoiled it and it still scared the shit out of me when I watched the film for the first time! But it's the lingering unease and implications of the ending that really make it all the more unsettling

[dad1153]

As luck would have it Turner Classic Movies will be showing "Performance" in its 'TCM Underground' block next Friday night at 2AM (11PM Pacific). DVR set!

[domino harvey]

Can they air that on TCM?!

[dad1153]

It's overnight, it's on cable (no FCC) and it's clearly labeled as 'TV-MA.' So yes, yes they can!

[colinr0380]

Especially Don't Look Now which is possibly his best film. The ending is so disturbing and sad that you'll think about it for days.

Years in my case.

I've always loved Roeg's films but for me Don't Look Now really stands out as the best of the best (and seemingly very influential - I recently caught Michael Winterbottom's Genova on television and while quite a different film in many respects both Don't Look Now and The Changeling with George C. Scott came to mind while watching).

It is an absolutely stunning display of what film can truly be capable of in the right hands, particularly in the brilliant use of the Roegian fractured editing to create a wry 'wrong (wo)man' take on psychics and time spanning visions (something which could be in danger of seeming too 'on the nose' for such a story, but which manages to work quite wonderfully). Everything about the final scene is devastating on so many different levels and yet strangely, perversely, fulfilling for all the characters (the arms stretched yearningly through locked gates; the fragments of overwhelming memories putting together a puzzle that didn't need to be completed; the fateful meetings between certain characters set against the gulf of separation between others that does not have to be entirely justified, or explained, by the character's behaviour towards each other).

"Darlings!"

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

As luck would have it Turner Classic Movies will be showing "Performance" in its 'TCM Underground' block next Friday night at 2AM (11PM Pacific). DVR set!

FWIW, Performance is Donald Cammell's film as much as Roeg's. It's not as Roegian (except for the excellent photography) as you'd expect from his other work. In any case, prepare to have your mind blown. It's a great movie and always fun to see for the first time. Or the second. Or whenever. As others have suggested, watch Don't Look Now ASAP. I find it even trippier than Performance.

[tartarlamb]

I've always thought of Performance as being a Cammell film more than a Roeg film, but its clear that Roeg learned a lot from making it. I'll add to the chorus saying that Don't Look Now is Roeg's best film, probably because he was paying close attention to Cammell's montage. What a beautiful piece of work. That ending, the way it ties in with the imagery from the beginning... yikes. That's one chilling Gothic horror coup de grâce.

That said, Bad Timing is in second place for me. Its the last film that he made worth spit, in my opinion.

[Matt]

Let's also give a little credit for Performance's brilliant editing to Antony Gibbs, who pioneered this style in Richard Lester's Petulia (which Roeg shot). If you didn't know better, you could be forgiven for thinking Roeg directed it. Gibbs was actually experimenting with this style of associative editing as far back as the magnificent ending of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (and maybe even further back, but that's about the extent of my exposure to his work).

[swo17]

I haven't managed to see Performance yet. Unfortunately, this is the only thing I know about it:

[tojoed]

That wouldn't encourage anyone, would it? Luckily for you it's a lot better than that cover suggests.

[Person]

Especially Don't Look Now which is possibly his best film. The ending is so disturbing and sad that you'll think about it for days.

I was completely upended by the ending.

As luck would have it Turner Classic Movies will be showing "Performance" in its 'TCM Underground' block next Friday night at 2AM (11PM Pacific). DVR set!

Be sure to tell us if the "Here's to Old England!" line during the "Memo from Turner" sequence is in the soundtrack as it is infuriatingly missing from the DVD.

[dad1153]

Be sure to tell us if the "Here's to Old England!" line during the "Memo from Turner" sequence is in the soundtrack as it is infuriatingly missing from the DVD.

Finally got around to seeing "Performance" last weekend. Damn, the more Roeg movies I watch the more amazed I am at how he manages to squeeze reasonably good performances out of music stars (Bowie in "Man Who Fell To Earth," Garfunkel in "Bad Timing," etc.) while also making each of his movies both look nothing like each other and comfortably familiar (at least through the early 80's). I didn't even know Jagger was in this movie until his name appeared in the credits! And yes, technically Nic's co-director here but his influences in the look and pace of the flick are obvious; that non-linear montage toward the end about the fate of the two girls was clearly a Roeg-ish touch that he built into a signature style. And sorry Person, but I was so taken by the movie that I completely forgot to check out the line.

"Performance's" story is borderline meaningless (British gangster on the run hides in rock star's basement) but it isn't half-assed the way the writer manages to get James Fox inside Mick Jagger's flat. I wasn't sure what to make of anything (can someone really paint their hair red with a can of paint? ) until the main protagonists were under one roof. It's all about the performances and the 'mood' of the film, which is exquisitely seductive and psychedelic while backed by one well-chosen and put together soundtrack (Roeg sure knows his blues and rock'n roll). Jagger is basically playing himself but (a) Fox plays very well opposite him (each seducing the other through little reveals of who they are and want from the other) and (b) when the show-stopping 'Memo From Turner' scene kicks in Mick explodes on-screen. I seldom pause and rewind movie scenes midway through my first viewing (always wait until the end to rewatch the cool stuff) but that 'Memo from Turner' music video-within-a-movie scene had me hitting rewind on the DVR a few times before I could continue watching. Pallenberg and Breton are kind-of forgettable though (imagine if Mia Farrow and Tuesday Weld had actually gotten the roles!) but even that comes with the benefit of ample nudity and sex to sell the allure of the lifestyle Turner has (and Chas is seduced by). Is it me or is "Performance" the inspiration for almost every music video that aired on MTV in the early 80's?

[Yojimbo]

I've always thought of Performance as being a Cammell film more than a Roeg film, but its clear that Roeg learned a lot from making it. I'll add to the chorus saying that Don't Look Now is Roeg's best film, probably because he was paying close attention to Cammell's montage. What a beautiful piece of work. That ending, the way it ties in with the imagery from the beginning... yikes. That's one chilling Gothic horror coup de grâce.

That said, Bad Timing is in second place for me. Its the last film that he made worth spit, in my opinion.

I've always loved 'Don't Look Now', even though I had to wait about 15 years or so after its initial Irish cinema release before I got that wonderful intercut sex scene, but I finally caught up with Bava's 'Kill Baby Kill' last night, and apart from Fellini, I can't help but think that the Roeg of 'Don't Look Now' was also influenced by it.
I think after 'Bad Timing', Roeg's infatuation with both Theresa Russell, and cinema obscura, blinded his artistic sensibilities.

Be sure to tell us if the "Here's to Old England!" line during the "Memo from Turner" sequence is in the soundtrack as it is infuriatingly missing from the DVD.

"Performance's" story is borderline meaningless (British gangster on the run hides in rock star's basement) but it isn't half-assed the way the writer manages to get James Fox inside Mick Jagger's flat. I wasn't sure what to make of anything (can someone really paint their hair red with a can of paint? ) until the main protagonists were under one roof.

I presume there's something about the respective masculine and feminine aspects of the respective male characters becoming intertwined, and confused; perhaps there's a certain influence of Bergman's 'Persona' in there.

I think 'Performance' edges out 'Get Carter' as best British gangster film, bar none!

[zedz]

And yes, technically Nic's co-director here but his influences in the look and pace of the flick are obvious; that non-linear montage toward the end about the fate of the two girls was clearly a Roeg-ish touch that he built into a signature style.

This is an easy assumption to make, as the film is, in retrospect, very Roegian indeed, but the actual creative situation is much more complicated, and Cammell's career was so scattershot that the two of them don't really stand on equal auteurist footing. Even so, there's plenty of evidence to suggest that Cammell was the real driving creative force behind the film, and that Roeg simply took that aesthetic and ran with it - which is no slight on Roeg, as there are very few filmmakers who managed to pull off anything like his 1970s run.

Complicating matters is the fact that Performance's distinctive, 'Roegian' editing style is heavily indebted to Richard Lester's Petulia, also edited by Anthony Gibbs - and also shot by Roeg, though it's unlikely he had much of a say in how his footage was cut together.

Roeg is a really interesting case, and it seems to me like he effectively synthesized his directorial style from elements he liked in previous films he had worked on. Even his trademark use of fire-engine red can be found as part of the fundamental text (rather than as purely cinematographic ornamentation) in Masque of the Red Death and Farenheit 451.

[John Cope]

That said, Bad Timing is in second place for me. Its the last film that he made worth spit, in my opinion.

This is funny to me just because my own favorite Roeg films (barring Bad Timing itself) all come after that: Eureka, Insignificance, Track 29 and the awesomely underappreciated (though not surprisingly so) Full Body Massage. His Heart of Darkness is also first rate imo.

[tartarlamb]

This is funny to me just because my own favorite Roeg films (barring Bad Timing itself) all come after that: Eureka, Insignificance, Track 29 and the awesomely underappreciated (though not surprisingly so) Full Body Massage. His Heart of Darkness is also first rate imo.

I knew once I had said that that is was idiotic. I was judging pretty much on having seen Eureka, Cast Away, Aria, and what I could stomach of Puffball. I immediately watched Insignificance, which is a great film and very Roegian, and unlike Eureka, it doesn't collapse under the weight of its pretensions. I had also forgotten about The Witches!

[Robin Davies]

For me his first six films (Performance to Eureka) are as good as cinema gets. After that I think his powers waned considerably. I've always suspected it may have been partly due to the insulting treatment that Eureka received from the studio. It got a ridiculously minimal release in the UK on condition that Roeg accompanied the film to talk about it afterwards. That's where I met the great man and got his autograph. I remember him describing the non-release of the film and his rueful comment that he'd taken a copy for himself ("I pirated my own film!")

[MichaelB]

Let's also give a little credit for Performance's brilliant editing to Antony Gibbs, who pioneered this style in Richard Lester's Petulia (which Roeg shot). If you didn't know better, you could be forgiven for thinking Roeg directed it. Gibbs was actually experimenting with this style of associative editing as far back as the magnificent ending of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (and maybe even further back, but that's about the extent of my exposure to his work).

Actually, the lion's share of the credit for Performance's editing belongs to Frank Mazzola, even though he's not credited on the final film - he was the man who comprehensively reworked the film with Cammell after Warners rejected the first cut. Ironically, given that the cutting is so frequently described as 'Roegian', Roeg himself had nothing to do with it: he was filming Walkabout in Australia, and was initially so flummoxed by the cutting that he apparently considered taking his name off it.

I'm sure Gibbs' input was far from negligible, but credit for the final cut definitely belongs to Cammell and Mazzola. Sadly, we don't have access to the original cut for comparison purposes, but I've always been under the impression that it was much more linear.

[zedz]

Actually, the lion's share of the credit for Performance's editing belongs to Frank Mazzola, even though he's not credited on the final film - he was the man who comprehensively reworked the film with Cammell after Warners rejected the first cut. Ironically, given that the cutting is so frequently described as 'Roegian', Roeg himself had nothing to do with it: he was filming Walkabout in Australia, and was initially so flummoxed by the cutting that he apparently considered taking his name off it.

I'm sure Gibbs' input was far from negligible, but credit for the final cut definitely belongs to Cammell and Mazzola. Sadly, we don't have access to the original cut for comparison purposes, but I've always been under the impression that it was much more linear.

This just makes the whole influence question more mysterious and intriguing (and evidently Roeg changed his mind about that style of editing quite decisively once Performance was released). And highly fragmented editing styles were in the air at the time, just look at any of the various new waves around the world, and Resnais might have been the grandaddy of them all.

[Roger Ryan]

Be sure to tell us if the "Here's to Old England!" line during the "Memo from Turner" sequence is in the soundtrack as it is infuriatingly missing from the DVD.

I watched PERFORMANCE again last night and can attest to the fact that the "Here's to Old England" line is still missing, although I did not notice any obvious place where it might have been cut. Being my second time through, I enjoyed the film more and was less troubled by the editing scheme, something I found off-putting and pretentious the first time around (as I was expecting something a little more subtle as Roeg would do in subsequent films). The first half of PERFORMANCE is quite well-constructed, but once Chas starts living with Turner the film becomes a mish-mash of druggy scenes that fail to connect for me. The final sequence is so well-done, however, that it redeems the low points. I guess I wish there was a little more substance (and less substance-abuse) to the Chas/Turner confrontations to justify the "mergers/acquisitions" subtext.

[dad1153]

Saw "Bad Timing" again last night, followed by the bonus features. Like fine wine this flick is much sweeter on repeat taste. Garfunkel's voice and odd manners/look (along with the included interview in the booklet) give his character an air of being one and the same with the actor. Not true of course, but Roeg's decision to cast Art opposite the firecracker wild woman antics of Russell (along with miscast Keitel and reliable Denholm Elliott) plus Nic's editing skills at its peak ALL come together to make the movie click. And Holy Shit, I totally didn't get that

SpoilerShow

it was Milena at the end of the movie that Alex sees in New York (I thought it was a vision inside Alex's mind when I first saw it)

which adds an exclamation point to the narrative. A commentary would have been great but the bonus features (including a look at how fine Theresa is aging) help put "Bad Timing" in perspective. Next time though, can we get English subtitles to understand what Nic says when he mumbles? "Bad Timing" in now my solid 2nd favorite Roeg movie after "Walkabout."

[domino harvey]

I think there actually is a commentary on the R2 disc