08-28-2019, 05:08 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-28-2019, 05:15 PM by TM2YC. Edited 2 times in total.)
A Nicolas Roeg double-bill, both starring Rock musicians...
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
I've watched parts of this film before but never made it all the way through until today. Nicolas Roeg's 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' is a Sci-Fi vision that's too quirky, visually interesting and intriguing to dislike but I didn't really like it either. Roeg has no time for frivolities like exposition, logic and story development. Each new scene could take place in a different place, in the next hour, day, year, or decade but you are left to work that out for yourself as the scene progresses. David Bowie is of course a perfect casting choice for a strange alien. Every time he is on screen it's fascinating but 50% of the film seemed to be composed of people rolling naked on beds, drinking Gin. I'm sure when the film was made Bowie's 'Thomas Jerome Newton' character was modeled after Howard Hughes but watching it in 2019, it seems to predict the modern tech/media entrepreneurs.
The 40th Anniversary 4K-scanned blu-ray looks spectacular, apart from the last shot that plays under the credits, which drops down to DVD upscale quality for some reason.
Fanedit wise, I'd love to see a more Bowie focused edit that replaced the soundtrack with instrumentals from 'Low' and similar period albums (which may or may not have featured outtakes from Bowie's abandoned score). This guy on youtube re-scored the opening and added foley. It works wonderfully:
Bad Timing (1980)
Despite Nicolas Roeg's 'Bad Timing' often being acclaimed by critics now, I'd read that one Rank Film exec (the studio distributing the film) at the time denounced it as "A sick film, made by sick people, for sick people". I assume they were referring to one of the final scenes, which is extreme and (deliberately) unpleasant. The preceding 2-hours is high-art filmmaking, skillfully weaving a nonlinear flashback/flashforward structure across multiple times/places, that never gets confusing. Fortunately Art Garfunkel's vacant (lack of) acting is ideally suited to his cold borderline-sociopathic psychiatrist character. Theresa Russell plays a chaotic younger woman who becomes the object of his fascination because she must live entirely in the moment, while he desires control of everything. Harvey Keitel is creepily intense as a Cop investigating the couple.
The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
I've watched parts of this film before but never made it all the way through until today. Nicolas Roeg's 'The Man Who Fell to Earth' is a Sci-Fi vision that's too quirky, visually interesting and intriguing to dislike but I didn't really like it either. Roeg has no time for frivolities like exposition, logic and story development. Each new scene could take place in a different place, in the next hour, day, year, or decade but you are left to work that out for yourself as the scene progresses. David Bowie is of course a perfect casting choice for a strange alien. Every time he is on screen it's fascinating but 50% of the film seemed to be composed of people rolling naked on beds, drinking Gin. I'm sure when the film was made Bowie's 'Thomas Jerome Newton' character was modeled after Howard Hughes but watching it in 2019, it seems to predict the modern tech/media entrepreneurs.
The 40th Anniversary 4K-scanned blu-ray looks spectacular, apart from the last shot that plays under the credits, which drops down to DVD upscale quality for some reason.
Fanedit wise, I'd love to see a more Bowie focused edit that replaced the soundtrack with instrumentals from 'Low' and similar period albums (which may or may not have featured outtakes from Bowie's abandoned score). This guy on youtube re-scored the opening and added foley. It works wonderfully:
Bad Timing (1980)
Despite Nicolas Roeg's 'Bad Timing' often being acclaimed by critics now, I'd read that one Rank Film exec (the studio distributing the film) at the time denounced it as "A sick film, made by sick people, for sick people". I assume they were referring to one of the final scenes, which is extreme and (deliberately) unpleasant. The preceding 2-hours is high-art filmmaking, skillfully weaving a nonlinear flashback/flashforward structure across multiple times/places, that never gets confusing. Fortunately Art Garfunkel's vacant (lack of) acting is ideally suited to his cold borderline-sociopathic psychiatrist character. Theresa Russell plays a chaotic younger woman who becomes the object of his fascination because she must live entirely in the moment, while he desires control of everything. Harvey Keitel is creepily intense as a Cop investigating the couple.
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