“A sick film made by sick people for sick people” was how Nicolas Roeg’s Bad Timing was described by its own distributors, and if that sounds like the kind of film you absolutely must see, Fillum and the Generator have you covered this November.
Indie film champions Fillum will be hosting a screening of Bad Timing by Nicolas Roeg (1980) to coincide with the eve of the film’s 40 year anniversary, as well as the one year anniversary of the influential British director’s death. With the title “You’ve Never Seen?”, the event will be hopefully the first of many special screenings showcasing the unchampioned and underseen in the heart of Dublin. The screening will take place at the Generator in Smithfield on November 22nd, 7pm.
Starring Art Garfunkel, Theresa Russell, Harvey Kietel and Denholm Elliot, the film tells the story of a psychiatrist living in Vienna, who enters a tumultuous relationship with a married woman. When she ends up in the hospital from an overdose, an inspector becomes set on discovering the demise of their affair.
Roeg’s fifth feature film (following up Performance, Walkabout, Dont Look Now and The Man Who Fell to Earth) Bad Timing is a disturbing tale of sexual obsession so controversial that upon its release its own distributors Rank were appalled and removed their logo from UK prints of the film.
After a brief release it was buried for twenty years but has since garnered critical acclaim, described as an innovative, strange and beautiful mergings of sound and image. Nicolas Roeg was ahead of his time with his signature fragmented editing style termed Roegian. A difficult watch, nevertheless it presents an opportunity to witness Roeg’s skill with tension and fraught narrative, which led him to influence modern British filmmakers like Christopher Nolan, Danny Boyle and Lynne Ramsay. Film critic Mark Cousins has described the film as “a Douglas Sirk melodrama attacked by Edward Scissorhands”
The screening will be followed by an informal discussion with director/producer Colin McKeown and film critic Peter Larkin. Tickets for this event are available now from Eventbrite and cost €7.85 (including fees)