Bad Timing (1980)

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  October 27, 2011

  fb1664868775

  Wonderfully directed by Roeg with good performances from Harvey Keitel.and Theresa Russell. I'm not a huge fan of Art Garfunkel.

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  March 11, 2011

  ebs90

  Alex Lindon, an American psychoanalyst, meets the freewheeling Milena in Vienna. We don't know much about them as the film begins. Nicolas Roeg conducts the film in two different, alternate story lines: one, the 'love' story of the two characters; the other, the "present", in

  ... read morewhich Milena is taken into an emergency room with a medication overdose, as Alex waits outside smoking cigarette after cigarette and reluctantly answering a police inspector's questions.
  

  In Bad Timing, a man and a woman meet and begin a relationship in which neither of them is ever on the same page as the other. Their 'timing', as the title well states, is completely off. Alex and Milena keep secrets from each other, stories about their past, observations about each other. Milena is loud, outgoing and even charming at times, but also unstable, aggressive, extremely nervous, abuses alcohol, and does only what she pleases. She conceals her history from Alex and constantly tries to live in the 'now', forsaking any past or future. Alex, on the other hand, mostly keeps to himself, watching his surrounding with analytical -and menacing- eyes. He is attracted to Milena mostly for lust, and then reaches a point in which the more difficult she becomes, the more obsessed he is. He seems to try to understand her, then he only wants to own her. She wants him to adapt to her terms, and then she wants him back. The truth is they don't get along very well at all. Verbal abuse quickly becomes physical abuse. Then the line between abuse and normal interaction begins to blur.

  
  

  The reason why this ill relationship begins and sustains itself are never very clear. However, if it were, the film would be too boring and predictable, or it would be like some other "psychosexual" dramas. Bad relationships exist, and the truth is some of them really do last too long, to everyone's bewilderment. Because he more than understands this, instead of hinting at 'complexes' or 'traumas', Roeg relies completely on intrigue and image to keep Bad Timing going.

  
  

  Art Garfunkel is adequate, although probably not perfect, as Alex. He does at times seem too stiff, even for his uptight character. However, he delivers the climax scene successfully, and that was a relief. Theresa Russell's performance is, in my opinion, a tour de force. She gives Milena a vitality that borders in hysteria and is genuinely awkward at times; she is exactly the way she should be so that her character, although tortured by herself, never quite arises any sympathy. There is another fine performance by Harvey Keitel as the police inspector, a balanced character that also represents a breath of fresh air in the film.

  
  

  That brings me to another point: the film happens in Vienna, and there appear to be virtually no other American characters. Alex and Milena never go out with friends, never invite another couple to dinner. They are alone, completely alone, in their misery.

  
  

  The art direction and cinematography of this film is simply stunning. Everything about it is lush and intoxicating, so that such ugly, "sick" things happening in such beautiful surroundings are all the more shocking and uncomfortable to watch. In Bad Timing the rooms are always cluttered, heavily decorated, and messier -although colorful as ever- as things between Alex and Milena become more unhealthy. Details of things, keys, books, liquor bottles, even the characters' clothes, and also the soundtrack, say something and build the film's richness. The editing is also brilliant and carries the double narrative perfectly.

  
  

  Bad Timing isn't a film for escapism. It's draining and brutally honest. Perhaps in 1980 this was "sick for sick people by sick people"; however I don't think even today there are many other films that combine artistry and emotional power this well. It's the kind of story that could happen to someone that someone you know knows, that you hear about and feel lucky it didn't happen to you. Its characters aren't villains or heroes, they're victims of bad choices. And a lot of bad timing.

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  February 10, 2011

  matertenebraum

  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 th... read moree 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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  October 19, 2010

  guttersnipe28

  An incredible experience. Roeg's last masterpiece after a phenomenal run charts a sensual love story from start to finish and the two parties' futile attempts to recreate their lust for one another after a massive split. Garfunkel and Russell are prefect, and embody the obsessed ... read morelovers with devastating emotional impact. The tale is told in an inventive and unorthodox style, flitting back and forth throughout the relationship, highlighting each other's paranoia and pursuit of sexual satisfaction. Harvey Kietel gives great support, and the third act's a belter. The soundtrack is essential as well.
  
  I consider this a large influence on Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, which is in itself ace, but this earlier effort is just as worthy, and is definately more unsettling. Experience.

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  February 2, 2010

  adammahler1

  Roeg likes this movie a lot, as an organic, experimental project and a dark journey he took the actors on. His unlatched-from-sequential-time style of editing is in good form here, as are some zooms he aims at the periphery of the characters, shots worthy of The Long Goodbye. The... read more highest achievement of Bad Timing is how Keitel's part builds into a theatrical climax, a Dostoevskyan soliloquy, that you rarely see in film.
  
  But Roeg cultivates performances from Russell and Garfunkle that are alternately stilted, affected and believable, which is not helped by dialogue that actually gets pretentious in its simplicity. This weighs down the movie b/c it's already committed to not showing the fullness of a "real" relationship, but one's that only plausible as a halting, fitful mutual obsession. That's fine, though Russell's obsession is not anatomized at all (except that she needs someone whose disapproval slows her down) and Garfunkle's is.
  
  The movie often shares the male lead's perspective, and decides that women are a dangerous mystery and men are dangerous in their predictability, being brutish or venal creatures. Yet Roeg and his hero are so in love with themselves deep-down, they believe this great, dangerous female mystery preternaturally needs one man, for no other reason than his mastery ... of important knowledge.

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  September 30, 2009

  SirPant

  Don't believe the hype! I bet Roeg loved it when it was called 'A sick movie for sick people'. It?s not, it?s a beautifully filmed and well acted (by Russell anyway) pretentious journey through all of life's little buggers EG. Jealousy, obsession, sex, addiction, etc. Style over ... read morecontent and very up its own bottom but it is worth watching this 'Classic'

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  October 21, 2007

  Redlats

  I will have to watch this film more than once to understand it. Art Garfunkel is cast as Alex -- an aloof psychoanalyst professor in a relationship with Milena (Theresa Russell). This is a turbulent relationship with flawed characters. Most of the reasons behind Milena's suici... read morede is depicted to us in flashbacks. The film flips between the doctors trying to save Milena and Alex's thoughts as he contemplates what went wrong.

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  August 7, 2007

  gor41

  Slow disorientating dissection of a destructive relationship with stunning performance by Theresa Russell

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  January 6, 2008

  fb6025506

  Art Garfunkel's acting in this film is, to me, the most annoying performance I've ever seen.

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  January 3, 2010

  Ivan6655321

  Nicolas Roeg's "Bad Timing" left me puzzled on how to think about it. Half of me says its great, but the other half says otherwise. The muddled chronology, which some would say a brilliant touch, for me, it was confusing, but maybe that's the point, Nicolas Roeg wanted the viewer... read mores to delve into the neurotic mind of the obsessed protagonist. As the film is open for countless analysis, I always interpret the final scene as an imaginary psychosis of Art Garfunkel's character, that after he raped her, all he can see was Milena, with the neck scar and all, to haunt him forever. I thought I'm the only one who noticed Harvey Keitel's look in the film is like Vincent Vega, thank god a reviewer on the net also thought the same. Just make Art Garfunkel an African-American (with that afro), you got a prototype Pulp Fiction scene. Sexual obsessions has been tackled well enough in films, even taking it to its extremes in "Ai No Corrida", but "Bad Timing", though not comparable to the first's graphic nature, also gave an insightful look to this dark, moody world, with a hit-and-miss result.

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• Art Garfunkel as Dr. Alex Linden
• Theresa Russell as Milena Flaherty
• Harvey Keitel as Insp. Netusil
• Denholm Elliott as Stefan Vognic
• Daniel Massey as Fop
• Dana Gillespie as Amy
• Chris Cooper
• Sevilia Delofski as Receptionist
• Stefan Gryff as Policeman #2

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• In what movie would one here this line: "Good luck with that at the Bad Timing Awards..."   Answer »
• Name the famous musician whose only starring role as an actor was in the 1980 film Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession.  Answer »

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