Bad Timing (The Criterion Collection) [DVD]

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Product Description ------------------- Amid the decaying elegance of cold-war Vienna, psychoanalyst Dr. Alex Linden (Art Garfunkel) becomes mired in an erotically charged affair with the elusive Milena Flaherty (Theresa Russell). Direction: Nicolas Roeg Actors: Art Garfunkel, Dana Gillespie, Daniel Massey, Denholm Elliott, Eugene Lipinski, Special Features: New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Nicolas Roeg; New interview with Roeg and producer Jeremy Thomas; New interview with Theresa Russell; a new essay by film historian Richard Combs and a reprinted interview with Art Garfunkel, from 1980; 2.35:1, Anamorphic16x9, Widescreen format. Language: English / Sub. English Year: 1980 Runtime: 122 minutes. .com ---- A choppy, unsettling meditation on sexual obsession, Nicholas Roeg's Bad Timing stars Theresa Russell and Art Garfunkel as Milena and Alex, two lovers pursuing a torrid relationship in late-1970s Vienna. The movie opens with Milena being rushed to the hospital for an apparent suicide attempt. Alex, a psychology professor, proceeds to play it cool as he's questioned by Inspector Netusil (Harvey Keitel). As Milena fights for her life on the operating table, the story of how she and Alex came together is revealed in startlingly raw passages of lust and bursts of raw emotion. Roeg throws the narrative out of joint with flashbacks and jarring editing, skillfully turning this story of a love affair into a mystery. The scene in which Milena aggressively seduces Alex on a stairwell is a bravura, gutsy performance from Russell. What's even more startling is the odd casting of this film. After all, that is the bare backside of the guy who most famously provided harmonies on "borough Fair." Roeg, clearly enamored with casting musicians in lead roles (David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth and Mick Jagger in Performance) also approaches the editing of the film as though it were music, with abrupt, discordant cuts and strange juxtapositions. The film--of a tradition of sexually frank films like Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris--is yet another reminder of how deeply filmmakers of the '70s were willing to mine human emotions, especially unpleasant ones. -- Ryan Boudinot