Continuing to catch up on the films of Nicolas Roeg after his recent passing, I settled in to watch Bad Timing (1980), a film that failed financially on release and became very hard to see due to its explicit content. Infamously an executive at Rank Organization that released it, said it was “a sick film made by sick film, for sick people.” For me, it was a very involving, unusual film that grew increasingly darker in tone as it went on. First, you are confronted with Art Garfunkel in sex scenes – not the first person I’d think of for the lead in a psychological sex thriller. To be fair, Garfunkel goes further than any matinee idol of the time would, in letting himself be depicted in such an unflattering way, he and co-star Theresa Russell (who is great) compellingly create a portrait of a toxic relationship set in Vienna. Garfunkel is the dry psychiatrist who seems more in control than Russell’s free-wheeling, drunken spirit. Yet as the film unfolds, edited in trademark Roeg fashion between their past and the present with Russell being hospitalised after overdosing on pills, and detective Harvey Kietel (with Grade A slicked back long hair) trying to investigate what happened on that night, Garfunkel is slowly revealed to be an obsessive creep. This film won’t be for everyone, but I found it quite compelling and very dark, and another example of Roeg’s visual style which is at once emotive and symbolically loaded in editing and framing. CW: this film contains representations of sexual abuse/assault, suicide.
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