Bad Timing is a 1980 British film directed by
Nicolas RoegNicolas Jack Roeg, CBE, BSC is an English film director and cinematographer.-Life and career:Roeg was born in London, the son of Mabel Gertrude and Jack Nicolas Roeg...
, produced by
Jeremy ThomasJeremy Jack Thomas, CBE is a British film producer, founder of the Recorded Picture Company. He was the producer of Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, which won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2006 he received a European Film Award for Outstanding European Achievement in World...
.
Plot
In Vienna, a young American woman in her twenties (
RussellTheresa Russell is an American actress.-Biography:Russell was born Theresa Paup in San Diego, California, the daughter of Carole Platt and Jerry Russell Paup. She attended Burbank High School, but did not graduate. She married English film director Nicolas Roeg , in 1982...
) is rushed to the emergency room after apparently overdosing. With her is Alex Linden, an American psychiatrist (
GarfunkelArthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and actor, best known as being a member of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel...
) teaching in Vienna. Through a series of fragment flashbacks the film tells the story of their romance, which ends up becoming a sexual obsession. The woman, Milena, suffers from depression and is still married to a much older man (
ElliottDenholm Mitchell Elliott, CBE was an English film, television and theatre actor with over 120 film and television credits...
) whom she crosses the border to see at times. Linden likes her free spirited ways at first, then grows tired of her lifestyle, which includes relationships with other men and heavy drinking. He spies on Milena and eventually tries to control her. At the hospital, an investigator (
KeitelHarvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
) realises that there may be more to the case than a simple suicide attempt. He investigates and tries to get Linden to confess to possible crimes involved with the case.
Critical reaction
The film received mixed reviews. Some found the film brilliant while others found it tasteless. Its UK distributor,
RankThe Rank Organisation was a British entertainment company formed during 1937 and absorbed in 1996 by The Rank Group Plc. It was the largest and most vertically-integrated film company in Britain, owning production, distribution and exhibition facilities....
, were appalled by what they saw, one executive calling it "a sick film made by sick people for sick people." In response, they removed the Rank logo from all UK prints of the film. John Coleman in
The New StatesmanThe New Statesman is an award-winning British sitcom of the late 1980s and early 1990s satirising the Conservative government of the time...
gave it a very bad review: "[it has] an overall style which plays merry hell with chronology".
The film received the Toronto Film Festival's highest honour, the People's Choice Award, in 1980 and the London Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director.
Featured cast
- Art Garfunkel
Arthur Ira "Art" Garfunkel is an American singer-songwriter, poet, and actor, best known as being a member of the folk duo Simon & Garfunkel...
as Alex Linden
- Theresa Russell
Theresa Russell is an American actress.-Biography:Russell was born Theresa Paup in San Diego, California, the daughter of Carole Platt and Jerry Russell Paup. She attended Burbank High School, but did not graduate. She married English film director Nicolas Roeg , in 1982...
as Milena Flaherty
- Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
as Inspector Netusil
- Denholm Elliott
Denholm Mitchell Elliott, CBE was an English film, television and theatre actor with over 120 film and television credits...
as Stefan Vognic
- Daniel Massey
Daniel Raymond Massey was an English actor and performer. He is possibly best known for his starring role in the British TV drama The Roads to Freedom, as Daniel, alongside Michael Bryant...
as Foppish Man
Legacy
The title of this movie was used by musician
Jim O'RourkeJim O'Rourke is an Irish-American musician and record producer. He was long associated with the Chicago experimental and improv scene...
for his album
Bad Timing.
The movie was also a partial inspiration for
The GloveThe Glove was a short-lived one-off alternative rock supergroup, formed in 1982 by The Cure's Robert Smith and Siouxsie and the Banshees' Steven Severin.-History:...
's 1983 album "
Blue SunshineBlue Sunshine is the only album by the British supergroup The Glove, which was first released in 1983. This album mainly served as a diversion for Robert Smith and Steven Severin when both of them were under heavy stress in their respective bands The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees...
", a side project of
The CureThe Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
's
Robert SmithRobert James Smith is an English musician. He is the lead singer, guitar player and principal songwriter of the rock band The Cure, and its only constant member since its founding in 1976...
and
Siouxsie & the BansheesSiouxsie and the Banshees were a British rock band formed in 1976 by vocalist Siouxsie Sioux and bassist Steven Severin. Initially associated with the English punk rock scene, the band rapidly evolved to create "a form of post-punk discord full of daring rhythmic and sonic experimentation"...
' Steve Severin.