Roeg. Though he’s not quite in his class, Roeg reminds me of Godard who had a great run and then fall off. He’s a supernova who burned brightly and died out quickly. Roeg worked as a top DP on many 1960’s British films (Far from the Madding Crowd, Petulia — worked on Lawrence and Zhivago but wasn’t DP) and then went on a run as director/auteur from 1970-1980 that gave him 2 of the best 163 films of all-time. He struggled in the 1980’s and then eventually couldn’t get work in the 90’s. Many auteurs on this list can’t match The Man Who Fell to Earth (a fascinating and striking film) as their third best. I wish his filmography had more depth but 5 of his 6 archiveable films make the top 100 of their respective decade.
Best film: Performance Somewhere between (from a time stand point, not quality) Persona and Mulholland Drive lies Performance—doppelgänger masterpieces. It’s a stunning debut that’s got all of the Roeg traits and when the “music video”— “memo from turner” –comes on… you’ll be blown away.
total archiveable films: 6
top 100 films: 0
top 500 films: 3 (Performance, Don’t Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth)
top 100 films of the decade: 5 (Performacne, Don’t Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bad Timing, Walkabout)
most overrated: None. The TSPDT consensus has his top 4 films all in the top 1000 and none of the 4 are overrated.
most underrated: The Man Who Fell to Earth is #965 on TSPDT that is entirely too low for a film this inventive and brilliant. I have it at #316.
gem I want to spotlight: Don’t Look Now. If you haven’t seen it I hate to say that it might take 2-3 viewings to fully appreciate this visual exhibition- at least it did for me. When you’ve had a chance to fully study it you’ll come to the conclusion that Don’t Look Now is one of the 10 most beautiful films of the 1970’s. The incredible and justifiably famous slow-motion opening will not slip past you.
stylistic innovations/traits: I’ll be the first to admit that those who say things like “ultimately it’s about the storytelling” and love movies for their quotes aren’t going to love Roeg. He’s a former DP and his photography is his essence. Don’t Look Now is the most picturesque of the 70’s horror masterworks. His films are elliptically and jaggedly edited (another Godard comparison) but brilliantly so— as his films are purposefully fragmented films. Roeg is a visual artist who seems to take pleasure wreaking havoc with conventional screen narratives. I think you could call “Memo to Turner” the first real music video (most would argue Lester in A Hard Day’s Night) but either way Roeg is synonymous with rock and roll (2 of his best 3 films star icons Mick Jagger and David Bowie), personality transformations (before Bunuel and Lynch), and drugs (and everything that comes with it including paranoia).
top 10
- Performance
- Don’t Look Now
- The Man Who Fell to Earth
- Walkabout
- Bad Timing
- The Witches
By year and grades
| 1970- Performance | MP |
| 1971- Walkabout | HR |
| 1973- Don’t Look Now | MP |
| 1976- The Man Who Fell To Earth | MS |
| 1980- Bad Timing | HR |
| 1990- The Witches | R |
*MP is Masterpiece- top 1-3 quality of the year film
MS is Must-see- top 5-6 quality of the year film
HR is Highly Recommend- top 10 quality of the year film
R is Recommend- outside the top 10 of the year quality film but still in the archives
Wonderful assessment of Roeg’s work.
@Finn- thanks for saying that- much appreciated
In that intro I’m surprised you wouldn’t compare him to Coppola as well (bright star that burned out quickly), especially considering they were contemporaries.
Drake have you seen Eureka (1983)?
@Harry- I have- but maybe 15 years ago- once and only once.
I like his 80s output a fair bit.
Bad Timing can be a tough film to watch at times but Roeg is firing off stylistic with his trademark editing.
Eureka and Castaway are also gems I feel. Eureka is big and ambitious, absolutely loaded cast and some beautiful imagery. Continues his fragmented puzzle-like narratives – Gene Hackman hates his son in law (Rutger Hauer) and the film just gives you a few pieces to work with narratively. The film is built from 3 parts: the There Will Be Blood like opening with Gene Hackman prospecting for gold in Alaska, then the Citizen Kane influenced part where Hackman is cooped up in his epic mansion on a beautiful tropical island, then the third part set in the courtroom where Rutger Hauer’s marriage and relationship to his father in law is dissected. The courtroom act could fall into the trap of just being wordy, but Roeg doesn’t let up his trademark zooms keeping the cinematic energy high.
Castaway is also really good. Opening credits are excellent – title cards phasing in and out with Oliver Reed setting up the film’s narrative by putting an ad in the paper, all while Kate Bush’s song for the film sweeps you in (Hans Zimmer also works on the soundtrack but it is not as memorable musically). Roeg pulls off two great magic hour shots that could be straight out of a Malick film. His greatest achievement is a very strong close-up shot of Oliver Reed’s fist, which leaves the frame to then focus onto a sea-bound boulder shaped like a hand – it’s a jaw-dropping moment from a master director. His editing creates that dream-like flow of the time passing which works well here. Ultimately its sorta like a marriage saga, the two leads learning how to live together in an enviroment that is completely new to them. They both give great dueling performances.
1. Walkabout – MP
2. Don’t Look Now – MS
3. The Man Who Fell to Earth – MS
4. Performance – MS
5. – Eureka – MS
6. Castaway – HR
7. Bad Timing – HR
8. The Witches – unranked
I really want to see Performance, Don’t Look Now and The Man Who Fell to Earth again as I think with a second viewing they can all go to masterpiece level.
@Harry – good stuff, I’ve seen 4 of the 8 films you have listed. His films are challenging and require being in a certain mood. If you really liked Walkabout I would recommend Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, gorgeous film set in Austrilia.
@James I have seen Picnic at Hanging Rock but I do not consider it a masterpiece or think it is terribly close to Walkabout’s level. I felt like what the film had going for it dropped off after about an hour and it doesn’t recover the excellent atmosphere it starts with.
@Harry – In what way do you think it drops off? The atmophere is consistent througout with a dream like vibe similar to Days of Heaven (1978). This is achieved both by the cinematography and score. Weir achieves this by using soft focus lens, blurred footage, and slow motion and uses soft focus lens to make the girls white clothing more noticeable. The white being a sign of purity, sexual repression is one of the films themes (similar to Campion). The location as character is similar to Antonioni’s Red Desert. An ominous score and low angle shots of the rock create a haunting atmosphere filled with constant dread.
@James I would have to watch it again to be sure, I just roughly remember the experience of my last watch.
@Harry – Tremendous add to the page here. Thanks for sharing this.
Rewatched Performance (1970), Quite audacious to go with something this experimental for a director’s debut film. You could certainly point out that something like say, Breathless (1960) was also a bold film in redefining genre rules. Except with Breathless there is at least an on the surface a linear conventional plot to follow whereas Performance is a film bound to be extremely polarizing and is extremely confusing. It seems that most aueturs will “play it safe” with their bebuts, going with something safe and conventional; think the Coen Brother’s with Blood Simple (film noir) or Mann with Thief (caper film). Credit to Roeg for this.
I noticed Insignificance (1985) did not make the archives. Have you seen this and just did not archive it? I’ve been on a Roeg spree (not full on study) and noticed this on Criterion Channel.
@James Trapp- Saw this one and did not archive it