Bad Timing

Plot synopsis:
In Cold War Vienna, Milena (Russell), a young American woman in her twenties, is rushed to the emergency room after apparently overdosing. With her is Alex Linden (Garfunkel), an American psychiatrist who lives in the city as a teacher. Through myriad fragmented flashbacks, the narrative depicts the story of their romance, which ultimately amounts to an unhealthy sexual obsession on the part of Alex.
Through these developments, Milena is revealed to suffer from depression while still being married to a much older man, Stefan (Elliott), whom she occasionally crosses the border to see during the course of her affair with Alex. Though Linden initially enjoys her free-spirited ways, he grows tired of, and embittered at, her lifestyle, which includes impulsive promiscuity and heavy drinking. Through spying on Milena, Alex becomes emotionally strained, and eventually tries to control her – leading to horrifying results, due in large part to very bad timing.
Throughout, at the hospital where medics fight to save Milena's life, an investigator, Netusil (Keitel), comes to realise that there may be more to her case than a simple suicide attempt. He probes, and once the truth lies brutally clear, tries to corner Alex into a confession of the possible crimes involved with Milena's accident.
Finally it is revealed that, because of the rage developed due to the promiscuous behaviour of Milena, Alex raped her when she was unconscious. Later, Stefan arrives and reveals that Milena has survived and is out of danger. Alex returns to America where, some time later, he sees Milena getting out of a taxi. He shouts to her but she ignores him.

Tags: psychological, cult, atmospheric, flashback, psychedelic, romantic

Review:
His movie rates high in production value and acting and has an innovative approach to an old story The film is basically a character study Alex (Art Garfunkel) is a depressingly dark and shadowy American psychoanalyst living in Vienna Theresa Russell plays Milena, a resonant, carefree American girl They meet by chance at a party and are thrown into a roller-coaster ride of an erotic relationship He wants to smash her free spirit because he can't understand it, but she won't let him The result is a near-fatal break-up Roeg comes close to the story from the middle (obeying Jean-Luc Godard's authoritative saying, a film "must have a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order." We quickly move to the different parts of Alex and Milena's relationship, moving through time as if it were Jell-O.
Their passionate affair has led to a potentially tragic outcome, and it's up to a local police inspector (Harvey Keitel) to sort out what went wrong, why, and whether criminal malice was involved.What makes this relationship drama so compelling is Roeg's structure: the film starts in the middle, jumps ahead to the end, then back to the prologue within the first four minutes  and continues in a non-linear fashion until the final shot.
Like Garfunkel, the idea that Milena had other lovers made me crazy...like Theresa Russell, my Milena needed secrets...lies...she couldn't breathe without her lies and secrets.The scene where she sets Garfunkel up with her fake suicide attempt only to loose the full force of her hysterical cruelty on him...check...down to the blows and the broken bottles...and it marked the moment our love died, even if things dribbled on for a while after that.
Not that I expected anything else from people like Harvey Keitel and Theresa Russell, but Art Garfunkel certainly surprised me.
Art Garfunkel in his one great role as an American college psychology professor lusting after student Theresa Russell somewhere in Austria set in the late 70s.
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 the dvd alone - and Theresa Russell is simply incendiary.
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..
From the opening strains of Tom Waits' gritty "Invitation to the Blues" (which is cut off by the wail of an ambulance!) every aspect--music, scenery, the astonishing acting--melds together into a masterpiece.Theresa Russell is simply a knockout as Milena, a woman who refuses to be "owned".
Bad Timing is Nicholas Roeg's film about a relationship that is fueled by an obsessive passion, more or less, on both sides, and ends in a kind of mutual destruction.
Throw in a little detective/criminal mystery entanglement, some trademark Roeg editing and narrative technique, and sprinkle some of the most appropriately steamy (and appropriately disturbing) mature sexual context in a movie since Last Tango, and you've got a sort of cult classic.It's the kind of work that, as someone who loves getting a filmmaker who approaches things from a skewed perspective almost like an intellectual, is nearly inspiring.
It deals with a psychology professor, Alex Linden (Art Garfunkel, the most unlikely of male leads for a sexually charged and complex individual, but out-does his previous turn in Carnal Knowledge as a subtle performer of a man in total emotional crisis), and his romance with young Milena (the extraordinary Theresa Russel, arguably her best performance to date, soul pouring out like it's her one and only chance to shine), who is possibly already married to a much older man across the Vienna border (Denhalm Elliot, great in his few scenes).They have powerful lust and some good times, even in Morocco of all places, but...
Many post-modern filmmakers only wish to try and make a film dealing with genre (i.e. crime/gangsters) like this, but Roeg does it sometimes subliminally, cut-aways implying sexual interaction and obsession that go the opposite way of the pondering style of a Last Tango (i.e. the operation scene, a cut-away between a tense gynecological exam during surgery and sex).The other thing that Roeg wisely does, as he did do sort of in Walkabout, is to let the actors play up to their strengths.
While it was trickier to to as a director, and to actually notice in the finished product, in Walkabout, in Bad Timing there are countless scenes where we see the actors tapping into the characters full-throttle, and revealing little layers in the script that wouldn't be present in a more conventional treatment.
For another, it's actually rather unnerving to watch the process of her dissolution, both due to how realistically it's shown and the fact that we want to like Malena (or at least I did).If you're at all a fan of Russell, I think you'll find that this is one of her best performances ever, and the direction and staging are first-rate.(It was also a bit weird to see Harvey Keitel with long hair.).
The constant breakups, the creepy, almost stalking behaviours, the outbursts, the attacks and counter-attacks and violence and general hell that is borderline personality - it's all there.Russell's character is a complete mess - drunk, angry, crazy - she has a string of boyfriends with whom she rows constantly, she smashes things up, she smashes herself up and generally goes completely ape.Garfunkel is brilliant - he has much the same trouble as his girlfriend but he *seems* more subdued, although he hides it better, he keeps coming back to her because *he's the same*.Keitel's detached, manipulating cop who tries to unravel the whole thing is probably his best ever work.
BAD TIMING is the one Nicolas Roeg film (from his initial period of peerlessly brilliant movies) which had so far eluded me; actually, for some reason, I had missed out on its one and only TV screening in my neck of the woods.Following in the footsteps of Mick Jagger in PERFORMANCE (1970) and David Bowie in THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH (1976), Art Garfunkel was the third pop star to be engaged as an actor by Roeg.
Clearly one of Roeg's most personal films, BAD TIMING is not only a harrowing study of male-female relationships or more precisely "l'amour fou", but is also another depiction by Roeg (as had been the case with all his previous pictures) of characters stranded in a foreign land, in this case two Americans in Vienna.
In hindsight, the tumultuous and almost deadly Garfunkel-Russell relationship is mirrored in the one between Garfunkel and Keitel, especially in the film's latter stages when the interrogation and subsequent revelation take center stage; the latter sequences, then, are capped by an enigmatic ending - due to Elliott's nick-of-time appearance and subsequent dematerialization - could this be a figment of Garfunkel's agitated state of mind?
BAD TIMING is shot in Roeg's typically fragmented style which, this time around, can perhaps be explained by the fact that the narrator (Art or Theresa) is under a lot of emotional (Keitel's interrogation of Art) and physical (Theresa's life-saving surgery) strain.
In another sense, BAD TIMING can even be seen as a sophisticated precursor to the erotic thrillers so prevalent in filmdom from the late-80s onwards.For the third consecutive time, Anthony Richmond serves as director of photography for Roeg and the film also boasts a splendidly eclectic soundtrack - Billy Holliday, Keith Jarrett, The Who, Tom Waits, not to mention some typical Viennese zither music a' la THE THIRD MAN (1949) - an inspired choice to be sure but, ironically, the prohibitive rights issue costs were also one of the reasons why BAD TIMING has been out of the public eye for so long.The Criterion DVD is therefore a very welcome introduction for me to this essential film.
Actually, after this viewing of BAD TIMING, I regret not purchasing Roeg's previous film, THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH, when Deep Discount DVD had their recent Criterion sale.
However, I should be giving Roeg's subsequent film, (also starring his then wife Theresa Russell) EUREKA (1984), a first look via my VHS copy; actually, had it not been for the recent interview with the still gorgeous Russell conducted for the BAD TIMING DVD, I wouldn't have known that Roeg and Russell had separated!.
Nicolas Roeg's little-circulated relationship dissertation between an American psychiatrist Alex Linden (Garfunkel) and a young American woman Milena (Russell) in Cold War Vienna has an uncanny and scandalizing paralleled real life happening befalls on its leading actor Art Garfunkel.
With that hindsight, one is prone to understand Garfunkel's sometimes perversely surly and tangibly perturbed state when facing off with either a barnstorming Russell or a probing Harvey Keitel, who plays Inspector Netusil, exerts himself in teasing out the truth out of a buttoned-up Alex, as the film's title refers, the timing of Alex's recount about the incident doesn't comply with the physical facts (car radio, Milena's state, etc.).Predominantly, Roeg expertly expounds Alex and Milena's torrid affair by punctuating its aftermath story-line with stacks of flashback in a random arrangement, from the starting point when Milena says farewell to her much older Czech husband Stefan Vognic (Elliott) in the Czech/Austria border, to the pair's encounter, dating, a Northern Africa vacation (prompts Alex's proposal of marriage), to the toxic disintegration due to their incongruity (Lüscher's color test Vs. Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky, are the obvious visual pointers).
It is a self-destructive game which takes two to tango, a woman's congenital insecurity meets a man's unrelieved self-regard, that's what Roeg rams home to us albeit his very distracting M.O. Honestly, it is a mind-bending journey, strewn with zeitgeist reflecting tunes (Billie Holiday, Tom Waits, The Who and counting), where the two leads engaging in graphic sexual acts (and they are nowhere near aesthetically pretty), or exchanging their thoughts in soft-focus treatment.
BAD TIMING, a pertinent name for its own ill-fated reception upon its release, is a well- accomplished, counter-cultural, innately honest examination on the caprice, intransigence, and ambivalence of modern relationship and sex philosophy, powered by strong performances, in particular, a spontaneously ravishing Theresa Russell..
His first two films as sole director were both excellent ones, "Walkabout" from 1971 and "Don't Look Now" from 1973, but I have never cared for his third film, the overlong, confusing and self-consciously arty "The Man who Fell to Earth"."Bad Timing", made in 1980, was Roeg's fourth film.
He was, after all, the man responsible for "Don't Look Now", with its controversial love scene between Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie.In one respect, however, Rank's criticism is accurate; "Bad Timing" is indeed a film about "sick people".
Roeg clearly liked using rock stars in his films, because the leading role in "The Man who Fell to Earth" is taken by David Bowie, an equally unsuccessful piece of casting.
Theresa Russell, who plays the object of the professor's obsession, is given the only good lines in the film.
While her life is fought for in a hospital, (Art Garfunkel) the man who called the ambulance is being questioned (great cutting!) about his relations to her.The rest is to save for people who haven't seen the film."Way ahead of it's time" cutting, acting, photography, directing, made this story, which is almost impossible to tell, plausible and makes the film full of suspense..
Bad Timing is a unique work.This is portrayed through its well crafted magnificent use of colour,flamboyant style and its laid back calmness.This makes the film very watchable and easy going on the eye.The films strange and almost abortive plot keeps you enthuised right through till the end.I would highly rate this film and recommend it to anyone.If its a high paced film your looking for, this film is not for you.Just sit back relax and enjoy the magic of this outstanding work..
But after a while the narrative begins to settle down, although there are always moments of chronological confusion.The film centres around Art Garfunkel's character who has an unhealthy obsession with the character played by Theresa Russell.
Most of the film takes place in flashback as Art tells the story to Harvey Kietel's character, a cop.
It remains a great film and as well as the sensational and brave performance from Russell and the appropriately more measured one from Art , we get a wonderful one from Harvey Keitel..
A police detective suspects foul play on the part of her lover, an American psychology professor (Art Garfunkel).Although his is only a supporting role, we must single out Harvey Keitel -- this is a great role for him and he exhibits some nice hair.
We end up with no sympathy for his character (which may have been the intent), little concern for the character's fate, and absolutely no understanding of his motivations or behaviour.There are only two reasons for tuning in: Harvey Keitel gives another stand-out performance (his character is probably the only interesting and sympathetic one in the film, and physically reminiscent of John Travolta in Pulp Fiction); and Theresa Russell's attractive and very watchable body is given ample exposure on numerous occassions.
First let me say that I do think Art Garfunkle can act and is a good supporting actor like he was in "Carnal Knowledge" but as a leading man in a slow moving film he's in over his head.
The plot of "Bad Timing" has something to do with flirtatious, troubled Theresa Russell and her relationship with an odd young psychiatrist.
The story of an attempted suicide of a woman (Theresa Russell) and the following investigation where his boyfriend (Art Garfunkel) faces the suspicion of an obsessed detective (Harvey Keitel) is set in a Vienna filmed with taste and style and told in a non-chronological manner that builds the story in an a series of interleaved present and flashback scenes.
Roeg's structureless style overwhelms a perhaps miscast Harvey Keitel, a struggling (as always) Art Garfunkel (the one pop-star casting Roeg didn't get spot on) and a ravishing Theresa Russell but ultimately wins out as the film lingers long and tantalizingly out of reach long after viewing.
This film makes "An Affair to Remember," and assorted Nora Ephron films look like the pablum they are.Similarly, in that scene on the stairway, she lifts her skirts and tells him, "This is what you want, isn't it?" Sometimes things are both simpler than we think and more complex at the same time.
Theresa Russell is sexy, convincing, revealing and OKAY but Art Garfunkel had a baaaaaaad timing.
And the intention was precisely to make our visual mind work like the troubled mind of Garfunkel's character.An extra significant point, something Ted Goranson really likes to notice, and which i'm starting to fall for is the empathy Roeg has with the actress, Theresa Russell, which would lead to marriage.
Art Garfunkel slips effortlessly in the character of a sexy psychoanalyst who loses his grip on things when he falls in love(or whatever it's called here) with a care-free,adventurous young woman (Theresa Russel).
This is because in spite of all the nudity and sexuality, it sure left me very, very bored.The film begins with some doctors working on an overdose patient, Milena (Theresa Russell).
Then, throughout the rest of the film, you see a series of flashbacks about her relationship with an American psychology professor, Alex (Art Garfunkel).
Through flashbacks, the audience learns a terrifying love story has ended with a criminal act.What makes this film so uncomfortable is that it relentlessly focuses on a time in our lives that most of us would like to forget- that is, the time when you know is relationship is doomed, but you have to wait until it hits rock bottom before you finally part ways.
Roeg understands that people can't divorce themselves from their emotions, even when they know intellectually that something is wrong.Although Theresa Russell as Milena is the undoubted star of the film- she simply overpowers everything with her vivacity and directness- special mention must be made of the "miscast" male leads.
It's about a destructive love affair between a man played by Art Garfunkel and a woman played by Theresa Russel.
Slowly the real story unfolds and the viewer learns about the darker sides in both characters.Roeg switches back and forth in the chronology of the story and that makes Bad Timing an intriguing but difficult movie.
The histrionic Theresa Russell is inexplicably in love with the narcissistic psychiatrist played by Art Garfunkel, who is sexually obsessed with her.
Ultimately, Bad Timing is just as much a horror story as Roeg's Don't Look Now. Fully realized from the first minute to the last, it is a movie by adults for adults..
for her, that is...Initially taking place at a hospital emergency room where Theresa Russell's Milena is being frantically kept alive by desperate surgeons, BAD TIMING consists of flashbacks concerning her doomed romance with leading man Art Garfunkel as Alex...The most intriguing aspect of Nicolas Roeg's comparably obscure motion picture is how a dying Milena is edited into sporadic bouts of love-making, laughter, arguments, more love-making, tantrums, aspersions, more tantrums, wandering through Vienna and even a quick road trip along desert terrain, like where the late auteur shaped his future assisting David Lean on a little excursion titled LAWRENCE OF ARABIA before carving-out his own desolate territory for WALKABOUT...Harvey Keitel has a determined, steady, sharp yet peripheral and thankless role as a detective investigating whatever's been left behind of Alex and Milena's relationship, which isn't much but empty rooms.
Unfortunately this movie was so bad nobody much cared.A man (Art Garfunkel) brings a woman (Theresa Russell) to a hospital.
In this case the star is Art Garfunkel, who plays an obsessive psychoanalyst who's powers of understanding the mind help him in no way understand the free-spirited woman he's fallen in love with.Coming 15 years before Pulp Fiction, this movie is edited out of chronology.