Bad Timing (1980)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Nicolas Roeg

Writer:

Yale Udoff (screenplay)

Release Date:

October 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

His terrifying obsession took them to the brink of death and beyond. [Video Australia]

Plot:

The setting is Vienna. A young American woman is brought to a hospital after overdosing on pills, apparently in a suicide attempt...

Plot Keywords:

Vienna | Suicide Attempt | Psychology Professor | Psychology | The Color Orange

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Art Garfunkel	...	Alex Linden
Theresa Russell	...	Milena Flaherty
Harvey Keitel	...	Inspector Netusil
Denholm Elliott	...	Stefan Vognic
Daniel Massey	...	Foppish Man
Dana Gillespie	...	Amy Miller
William Hootkins	...	Col. Taylor
Eugene Lipinski	...	Hospital Policeman
George Roubicek	...	Policeman #1
Stefan Gryff	...	Policeman #2
Sevilla Delofski	...	Czech Receptionist
Robert Walker	...	Konrad
Gertan Klauber	...	Ambulance Man
Ania Marson	...	Dr. Schneider
Lex van Delden	...	Young Doctor

Also Known As:

Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession (USA)
Illusions (UK) (working title)

Runtime:

123 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English | German | Czech | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:R21 | Canada:18+ (Ontario) | UK:18 | West Germany:18 | South Korea:18 | Argentina:16 | Australia:R | UK:X (original rating) (cut) | USA:R | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

London, England, UK

Company:

Rank Organisation, The

Trivia:

Theresa Russell and Nicolas Roeg fell in love during the shooting of the film. They later married, had two children and were later divorced.

Quotes:

Milena Flaherty: I'm not ambitious, not an artist, not a poet, not a revolutionary.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Zomergasten: (#18.2)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

Delusion Of The Fury

Nicolas Roeg delves into erotic obsession in this film, with surprising results…

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. The editing is intricate, but not confusing… As we change location back and forth, we begin to see more clearly how these two unlikely lovers ever got together…

The motion picture is filled with exceptional images, and Theresa Russell is outstanding…