A Sensual Obsession

Finally, after waiting over 25 years, Nicolas Roeg's Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession has been released by Criterion. The "A Sensual Obsession" subtitle has mysteriously disappeared, but I remember it well when it first opened in L.A. back in 1980.

From the hype:

Amid the decaying elegance of cold-war Vienna, psychoanalyst Dr. Alex Linden (Art Garfunkel) becomes mired in an erotically charged affair with the elusive Milena Flaherty (Theresa Russell). When their all-consuming passion takes a life-threatening turn, Inspector Netusil (Harvey Keitel) is assigned to piece together the sordid details. Acclaimed for its innovative editing, raw performances, and stirring musical score—featuring Tom Waits, the Who, and Billie Holiday—Nicolas Roeg’s Bad Timing is a masterful, deeply disturbing foray into the dark world of sexual obsession.

Seeing it again, I am reminded how taken I was by it. My response was similar to the experience I had after viewing the by now impossible-to-see films of my professor-guru Alain Robbe-Grillet the two years prior to my move to L.A., that is, I knew that one day I had to start making foreign films. [This is not the time to discuss my current work-in-progress and first feature in my "foreign film series," but suffice it to say that I am following through on that early desire...]

Theresa Russell was only 22 when she made this film. One. Of. The. Best. Acting. Performances. Ever.

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Metadata: movie, film, art, erotic