Freud and Lawrence

Bad Timing

Nic Roeg had a remarkable run of films in the late 70s – early 80s. Don't Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and this film, Bad Timing. These three films make a cinematic feast, and I would be happy to be stranded on a desert island with just these three discs.

There is a kind of frenzied madness in this film, set in the world of psychological research in Vienna. At one point a portrait of Freud looks down as the main protagonists and it is hard to see his stare as approval or not as he watches what he has unleashed.

I have always had a high regard for Teresa Russell as an actor – this is surely her finest film.Her character is an untamed sexual beast set on destroying the cosy sanity of Art Garfunkel's psychologist. Art Garfunkel plays very well here too, certainly a match for Harvey Keitel's priest like Austrian cop. I remember being astonished by all three leads when i saw this film in the late 80s, especially Keitel – this was the first time i remember noticing him.

The other great star of the film is Vienna – disturbing flashbacks to other films such as The Nightporter, and of course The Third Man (there is even some zither music just for fun in Bad Timing.)

Here is a great article from the Guardian 20 years on from the film's release.

I love this film – one of my all time favourites.


Priest of Love

Also on a theme of an historical figure unleashing sexual forces upon an unwilling party, Priest of Love, from more or less the same year as Bad Timing. Follows the life of D. H. Lawrence from the eve of the First World War to his early death from TB in 1930.

Another very good cast – Sir Ian McKellern in an early cinematic role, playing another historical figure with homosexual tendencies – although this is very muted in this film, just towelling down a friend after skinny dipping in Cornwall. These days this aspect of the film would no doubt be fashionably well documented.

Jane Suzman is glorious as Lawrence's German wife, passionate and devoted. The more minor parts are well filled by Ava Gardiner and Penelope Keith – always a joy to watch Pen Keith, and this is one of her few big screen roles.. (big screen? The DVD was on 4:3 format..??)

The film follows the life of Lawrence using the locations he actually lived in – we have Cornwall, New Mexico, Amalfi coast, Tuscany.. The music is also appropriately romantic at times. Ken Russell's influence is very plain to see, and in fact why wasn't he hired to direct it.

D.H. Lawrence is currently one of my favourite authors – his books still have a lot to say about human sexuality – it is surprising how little we understand what has been released by Freud, Lady Chatterly's Lover, the permissive society, sexual liberation. It seems to me at this point in time we live the benefits of un-repressed sexuality without really knowing what it means and how it is placed in the fabric of our short lives.