Nicolas Roeg | |
|---|---|
 Roeg at the 43rdKarlovy Vary International Film Festival in 2008 | |
| Born | Nicolas Jack Roeg (1928-08-15)15 August 1928 St John's Wood, London, England |
| Died | 23 November 2018(2018-11-23) (aged 90) London, England |
| Other names | Nicholas Jack Roeg |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1947–2013 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 6 |
Nicolas Jack RoegCBEBSC (/ˈroʊɡ/ROHG; 15 August 1928 – 23 November 2018) was an English film director andcinematographer, best known for directingPerformance (1970),Walkabout (1971),Don't Look Now (1973),The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976),Bad Timing (1980) andThe Witches (1990).
Making his directorial debut 23 years after his entry into the film business, Roeg quickly became known for an idiosyncratic visual and narrative style, characterised by the use of disjointed and disorienting editing.[1] For this reason, he is considered a highly influential filmmaker, cited as an inspiration by such directors asSteven Soderbergh,Christopher Nolan andDanny Boyle.
In 1999, theBritish Film Institute acknowledged Roeg's importance in the British film industry by namingDon't Look Now andPerformance the 8th- and 48th-greatest British films of all time in itsTop 100 British films poll.[2]
Roeg was born inSt John's Wood inNorth London on 15 August 1928 to Jack Nicolas Roeg and Mabel Gertrude (née Silk).[3] He had an older sister, Nicolette (1925–1987), who was an actress.[4] His father, of Dutch origin, achieved considerable success in the diamond trade, until a failed South African investment saw him suffer heavy financial losses.[3] Of his initial attraction to the film industry, Roeg suggested it was sparked by a recording studio located opposite his home.[5] Roeg was educated at theMercers' School in London.[6][7]
In 1947, after completingnational service in theBritish Army as a unit projectionist,[7] Roeg entered the film business as a tea boy, moving up to clapper-loader, the bottom rung of the camera department, atMarylebone Studios in London.[8] For a time, he worked as a camera operator on a number of film productions, includingThe Sundowners andThe Trials of Oscar Wilde.[3]
Roeg was a second-unit cinematographer onDavid Lean'sLawrence of Arabia (1962) and this led to Lean's hiring Roeg as cinematographer on his next film,Doctor Zhivago (1965); Roeg's creative vision clashed with that of Lean and eventually he was fired from the production and replaced byFreddie Young, who received sole credit for cinematography when the film was released in 1965.[9] He was credited as cinematographer onRoger Corman'sThe Masque of the Red Death andFrançois Truffaut'sFahrenheit 451, as well asJohn Schlesinger'sFar from the Madding Crowd andRichard Lester'sPetulia; the latter is the last film on which Roeg was solely credited for cinematography and also shares many characteristics and similarities with Roeg's work as a director.[10]
In the late 1960s, Roeg moved into directing withPerformance, alongsideDonald Cammell. The film centres on an aspiring London gangster (James Fox) who moves in with a reclusive rock star (Mick Jagger) to evade his bosses. The film featured cinematography by Roeg and a screenplay by Cammell, the latter of whom had favouredMarlon Brando for the James Fox role.[11] The film was completed in 1968 but withheld from release by its distributorWarner Bros. who, according toSanford Lieberson, "didn't think it was releasable."[11] The film was eventually released with anX rating in 1970 and, despite its initial poor reception, has come to be held in high esteem by critics due to its cult following.[12]
Roeg followed up withWalkabout, which tells the story of an English teenage girl and her younger brother who are abandoned in the AustralianOutback by their father after his suicide and forced to fend for themselves, with the help of anAboriginal boy on hiswalkabout. Roeg castJenny Agutter in the role of the girl, his sonLuc as the boy, andDavid Gulpilil as the Aboriginal boy.[13] It was widely praised by critics despite its lack of commercial success.[14]
Roeg's next film,Don't Look Now, is based onDaphne du Maurier'sshort story of the same name and starredJulie Christie andDonald Sutherland as a married couple inVenice mourning the death of their daughter who had drowned. It attracted scrutiny early on due to a sex scene between Sutherland and Christie, which was unusually explicit for the time. Roeg's decision to inter-cut the sexual intercourse with shots of the couple dressing afterwards was reportedly due to the need to assuage the fears of the censors and there were rumours at the time of its release that the sex was unsimulated.[15] The film was widely praised by critics and considered one of the most important and influential horror films ever made.[16]
Similarly toPerformance, Roeg cast musicians in leading roles for his next two films,The Man Who Fell to Earth andBad Timing.The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) starsDavid Bowie as a humanoid alien who comes toEarth to collect water for his planet, which is suffering from a drought. The film divided critics and was truncated upon its U.S. release.[17] Despite this, it was entered into theBerlin International Film Festival where Roeg was nominated for theGolden Bear. It is today considered an importantscience fiction film and is one of Roeg's most celebrated films.Bad Timing was released in 1980 and starsArt Garfunkel as an American psychiatrist living inVienna who develops a love affair with a fellow expatriate (played byTheresa Russell, to whom Roeg was later married), which culminates in the latter being rushed to hospital due to an incident the nature of which is revealed over the course of the film. At first, it was disliked by critics, as well as by theRank Organisation, its distributor, who allegedly described it as "a sick film made by sick people for sick people."[18] Rank requested that their logo be taken off the finished film.[19]
Bad Timing marked the beginning of a three-film partnership withJeremy Thomas. The second of these filmsEureka (1983) is loosely based on the true story of SirHarry Oakes; it received a largely limited release both theatrically and on home video.[20] It was followed up withInsignificance, which imagines a meeting betweenMarilyn Monroe,Albert Einstein, Monroe's second husbandJoe DiMaggio and SenatorJoseph McCarthy.Insignificance was screened in competition at the1985 Cannes Film Festival, with the film being selected to compete for thePalme d'Or.[21]
In 1986, Roeg was approached by thenSecretary of State for Health and Social ServicesNorman Fowler and the advertising agencyTBWA to direct the British government'spublic health campaignAIDS: Don't Die of Ignorance.[22]
Roeg's next two films,Castaway andTrack 29, are considered minor entries in his oeuvre.[by whom?][23] Roeg was selected to direct anadaptation ofRoald Dahl's children's novelThe Witches byJim Henson, who had procured the film rights to the book in 1983.[24] This would prove to be his last major studio film and proved a great success with critics, although it was a box-office failure. Roeg made only three theatrical films followingThe Witches:Cold Heaven (1992),Two Deaths (1995) andPuffball (2007).[25] Roeg also did a small amount of work for television, includingSweet Bird of Youth, an adaptation of theTennessee Williams play, andHeart of Darkness and an episode ofGeorge Lucas'sYoung Indiana Jones.[26][27]
Roeg did not make any more films after 2007, but published a memoir,The World Is Ever Changing, in 2013.[25]
Roeg's films are known for having scenes and images from the plot presented in a disarranged fashion, out of chronological and causal order, requiring the viewer to do the work of mentally rearranging them to comprehend the story line. They seem to "shatter reality into a thousand pieces" and are "unpredictable, fascinating, cryptic, and liable to leave you wondering what the hell just happened..."[28] This is also the strategy ofRichard Lester's 1968 filmPetulia, which was Roeg's last film as a cinematographer only. A characteristic of Roeg's films is that they are edited in disjunctive and semi-coherent ways that make full sense only in the film's final moments, when a crucial piece of information surfaces; they are "mosaic-like montages [filled with] elliptical details which become very important later."[9]
These techniques, along with Roeg's foreboding sense of atmosphere, influenced later such filmmakers asSteven Soderbergh,[9]Tony Scott,[29]Ridley Scott,François Ozon andDanny Boyle.[30] In addition to this,Christopher Nolan has said his filmMemento would have been "pretty unthinkable" without Roeg and cites the finale ofInsignificance as an influence on his ownInception.[31] In addition to this, Steven Soderbergh'sOut of Sight features a love scene that is visibly influenced by that inDon't Look Now.[32]
A further theme that can be seen to be running through Roeg's filmography is characters who are out of their natural setting.[33] Examples of this include the schoolchildren in the Outback inWalkabout, the men and women in Venice inDon't Look Now, the alien on Earth inThe Man Who Fell to Earth, and the Americans in Vienna inBad Timing.
Roeg's influence on cinema is not limited to deconstructing narrative. The "Memo from Turner" sequence inPerformance predates many techniques later used in music videos. The "quadrant" sequence inBad Timing, in which the thoughts of Theresa Russell andArt Garfunkel are heard before words are spoken set toKeith Jarrett's piano music fromThe Köln Concert, stretched the boundaries of what could be done with film.[23]
Roeg's cinematic work was showcased at theRiverside Studios from 12–14 September 2008. He introduced the retrospective withMiranda Richardson, who starred inPuffball. The programme includedBad Timing,Far from the Madding Crowd,The Man Who Fell to Earth,The Witches,Eureka,Don't Look Now andInsignificance. TheLondon Film Academy organised this event for Roeg in honour of his patronage of the school.[34][35]
In 1994, he was awarded aBritish Film Institute Fellowship. In the1996 New Year Honours, Roeg was made a Commander of theOrder of the British Empire.[36][37]
From 1957 to 1977, Roeg was married to English actressSusan Stephen. They had four sons: Waldo, Nico, Sholto and (film producer)Luc Roeg. Luc appeared as an actor, as Lucien John, inWalkabout,[38] Roeg's first film as solo director.[6] In 1982, Roeg married American actressTheresa Russell and they had two sons: Maximillian (an actor) and Statten Roeg. They later divorced.[6] Roeg was then married to Harriet Harper from 2005 until his death, from dementia, on 23 November 2018, at a nursing home inLadbroke Grove, London.[6][25]
ActorDonald Sutherland (who named one of his sons after Roeg) described Roeg as a "fearless visionary". FilmmakerDuncan Jones, the son of David Bowie, who starred inThe Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), also paid tribute to Roeg, calling him a "great storyteller" and "inimitable".[39]
Roeg is credited on the following films:[40]
Film
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Jazz Boat | Ken Hughes | WithTed Moore |
| 1961 | Information Received | Robert Lynn | |
| 1962 | Dr. Crippen | ||
| Band of Thieves | Peter Bezencenet | ||
| 1963 | Just for Fun | Gordon Flemyng | |
| The Caretaker | Clive Donner | ||
| 1964 | The Masque of the Red Death | Roger Corman | |
| Nothing But the Best | Clive Donner | ||
| Code 7, Victim 5 | Robert Lynn | ||
| The System | Michael Winner | ||
| 1965 | Every Day's a Holiday | James Hill | |
| 1966 | Fahrenheit 451 | François Truffaut | |
| A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum | Richard Lester | ||
| 1967 | Far from the Madding Crowd | John Schlesinger | |
| 1968 | Petulia | Richard Lester | |
| 1970 | Performance | Himself Donald Cammell | |
| 1971 | Walkabout | Himself | |
| 1972 | Glastonbury Fayre | Peter Neal | Documentary film |
Television
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | The Pursuers | Robert Lynn | Episode "The Frame" (Location shoot) |
| Ghost Squad | Episode "Death from a Distance" |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | Performance | Co-directed withDonald Cammell |
| 1971 | Walkabout | Also writer |
| 1973 | Don't Look Now | |
| 1976 | The Man Who Fell to Earth | |
| 1980 | Bad Timing | |
| 1983 | Eureka | |
| 1985 | Insignificance | |
| 1986 | Castaway | |
| 1988 | Track 29 | |
| 1990 | The Witches | |
| 1991 | Cold Heaven | |
| 1995 | Two Deaths | |
| 2007 | Puffball |
Short film
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Breakthrough | |
| 1987 | Un ballo in maschera | Segment ofAria (Also writer) |
| 1995 | Hotel Paradise | |
| 2000 | The Sound of Claudia Schiffer |
Documentary film
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1993 | The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles | Episode "Paris, October 1916" |
| 1996 | Samson and Delilah | Miniseries |
TV movies
BAFTA Awards
| Year | Title | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Nothing But the Best | Best Cinematography (Colour) | Nominated |
| 1967 | Far from the Madding Crowd | Nominated | |
| 1973 | Don't Look Now | Best Direction | Nominated |
Cannes Film Festival
| Year | Title | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Walkabout | Palme d'Or | Nominated |
| 1987 | Aria | Nominated | |
| 1985 | Insignificance | Nominated | |
| Technical Grand Prize | Won |
Hugo Award
| Year | Title | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | The Man Who Fell to Earth | Best Dramatic Presentation | Nominated |
| 1990 | The Witches | Nominated |
Director
| Year | Title | Award/Nomination |
|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Far from the Madding Crowd | Nominated –National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography (3rd place) |
| 1976 | The Man Who Fell to Earth | Nominated –Golden Berlin Bear |
| 1980 | Bad Timing | London Film Critics' Circle Award for Director of the Year Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award |
| 1988 | Track 29 | Nominated –Deauville Critics Award |
| 1990 | The Witches | Nominated –Fantasporto International Fantasy Film Award |
| 1995 | Two Deaths | Nominated –Gold Chicago Hugo |
