Finally getting around to watching this.
I've heard mixed things.
What'd you think? I remember being really excited when it first hit home video what with it being Romero's "comeback" film and all. Pretty interesting take on the whole righteous revenge angle I thought, even thought the blank white face/losing yourself angle might not have been all that subtle. It still served its purpose though. I've seen it compared more than a few times to
American Psycho even though I think this came out a few months before but
AP is the more famous title so the comparisons were inevitable I suppose.
As for films I like, here's a list:
The Night Porter
The Seventh Seal
Das Boot
The 39 Steps
Bad Timing
Sorcerer
To Live and Die in LA
The Tenant
Hellraiser
Repulsion
Videodrome
They Live
The Thing
Psycho
Candyman
The Vanishing / Spoorloos
Taste! I liked some of the others you listed as well but I just shortened it to my absolute favorites
Speaking of
Bad Timing, I watched it again recently as I've been in a Nic Roeg state of mind as of late like I was with Verhoeven a few months back.
Eureka (1983) - One of the greatest casts ever assembled. Gene Hackman, Theresa Russell, Rutger Hauer, Ed Lauter, Joe Pesci, Mickey Rourke. Even Joe Spinell (Maniac, Cruising, ect...) makes a brief, wordless appearance as a gangster with a sinister smile. Pesci isn't actually in the movie all that much but he makes the most of his screen time and prove he can be just as threatening when he's calm and collected as he is when he's ranting like a lunatic ala
GoodFellas or
Casino. Like most works from master transgressors, this film refuses to be classified. IMDb calls it a "Drama, Thriller" but that hardly sums it up as its not exactly a standard psych drama/thriller and its not a "traditional" horror movie either although the hint of the supernatural is ever-present with implied psychic connections, fortune telling, a voodoo ceremony/orgy that comes out of fucking nowhere and Hackman's paranoia about having his soul stolen. Russell also gives a fairly loony monologue in the films final third which is sure to divide a perplex many.
Track 29 (1988) - Madness! One of the most batshit loopy films to ever feature big name actors with Gary Oldman giving the most histrionically demented performance this side of a Zulawski film, Theresa Russell once again delving into the abyss of human desperation (and looking like the hottest of messes doing it. Love that woman.) and Christopher Lloyd getting spanked by Sandra Bernhard and later giving a speech about trains that's so impassioned you'd think his lines were causing some sort of seismic shift in his personal cosmos. I love that I've not become so jaded that I can see a film like this and wonder "Just where the fuck did that come from?!" Why this film isn't held in the same high regard as Roeg's 70's films is beyond me. You want it weird? Look no futher.
Two Deaths (1995) - One of Roeg's more neglected films (although if we're being honest here most of his post-
Eureka work is neglected in one way or another save for perhaps
The Witches) but its also one of his most twisted and upsetting. Not necessarily in what it shows (the aborted fetus that makes a fairly jolting appearance later on not withstanding) but in its ideas and the main character being a contemptible sociopath. This would make an interesting double bill with
Bad Timing given both films themes of obsessive love. The difference here being the obsessive "love" on display being far more one sided. Roeg also drawls a parallel between a political revolution happening outside of the main storyline with the personal revolutions of the characters slowly taking shape throughout the film which would have easily been flubbed in clumsier hands but Mystic Nic handles it beautifully. Hardly mass appeal but for those who prefer to traverse the darker side of the human condition this comes highly recommended.
