Nicolas Roeg

Bad Timing

Bad Timing

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.

Film Info

  • United Kingdom
  • 1980
  • 122 minutes
  • Color
  • 2.35:1
  • English
  • Spine #303

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Nicolas Roeg
  • Interview with Roeg and producer Jeremy Thomas
  • Interview with Theresa Russell
  • Deleted scenes
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • Behind-the-scenes production photos and original posters
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Plus: a new essay by film critic Richard Combs and a 1980 interview with Art Garfunkel

    New cover by Neil Kellerhouse

Purchase Options

Director-Approved Special Edition Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Nicolas Roeg
  • Interview with Roeg and producer Jeremy Thomas
  • Interview with Theresa Russell
  • Deleted scenes
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • Behind-the-scenes production photos and original posters
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Plus: a new essay by film critic Richard Combs and a 1980 interview with Art Garfunkel

    New cover by Neil Kellerhouse
Bad Timing
Cast
Art Garfunkel
Dr. Alex Linden
Theresa Russell
Milena Flaherty
Harvey Keitel
Inspector Netusil
Denholm Elliott
Stefan Vognic
Credits
Director
Nicolas Roeg
Producer
Jeremy Thomas
Screenplay
Yale Udoff
Associate producer
Tim Van Rellim
Editing
Tony Lawson
Cinematography
Anthony Richmond

Current

Bad Timing: The Men Who Didn’t Know Something
Bad Timing: The Men Who Didn’t Know Something

“They were down for each other.” If one wanted to pitch the concept of Bad Timing in six words, this comment by its director, Nicolas Roeg, couldn’t be bettered.

By Richard Combs

Nicolas Roeg in His Own Words
Nicolas Roeg in His Own Words

The legendary British director—now the subject of a retrospective on the Criterion Channel—opens up about the creative process behind some of his most provocative works.

Too Close for Comfort: Theresa Russell in Bad Timing

Performances

Too Close for Comfort: Theresa Russell in Bad Timing

A true acting iconoclast, Theresa Russell unleashes a torrent of emotion in this tale of sexual obsession, her first collaboration with the director Nicolas Roeg.

By Dan Callahan

Karyn Kusama’s Top 10
Karyn Kusama’s Top 10

For her list of favorite Criterion titles, the director of Girlfight and Destroyer celebrates the Hollywood classics, cult pleasures, and art-house masterpieces that inspire her, pairing movies that resonate with each other in style and theme.

Nathan Silver’s Top 10
Nathan Silver’s Top 10

Nathan Silver is the writer and director of four short films and eight features, including Uncertain Terms (2014), Stinking Heaven (2015), and Thirst Street (2017)

Mark Cousins’s Top 10
Mark Cousins’s Top 10

Mark Cousins is a critic and filmmaker based in Edinburgh.

Bad Timing and “Dreaming My Dreams with You”
Bad Timing and “Dreaming My Dreams with You”
As breakup songs go, “Dreaming My Dreams with You,” written by country stalwart Allen Reynolds, is a tear-jerking doozy. It first appeared on the 1975 Waylon Jennings album Dreaming My Dreams. And while it’s been covered pretty frequently, by s…

By Glenn Kenny