Walkabout (1971)

"Excellent Presentation of Director Nicolas Roeg's First Solo Feature"

After co-directing PERFORMANCE with Donald Cammell in 1970, and before going on to 1973's DON'T LOOK NOW, Nicolas Roeg made WALKABOUT, a movie that's now getting a whistles and bells Blu-ray release from Second Sight.

A man (John Meillon, probably best known for appearing in Peter Faiman's CROCODILE DUNDEE) takes his daughter (Jenny Agutter) and son (Roeg's son Luc here billed as Lucien John) into the outback, where he attempts to kill them. Failing that he shoots himself and sets his car on fire, leaving the two children stranded. Wandering the wilderness, and becoming increasingly hungry and thirsty, they are saved by an accidental meeting with an Aboriginal boy (David Gulpilil) who is on 'walkabout' - the traditional ritual in which he must learn to survive off the land. But the clash of cultures leads to tragedy.

One of the extras on Second Sight's Blu-ray is an 'Archive Introduction' by the director which looks like it's actually a snippet from a longer interview. In it he reveals that the original screenplay for WALKABOUT was 14 pages long. It's certainly a story told mainly visually, with Roeg's camera (he was also the cinematographer) beautifully capturing the landscape and the vibrant wildlife within it. 

Second Sight's 4K restoration transfer is excellent and a major improvement on Criterion's Blu-ray which was itself a major improvement over its previous non-anamorphic DVD. You may want to hang onto your Criterion disc, though because the Roeg and Agutter commentary track on there that was originally recorded for the laserdisc release hasn't been ported over. 

There is, however, a brand new commentary track with Luc Roeg and David Thomson, plus a host of other extras unique to this edition. These include new interviews with Agutter and Luc Roeg, another with producer Si Litvinoff (whose enthusiasm for the picture all these years on is quite charming) and a new interview with director Danny Boyle about Roeg's career. You also get the 2011 BFI Q&A with Jenny Agutter and Nicolas and Luc Roeg and the above mentioned archival introduction.

The disc comes in a rigid slipcase with new artwork. Also included is the novel the film was based on (which makes for an interesting read as some of it is from the Aboriginal boy's point of view), as well as the first draft of the screenplay after Roeg had plumped it up to make the studio interested, plus another book with new writing on the film.

       The bottom line: A must-have package for WALKABOUT fans. You'll want to hang onto your Criterion Blu-ray but there's enough new material and that great 4K transfer to make picking this up more than worthwhile.

Nicolas Roeg's WALKABOUT came out on Blu-ray (Region B) in a limited edition of 3000 from Second Sight on Monday 31st August 2020. It looks like you can now order it from Second Sight's site.

Eureka (1983)

The phrase ‘Based on true events’ at the start of a film is so commonplace these days that it’s a shock when you don’t see it. Nicolas Roeg’s 1983 film EUREKA, due out soon from - appropriately enough - Eureka Films, doesn’t begin with this particular caption, but you can find out all about the real-life story that inspired it in the extras.

The Klondike in the early part of the twentieth century. Prospector Jack McCann (Gene Hackman) refuses to stop searching for gold while everyone else in town is busy blowing their own heads off or just clearing out before they freeze to death. His persistence pays off and he discovers enough gold to buy him an entire island in the Caribbean.

Twenty years later: Jack is rich, married (to Jane Lapotaire) and has a slightly uncontrollable daughter (Theresa Russell in slightly uncontrollable mode) who is married to Roy Batty from BLADE RUNNER (yes it’s Rutger Hauer playing another memorably odd character). When Joe Pesci and his gang (including Mickey Rourke and Joe Spinell) decide they want to buy part of the island so they can build a casino, it signals the culmination of the problems Jack has been experiencing, both in his personal and spiritual life. 

Beginning as a ‘man against the elements’ tale before neatly segueing into what feels like the film version of one of the bonkbuster paperback sagas of Harold Robbins et al, what elevates EUREKA above melodrama into something else entirely is a fascinating, well put together cast and above all director Nicolas Roeg, who provides so many stunning visual compositions in this that you’ll want to watch it several times (and employ the freeze frame) to appreciate them. It also makes you sorry he didn’t make more horror films than DON’T LOOK NOW. On the basis of what we see here, Roeg could easily have been the Argento of British cinema. Perhaps he already is anyway. 

Extras are limited to an audio interview with Roeg and talking head featurettes with producer Jeremy Thomas, screenwriter Paul Mayersberg and editor Tony Lawson. You also get an isolated effects and music track (the score is by frequent Pete Walker collaborator Stanley Myers, and there’s a very SCHIZO-sounding bit for fans to spot early on). Eureka also gives us a booklet with new writing on the film by Daniel Bird, a reprinted interview with Roeg, an excerpt from Roeg’s autobiography and Robert Service’s poem The Spell of the Yukon that gets quoted at the end of the film. 

Nicolas Roeg's EUREKA is coming out on dual format DVD & Blu-ray from Eureka Films on 28th March 2016

Bad Timing (1980)

Along with dear old Ken Russell, director Nicolas Roeg helped change the face of British cinema in the 1970s, showing the world that we could make flamboyant, weird, passionate movies just as stylishly as anyone (and often more so). Blu-ray boxsets of the complete uncut works of both of these directors (with loads of extras) should be widely available, and the fact that they aren’t is a huge shame. We can be grateful for the films that are available, though, and one that’s due out very shortly is Network’s new Blu-ray release of Roeg’s BAD TIMING.

Essentially a document of a doomed relationship between two people who should never have met, should never have got together, and should never have allowed themselves to become so obsessed with one another, BAD TIMING tells the story of uptight lecturer Art Garfunkel who meets wild child Teresa Russell. She leaves her Czech Republic husband (Denholm Elliott looking suitably world weary) and the two embark on a passionate rollercoaster of a relationship where he wants to be controlling and she doesn’t want to be tied down, where he wants marriage and she wants lovers, and where he doesn’t trust her and she doesn’t really want him to.

I’m not going to tell you how it ends but the film does that for you pretty much at the beginning, with Russell being rushed to hospital, apparently the victim of a suicide attempt. In fact, in the first few minutes we get to see both the beginning and the end of the story and scenes in between as well. The rest of the film’s fractured narrative fills in the gaps. Harvey Keitel, in a deceptively minor role as the detective investigating Russell’s apparent suicide attempt at the beginning, gets possibly the most important dialogue in the film when, at the climax, he tries to explain to Garfunkel why Russell was attracted to him in the first place.

BAD TIMING was produced by the Rank Organisation and pretty much dumped when the company realised what it had on its hands. “A sick film made by sick minds for sick people,” was one of the reviews at the time. How can one possibly resist a film with such subject matter? It certainly is a grim tale, and at many points I actually found it odd to be watching a movie with this kind of plot that didn’t need subtitles, as such miserablist contemplative art house fare might be more the province of Robbe-Grillet in a very bad mood, or Herzog in a relatively sane one. Its atmosphere of screwed-up obsessive relationships also reminded me of Paul Schrader’s version of Ian McEwan’s THE COMFORT OF STRANGERS. 

Network’s Blu-ray offers us BAD TIMING in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Extras include a ten minute interview with producer Jeremy Thomas, deleted scenes, trailers and an image gallery. There’s also a pdf of promotional material on the disc.

BAD TIMING is a remarkable film that stays with you after viewing, and it deserves to be up there with DON’T LOOK NOW and THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH as one of the best examples of the work of a remarkable British director.

Nicolas Roeg's BAD TIMING is being released on Region B Blu-ray by Network on 26th January 2015