Films Of Nicholas Roeg

Nicolas Roeg is one of the most distinctive and influential film-makers of his generation. The generation of film-makers who define contemporary movie-making - Danny Boyle, Kevin Macdonald ( The Last King of Scotland), Christopher Nolan ( The Dark Knight), James Marsh ( Man on Wire), and Guillermo Del Toro ( Pan's Labyrinth), all acknowledge their debt to the work of Nicolas Roeg. Roeg began as a cameraman, working for such masters as Francois Truffaut and David Lean. His explosive debut as a director with Performance, established an approach to film-making that was unconventional and ever-changing, creating works such as Don't Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Bad Timing, Insignificance, and, more recently, Puffball. Having now reached eighty years of age, Roeg has decided to pass on to the next generations, the wealth of wisdom and experience he has garnered over fifty years of film-making.

A masterclass in film-making from the director of such British classics as Don't Look Now and The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Audiences respond to three things in the films of Nicolas Roeg, their power, their style and the fact that they puzzle them. The author argues that all three elements are tied together, with the power of the films springing from their source in ancient mysteries.

Nicolas Roeg has directed some of the most original films of the past twenty years, yet his work has remained relatively unknown. Combining the styles of such famous British directors as Hitchcock, Reed and Lester with innovations from the French New Wave, his work is artfully distinctive. Despite their initial lack of commercial appeal and pans by critics for their "inaccessibility, " many of Roegs films have gained a large audience over time. Performance and Bad Timing have become cult films; Walkabout is a mainstay on college campuses and even among church groups. Why? Film by film, details of Roegs dozen features are examined in an effort to better understand the man and his movies.

From the bestselling author of The Queen's Gambit, the landmark science fiction novel that inspired the classic 1976 film starring David Bowie and is the basis for the Showtime series A man wanders into town one day seemingly out of nowhere. He starts by peddling valuables just to get by. But he possesses uncanny scientific knowledge, which he uses to develop technologies of a marvelous nature. In time he builds a corporate empire that propels him to unimaginable wealth—but to what end? His rapid ascent to the highest levels of success is remarkable, but the vision of his enterprise begins to falter as he succumbs to afflictions that feel all-too-human, and the true purpose of his presence here on earth is in grave danger of being abandoned.

A behind-the-scenes- look at the making of the landmark film.Performance is written by Jay Glennie, working closely with Performance producer Sandy Lieberson, who opened up his extensive archives. The large format book takes a comprehensive look at the landmark British film. Released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the filming of Performance, it includes exclusive interviews with cast & crew (including Mick Jagger, James Fox, Nic Roeg and Sandy Lieberson), soundtrack musicians and artists influenced by the film.Featuring stunning on-location images, many of which have never been published before, this book is the definitive account of the unlikely and often difficult journey from page to screen of Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg's visionary film. Every film has its own extraordinary story but never anything like Performance! The book details how a group of mostly first time filmmakers managed to raise the money for a film without showing the studio financing it a script and then shoot the whole film on location away from any studio executives preying eyes and then see their film not released for two years.Performance the book looks at the personality clashes on set, the unconventional working methods of codirectors Donald Cammell and Nic Roeg and their stars Mick Jagger, James Fox, Anita Pallenberg and Michèle Breton. Through first-hand accounts and extensive research, we find out what it was like to work on the famed film. And after a shoot that was typified by a 'work hard, play hard' approach, we discover there was still more controversy to come with a soundtrack only featuring one Mick Jagger song, the refusal to release the film by Warner Bros. until it was heavily edited and a decidedly cool reception from most critics.

A survey of the work of the British filmmaker, his vision of a decentered world depicted in such films as "Don't Look Now," "The Man Who Fell to Earth," and "Walkabout."