Black Out - Anatomy of a Passion

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Movie
German title Black Out - Anatomy of a Passion
Original title Bad timing
Country of production Great Britain
original language English , German
Publishing year 1980
length 122 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Nicolas Roeg
script Yale Udoff
production Jeremy Thomas
music Richard Hartley
camera Anthony B. Richmond
cut Tony Lawson
occupation

Black Out - Anatomy of a Passion ( Bad Timing ) is a British drama directed by Nicolas Roeg from 1980. Theresa Russell portrays the lovers in one of her first films and Art Garfunkel by Simon and Garfunkel . The film is set in Vienna .

action

1979 in millennia-old Vienna, when the Cold War was just beginning to thaw: A young American woman in her twenties, Milena, was brought into the emergency room by the ambulance at one o'clock in the morning with an overdose in almost hopeless condition. She is accompanied by the American Alex Linden, who is a few years older than him, and a psychoanalyst active in research and teaching . Milena says under the ventilation mask: "Stefan, I'm sorry ..."

Alex had found her in her apartment, his car is still there in front of the door. Alex calls himself a "friend"; he insists that she wasn't his patient either. The police insist on precise time specifications in the meticulous logging of the events. In non-chronological form and in small-scale memories, the nature of the amour fou and its course becomes clear, while Milena is in the intensive care unit, receives an endotracheal tube and a tracheal incision and is defibrillated in cardiac arrest .

Milena is friendly, extroverted, "normal", untidy, has a tendency to alcohol and is married to the older Czech Stefan in Bratislava , whom she still loves very much. She commutes through the Iron Curtain to cold Czechoslovakia, and sometimes disappears for days. Alex the intellectual loves her with passion, but soon she tires him too. They visit an art exhibition together. The psychiatrist becomes increasingly jealous, possessive and pushing for a divorce, thus becoming obsessed . Alex is lecturing at the University of Vienna these days on perception and the archetypal observer. In Morocco he makes something like a marriage proposal to Milena, who is currently reading Heaven over the desert , but she attaches too much importance to her freedom and in a sense rejects it. He breaks up with her because she has “enough other acquaintances”. Surprisingly, Milena is completely desperate at the breakup, and for weeks. She drinks herself into the stupor all night long , while drunk she takes pills and speaks to him on the answering machine. After a long hesitation, he gets into the car and drives to her.

A long-haired policeman who shows fanatical features and speaks accent-free English, Inspector Netusil, scrutinizes Linden. Communication between the two can hardly be established. Netusil suspects that something is wrong and urges Linden more and more to come out with the truth. Finally, by comparing the time, because of the overflowing ashtray and the station that was set on the car radio, it turns out that Alex arrived at the apartment significantly earlier, so the timing is not right. He hesitated so long to call the ambulance because he raped her while she was unconscious. Because Milena survives after all, the investigation is stopped.

Reviews

Those in charge at The Rank Organization were anything but enthusiastic about the finished film. The statement "a sick film by sick people for sick people" made the rounds. Rank accordingly withdrew the well-known logo from the film opening credits and took it out of its own cinemas. Then the film was buried in the archives until the Criterion Collection took on the matter on DVD .

  • “An example of a film that was ahead of its time. What seemed obscure in 1980 is now crystal clear, we follow Roeg's non-linear montage with ease […] the apotheosis of auteur cinema of the 70s ”( Glenn Erickson : Turner Classic Movies)
  • “The fragility that emanates from a relationship; every interruption [...] makes it seem more fleeting. [...] Style and chronology jump back and forth between being in love and depression: the beginning and end of love. [...] Nothing fits together properly, nor should it. ”(Not Coming to a Theater Near You, 2005)
  • “Netusil has to solve its own identity puzzle. Partly a double story , an incomplete one. [...] So many ambivalences in existence - so many shifts from operations to risk, choice and providence - the vibrant, fragmented style of the film designed to embody this game [...] The fin de siècle of the Viennese art world is part of the emotional texture of bathroom Timing , the contrast between the romantic shimmer of Gustav Klimt and the psychological darkness of Egon Schiele . "( Richard Combs : 'Bad Timing: The Men Who Didn't Know Something' in The Criterion Collection )
  • "Another excellent study about human nature [...] The film is not interested in creating emotions with Vienna's beautiful scenery, rather [...] it externalizes the states of mind of its characters" (digitallyOBSESSED.com)
  • "The film takes on the traits of a detective story , in which the crime is revealed step by step, while Roeg embarrassingly guides us through the tearful relationship [...] the revelation then is not shocking, but inevitable [...] Garfunkel and Russell, in almost impossible roles, are extraordinarily impressive [...] Harvey Keitel's Netusil with an intense self-righteousness, alarmingly more priest than policeman, while Denholm Elliott plays incredibly moving "( Mike Sutton : Screenonline)
  • “Behind all the films is the question of the landscape. How can we think we understand the beloved when we are not even comfortable in the places? To the annoyance of many critics, he never dared to approach this existential paradox ”( Lee Hill : 'Nicolas Roeg' in Senses of Cinema, 2002)
  • "The chic of the degenerate [...] every scene recorded with at least one eye and one ear on the cutting table" ( Variety , 1980)
  • "Depending on the tolerance threshold for screaming, sheet-rolling performances, the main characters will either be grimly fascinating (perhaps evoke some happy memories of their own doomed partnerships), perhaps amused or, in all probability, be incredibly irritating" ( Ali Catterall : Channel 4 Film)

Trivia

Author Udoff wanted more humor in the film: "I wanted to be something like humorous Antonioni ." On the other hand, director Roeg urged more intensity: "There was a certain pressure to make Garfunkel heavier."

Roeg said of the first meeting of the protagonists at the party: “If only he had left a little sooner or later. It's all just bad timing […] ”and to interviewee Harlan Kennedy:“ It is one of the concepts of life that all stories are just one big story and that they participate in it. ”( It's one of the basic concepts of living that stories are one great story of which all stories partake).

Existing film scores include Billie Holiday ( I'll be seeing you), Tom Waits ( An Invitation to the Blues), Keith Jarrett ( The Köln Concert ), The Who , Harry Partch and Ludwig van Beethoven . At the beginning, the canon in D major by Johann Pachelbel can be heard at the border crossing on the bridge over the Danube .

The scenes for Milena Flaherty's apartment were filmed at Schönbrunner Schlossstrasse 2. The building was demolished in 2014 for a planned shopping center.

There is a smoking ban in the hospital, but smoking is not only practiced there almost continuously, which gave rise to at least one bad criticism.

Musician Jim O'Rourke named an album after the film.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Approval for Black Out - Anatomy of a Passion . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2004 (PDF; test number: 51 497 DVD).
  2. ↑ “It's amazing the consistency with which [..Roeg] chooses titles that almost erase his films as soon as their name appears on the screen. 'Don't Look Now' is such a title, of course, but also 'Bad Timing' or 'Insignificance'. ” (Verena Lueken) Verena Lueken: Eyes Wide Shut: Nicolas Roeg's 'Bad Timing' - almost deadly. (No longer available online.) In: FAZ . October 16, 2007, formerly in the original ; Retrieved March 25, 2009 (see Eyes Wide Shut ).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.faz.net
  3. ↑ cf. Criterion Collection : "Amid the decaying elegance of cold-war Vienna", s. Web links. Catterall: "Cradle of Psychoanalysis".
  4. ↑ James Kendrick: Bad Timing. In: QNetwork.com. Retrieved March 24, 2009 .
  5. ↑ Nick Hasted: Sick, sick, sick, said Rank. In: The Guardian . August 15, 2000, accessed March 25, 2009 .
  6. ↑ Black Out - Anatomy of a Passion. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 28, 2018 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  7. ↑ Glenn Erickson: Nicholas Roeg's Bad Timing. In: Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved on March 25, 2009 : “a clear example of a film way ahead of its time. What seemed obscure in 1980 is now crystal clear, and we follow Roeg's non-linear cutting patterns without the slightest confusion. [...] the culmination of the 70s idea of ​​a director's picture "
  8. ^ Rumsey Taylor: Bad Timing - A Sensual Obsession. In: Not Coming to a Theater Near You. November 18, 2005, accessed on March 25, 2009 : "the vulnerability that a relationship exploits, and any disruption, as a result, is rendered more volatile. [...] The tone and chronology shift rapidly back-and-forth between infatuation and depression: love's beginning and end. [...] Nothing really fits together here, and nothing should "
  9. ^ A b c Richard Combs: Bad Timing: The Men Who Didn't Know Something. In: The Criterion Collection . Retrieved on March 25, 2009 (English): “Netusil also has his own identity puzzle to solve. In part, this is a doppelganger story, but an incomplete one. [...] There are so many ambivalences in the scheme of things - so much shifting between the operations of hazard, choice, and predestination - and the dazzling, fragmented style of the film is designed to catch this play. [...] The turn-of-the-century Viennese art world is part of the emotional texture of bad timing, the contrast between the romantic shimmer of Gustav Klimt and the psychological darkness of Egon Schiele "
  10. ^ Nate Meyers: Bad Timing (1980). In: digitallyOBSESSED.com. September 26, 2005, accessed on March 25, 2009 (English): “Another excellent study in human nature […] This is not a picture interested in utilizing Vienna's beautiful scenery to achieve visceral effects; rather, Roeg and his crew prefer to externalize their characters through the film's look and sound "
  11. ^ Mike Sutton: Bad Timing (1980). In: Screenonline. BFI , accessed on March 24, 2009 (English): "The film takes the form of a detective mystery, in which the crime is only revealed gradually, as Roeg painstakingly guides us through the tortured relationship [...] the revelations at the end of the film seem not merely shocking but inevitable. [...] Garfunkel and Russell, given almost impossible roles, are extremely impressive [...] Harvey Keitel's Netusil has an intense self-righteousness which is unnerving, more priest than detective, and Denholm Elliott is unbearably moving "
  12. ↑ Lee Hill: Nicolas Roeg. (No longer available online.) In: Senses of Cinema. May 2002, archived from the original on February 25, 2009 ; Retrieved on March 25, 2009 (English): "Behind all of these films is a question about landscape: how can we even think we can understand the ones we love, when we can't even feel at ease in the places we live in ? To the chagrin of many critics, Roeg did not delineate this existential paradox "
  13. ↑ Variety Staff: Bad Timing (UK). (No longer available online.) In: Variety . January 1, 1980, archived from the original on March 24, 2009 ; accessed on March 25, 2009 (English): "degenerate chic [...] Every scene is shot with at least one eye and one ear to the editing table"
  14. ^ A b Ali Catterall: Bad Timing Review. In: Channel 4 Film. Retrieved March 25, 2009 : “This film is absolutely choking, fair reeking in ciggie smoke; over 40 fags have the life sucked out of them during the two-hour running time […] Depending on one's tolerance for shouty, duvet-chewing acting, the lead performances will either grimly fascinate (perhaps evoking happy memories of past doomed relationships), possibly amuse, or most likely irritate beyond belief. "
  15. ↑ IMDb , "Soundtracks for Bad Timing", s. Web links.
  16. ↑ Movie Locations ( Memento from December 12, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ↑ Baugeschichte.at