This weekend, a pair of cinemas most original voices were silenced.
Today, more than ever, that time feels a thousand years in the past.
Like so many Roeg films to come,Performancewould prove to be ahead of its time.
David Bowie in ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’.Credit: Studiocanal/REX/Shutterstock
So much so that its studio, Warner Bros., held its release until 1970.
They didnt know what to make of it.
But a generation of young film lovers steeped in the counterculture did.
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Roeg followed with his solo directorial debut, 1971sWalkabout.
Roeg was hitting his stride as a filmmaker.
And his next feature would be the one for which hed be most remembered 1973sDont Look Now.
But beyond that infamous and provocatively artful sequence,Dont Look Nowremains a harrowing depiction of trauma and loss.
Its jigsaw-puzzle structure hasnt dated a bit and still casts an eerie poetic spell.
The success of the film finally gave Roeg some creative capital to spend as he wished.
The film is demanding, enigmatic, some would say pretentious.
But its also utterly hypnotic in its daring defiance.
Critics, of course, hated it.
And audiences, for the most part, steered clear.
But over time, its become a cult hit whose cult rightly seems to grow with every passing year.
But thats a bit of a cop out.
The truth is, those later films didnt have the same urgency and cohesion.
More and more, they seemed to be made for an audience of one.
Bertolucci, whodied Monday at age 77, was no less of an iconoclast.
He was a painterly provocateur during an era that was less hostile to original voices than now.
Banned in his native country,Last Tangowas a cause celebre of seismic proportions.
Its not an easy film to watch or to look away from.
Both he and Roeg played by their own rules from the beginnings of their careers until the very ends.
Those who did would end up being far richer for the journey.
