Nicolas Roeg

Director

August 15, 1928 (90 years)

† November 23, 2018

London, England, UK

Biography

Nicolas Jack Roeg (15 August 1928 – 23 November 2018) was an English film director and cinematographer, best known for directing Performance (1970), Walkabout (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Bad Timing (1980), and The Witches (1990). Making his directorial debut 23 years after his entry into the film business, Roeg quickly became known for an idiosyncratic visual and narrative style, characterized by the use of disjointed and disorienting editing.

Filmography

6.9

The Witches

While staying at a hotel in England with his grandmother, Helga, a young boy named Luke inadvertently spies on a convention of witches. The Grand High Witch reveals a plan to turn all children into mice via a magical formula. When they discover the eavesdropper, the witches test the formula on him. Now, with the help of Helga and hotel manager Mr Stringer, Luke the mouse must fight back against the witches.

5.3

Full Body Massage

Nina, an art dealer, has her weekly massage appointment and is surprised to find out her usual masseur, Douglas, has sent a replacement named Fitch. The pair develop an easy rapport during the session, with talk about past relationships. As Nina lies topless on the massage table, Fitch also takes time to explain various massage techniques, including those used by Hopi medicine men.

7.3

Walkabout

Under the pretense of having a picnic, a geologist takes his teenage daughter and 6-year-old son into the Australian outback and attempts to shoot them. When he fails, he turns the gun on himself, and the two city-bred children must contend with harsh wilderness alone. They are saved by a chance encounter with an Aboriginal boy who shows them how to survive, and in the process underscores the disharmony between nature and modern life.

6.9

Don't Look Now

While grieving a terrible loss, a married couple meet two mysterious sisters, one of whom gives them a message sent from the afterlife.

6.3

Castaway

Middle-aged Gerald Kingsland advertises in a London paper for a female companion to spend a year with him on a desert island. Young Lucy Irving takes a chance on contacting him, but once on the island, things prove a lot less idyllic than in the movies. Gradually, it becomes clear that it is Lucy who has the desire and the strength to try and see the year through.

6.5

The Man Who Fell to Earth

Thomas Jerome Newton is an alien who has come to Earth in search of water to save his home planet. Aided by lawyer Oliver Farnsworth, Thomas uses his knowledge of advanced technology to create profitable inventions. While developing a method to transport water, Thomas meets Mary-Lou, a quiet hotel clerk, and begins to fall in love with her. Just as he is ready to leave Earth, Thomas is intercepted by the U.S. government, and his entire plan is threatened.

5.5

Track 29

Years after a desperate teenage Linda gives up her baby for adoption, she finds herself face-to-face with Martin, a young man claiming to be her long-lost son. Linda embraces Martin and in him finds a welcome reprieve from her unhappy marriage to the neglectful Henry. But soon Martin grows violent and becomes obsessed with Henry -- a philandering man whose only offspring is an expansive model train set that devours his waking hours.

7.2

Samson and Delilah

Mara and Manoa are both upstanding and religious Israelites living under the harsh and unjust rule of the Philistines. One day, a mysterious stranger appears to Mara and promises her that she will bear a son whom she is to call Samson.

5.4

Aria

Ten short pieces directed by ten different directors, including Ken Russell, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, and Nicolas Roeg. Each short uses an aria as soundtrack/sound, and is an interpretation of the particular aria.

6.5

Bad Timing

Alex Linden is a psychiatrist living in Vienna who meets Milena Flaherty though a mutual friend. Though Alex is quite a bit older than Milena, he's attracted to her young, carefree spirit. Despite the fact that Milena is already married, their friendship quickly turns into a deeply passionate love affair that threatens to overtake them both. When Milena ends up in the hospital from an overdose, Alex is taken into custody by Inspector Netusil.

6.8

Performance.

In underworld terms, Chas Devlin is a 'performer,' a gangster with a talent for violence and intimidation. Turner is a reclusive rock superstar. When Chas and Turner meet, their worlds collide—and the impact is both exotic and explosive.

5.3

Eureka

After striking it rich on a large gold strike, a prospector retires to the quiet life on a Caribbean island but ends up coping with an alcoholic wife, a headstrong daughter, and Miami mobsters who want to build a casino.

4.4

Cold Heaven

While on holiday in Mexico, unhappily married Marie Davenport summons the courage to tell her unknowing husband, Alex, that she is leaving him for her lover. But before she delivers the news, Alex is involved in a boating accident – and Marie is unsure whether he's dead or not. Faced with supernatural events, Marie turns back to Catholicism and seeks the help of Father Niles and Sister Martha.

5.8

Heart of Darkness

A trading company manager travels up an African river to find a missing outpost head and discovers the depth of evil in humanity's soul.

6.4

Insignificance

Four 1950s icons meet in the same hotel room, and two of them discover more in common between them than they ever anticipated.

3.8

Puffball

Architect Liffey moves to the Irish countryside with her American fiancé, Richard, to refurbish a long-abandoned cottage. Their neighbours are elderly Molly Tucker and her adult daughter, Mabs, who has three daughters but wants a son. After Richard returns to New York City, Liffey learns she's pregnant, which angers Molly and Mabs. Convinced Liffey has the baby her daughter deserves, Molly tries to use black magic to eliminate the fetus.

5.5

Sweet Bird of Youth

Tennessee William’s masterful melodrama about an aging movie star who, appalled by her own image on the screen, flees from her movie premiere and goes into seclusion, becoming entangled with a much younger hotel masseur and resident gigolo.

5.6

Two Deaths

While a brutal revolution rampages just outside his mansion, pleasure-seeking doctor Daniel Pavenic hosts a genteel dinner party. When asked about a photograph of a mysterious woman, Pavenic reveals the sordid details of his erotic obsession with the woman, his aging servant Ana Puscasu, and his attempts to dominate her psychologically. As the evening progresses, Pavenic's guests reveal their own dark secrets as well.

5.5

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Demons of Deception

Indy's work with the Belgian Army takes him to the front lines of Verdun in 1916, where officers' callous stupidity sends thousands of men to their deaths for virtually no territorial gain. In Paris, Indy falls in love with the seductive German spy Mata Hari, only to suffer the pains of deceit.

4.8

Judith

A Jewish woman is recruited to help track down a German commander who was her former husband.