He was known primarily for the horror film “When the gondolas wear mourning” from the year 1973 with Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland. Now, Nicolas Roeg, has died at the age of 90 years.
The BBC reported, citing family members. Further details of his death are not yet known.
World-wide fame with “Don’t Look Now”
Nicolas Roeg was one of the most original filmmakers in the UK. As one who always had a mind of his own, an outsider who never wanted to commit to a Genre.
He became famous in 1973 with the deep sad horror melodrama “Don’t Look Now”. In the Film, which ran in Germany as “When the gondolas wear mourning”, and plays of Donald Sutherland at the side of Julie Christie, a father who tries to process during a Venice stay the death of his child. Also Donald Sutherland helped the Film to make the breakthrough, until today, the strip is considered to be the greatest success. Also because of a sex scene in the movie made years later.
Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland in “When the gondolas wear mourning” (1973)
Nicolas Roeg was born in 1928 in London. In the movie studios, the way were, almost in front of his parents house, he worked his way up from errand boy to camera assistant. For the Oscar-winning Film “Lawrence of Arabia” (1962) he turned as a camera man in the Second Unit. During the shooting of “doctor Zhivago” (1965) clashed with the Director and was fired. Later, he was a camera man in classics like Francois Truffaut’s “Fahrenheit 451” (1966) and John Schlesinger’s “The lady of Thornhill” (1967).
Roeg holt Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Art Garfunkel in front of the camera
David Bowie in “The man who fell from the sky” (1976)
The psychedelic gangster film “Performance” was allowed to Roeg’s 1970 run for the first time (along with Donald Cammell) Director. Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones plays a reclusive rock star. “Performance” was to dream a scandal movie, not only because of the sexual experiments of the main characters, but also because of Roegs unusual jumps between reality and the surreal Drug.
Its some skeptical eyeing Assembly technology continued Roeg a year later in the Australian Drama “Walkabout” (1971). That the Film flopped at the box office, it didn’t matter to him: “I’ve never tried to improve my reputation,” said Roeg once the “Telegraph”. Sure his thing was to not go. The collaboration with rock stars, however, seem to be: In the cult film “The man who fell from the sky” (1976) played a role in the beginning of 2016, the deceased David Bowie. And in “Blackout – anatomy of a passion” (original title “Bad Timing, A Sexual Obsession”) he won in 1980, Theresa Russell and Art Garfunkel as a couple in Love in front of the camera.
Art Garfunkel and Theresa Russell in “Blackout – anatomy of a passion” (1980)
nf/mak (dpa / British Film Institute)