Legendary director and cinematographer Nicholas Roeg passed away last year at age 90.
He was the second unit cinematographer on Lawrence of Arabia, and was then promoted to full director of photography for David Lean’s epic follow-up, Dr. Zhivago. But he and Lean clashed on set, and he was quickly fired.
This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as Roeg went straight to the director’s chair himself, and stayed there. His first film as helmer was Performance, a stylish look at swinging ’60s London that starred Mick Jagger. He went on to direct David Bowie in his signature role, The Man Who Fell To Earth.
Last Wednesday, Indie Memphis started a mini-tribute to Roeg with Walkabout, a gorgeously shot 1971 film set in Australia that maintains a strong cult following.
This Wednesday at Studio on the Square, they will screen Roeg’s influential 1973 horror film Don’t Look Now. Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie star as a married couple looking for psychic answers in Italy after their daughter accidentally drowns. It includes a controversial sex scene and some serious scary face from Sutherland. Get those tickets here.
Nicholas Roeg and Nubia Yasin On The Cinema Screen This Week in Memphis
Across town at the Malco Ridgeway, the Morris and Mollye Fogelman International Jewish Film Festival concludes with the French film A Bag of Marbles (Un sac de billes). Based on the memoir of Joseph Joffo, Christian Duguay’s 2017 movie is a story of friendship between two young boys during the Nazi occupation of Europe.
Nicholas Roeg and Nubia Yasin On The Cinema Screen This Week in Memphis (3)
Thursday at THE CMPLX, the big winner at the 2018 Indie Memphis Youth Festival, “Sensitive” by director Nubia Yasin and screenwriter Sage Scott, returns to the screen. The short film about a young Memphis man trying to live up to an elusive and toxic masculine ideal will be followed by a panel discussion with queer black men on their struggles for recognition and acceptance. The night will conclude with a feature film, 2011’s Gun Hill Road.
Nicholas Roeg and Nubia Yasin On The Cinema Screen This Week in Memphis (2)
