In this assignment I will look at the reasons why I believe the director Nicolas Roeg was one of the earliest examples of what we would now consider a postmodern filmmaker. I will also place his work within the context of the rest of British cinema during the seventies. In particular I am going to concentrate on the film he made in 1976 called The Man Who Fell to Earth.

An important point about Roeg's early career, is that unlike many other directors that were around at the same time, his energies were always directed towards cinema, and not television. He started at the Marylebone Studios when he was nineteen, where he worked as a tea boy and assisting in dubbing French films. Following his time there, he then moved to the British division of MGM, where he slowly worked his way up through various jobs. The most famous work he undertook during this early period of his career, was the second unit photography he did for Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and following this he become a director of photography on films such as The Masque of the Red Death (1964) and Fahrenheit 451 (1967). This initial work he did as a cinematographer clearly shows up in the films he later went on to direct, which are all very strong and inventive visually.

Genre

A common trait of postmodernism, is that there is no discrimination between genres. They're all considered as relevant as one another, in an attempt to get rid of the artificial barriers that have been built up between them. Considering some of his early films:

• The Man Who Fell to Earth, was a science fiction film.

• Walkabout (1971), was adapted from a children's book.

• Don't Look Now (1973), was a supernatural thriller.

These all genres which are not normally very highly regarded critically, and in the past have been referred to as low art. But postmodernism attempted to give all the genres a new, even level of status so it became not the genre, but what the artist does with it that's important. Consequently it is possible for an artist to work in any of the genres, and still produce a piece of work which is considered as worthwhile art.

But his films can also be regarded as postmodern in the way they take elements from many different genres, and mix them together to achieve the desired effect. So although The Man Who Fell to Earth would primarily be described as a science fiction film (for easy classification which is important commercially), it is also has elements of:

• a crime film: dealing with corruption in big business.

• an adventure film: with the hero on a quest to save his planet.

• a romance: with two characters who are destined not to be together.

• a western: mainly in the setting, but scenes involving Indians and settlers are also used.

• and (although this is more explicit in the book) a religious film: with the David Bowie character being a messianic figure, sent to stop humans from destroying their Earth by spreading his message.

This mixing of the genres also reflects on the filmmaking process, since doing this creates questions about what exactly constitutes genre, and highlights how difficult it is to define.

The initial premise of The Man Who Fell to Earth (as with many of his other films) is relatively simple. The plot can be summarised as: an alien (played by David Bowie) comes to Earth to get water for his home planet, but while on Earth he gets distracted by various things and ends up being trapped here. This is not really a lot of plot for a film which lasts around two and a half hours. The film was based on a book written by Walter Tevis (shown left with its re-designed cover), which contained much more exposition in it about the central characters intentions and the details of his mission. What both Nicolas Roeg and Paul Mayersberg (the scriptwriter) did, was to take the central story from the book, and then simplify it to its most basic possible elements.

Therefore, since the plot is so simple he achieves interest (that's of course if his films interest you) more with his visual style and his use of filmic techniques, rather than with content. This is both a postmodern idea and in keeping with the cinema which was around at the same time. The sixties was regarded as a high point in British cinema, and after this the seventies was for many people a let down. Part of the reason for this was that films which attempt to portray realism or authenticity, are generally more highly regarded than films which are escapist, and during the seventies the trend seemed to be towards escapism, such as with the Monty Python films. Fitting in with this notion of escapism, the plots in Roeg's films are fairly unrealistic. Postmodern ideas actually represent the complete opposite of this critical opinion, as it not only doesn't value the representation of reality, but states that art can't represent reality anyway and doesn't even need to.

Despite the fact that the plots are unrealistic, they are told in a very serious fashion. I think this is one area in which he is slightly separate from postmodernism ideas, which are often based on the notion that art shouldn't take itself too seriously and is meant to be fun, as a reaction to the strict formalism of modernism.

I think there are two main ways he attempts to achieve interest in his films:

1. through his use of editing

2. through his use of narrative

In his films there tends to be a lot of fast cutting between various strands of action, what has become known as MTV style editing. But rather than this just being a purely visual style, it is used to highlight his preoccupation with the idea that everything is interconnected. To achieve this he cuts between scenes which would otherwise be considered totally unconnected, but by association they take on a new meaning. One example is that at one point the David Bowie character appears to get woken up by another character called Bryce (played by Rip Torn), despite the fact that they're miles apart, and haven't even met at that point in the film. The new meaning created by contrasting these two seemingly unrelated things, is that Bryce will become important later on in the film for the David Bowie character.

As far as narrative is concerned, his early films were about rejecting the conventions of the classical Hollywood narrative, which has the effect of fore-grounding the narrative, and making you more conscious of the fact that you are watching a film. This is since the whole point of narrative conventions such as unobtrusive composition, is to divert the audiences attention away from the fact they are watching a film. The result of this is, that the audience has to be more active in deciphering the film if they wish to understand what's going on. This can be considered postmodern in the sense that it is not didactic, as the filmmaker does not subvert the audience by the use of conventions, but instead treats them as being equally important in the films creation.

The Man Who Fell to Earth was the fourth film he had directed, and although he had been experimenting with the narrative form in the previous films he'd made, it really reached its most extreme form in this film. Nicolas Roeg himself said that he attempted "to push the structure of film grammar into a different area ... by taking away the crutch of time which the audience holds onto."¹ So unlike most films, it is basically impossible to work out any sort of time scale over which the events portrayed take place, as there are quick shifts around in time and space without the connections between these shifts ever being made. An example of this is that, although there are no indications that a great amount of time has passed, everyone ages drastically throughout the course of the film apart from David Bowie's character. The reasons for this are not only never explained, but also it's never even noticed or referred to by any of the characters in the film. One of the ideas of postmodernism is that there are certain experiences or concepts which can't be explained through art. So things which are left unexplained in his films can be taken as a manifestation of this.

Also the narrative provides no neat conclusion. The end of the film is open to interpretation, and again this is a postmodern idea in that narratives don't necessarily need to lead to fixed point from which you can only take one fixed reading.

A lot of experimentation with the narrative form and films in general had taken place during the sixties, particularly with the New Wave movements in both France and Britain. These movements had pretty much died out by the seventies though, with much of the industry returning to a more conventional style. Contrary to this, Nicolas Roeg was one of the few directors who was able to experiment throughout the seventies, while still remaining successful commercially. I think one of the main reasons for this, is that in three of his first five films, he used stars from the music scene in lead roles. In the case of Mick Jagger and David Bowie, the characters they played were extensions of characters they were already playing in real life, and in the case of Art Garfunkel he was playing against type. As has nearly always been the case, during this period most of the successful British actors had moved to the more lucrative environment of Hollywood, so these people had the presence of big name actors without the cost. Nicolas Roeg also chose them because he felt they were free of the conditioning which normal actors are subjected to.

Because things are left unexplained, the film can be referred to as an open text, as opposed to the closed texts which dominate in commercial cinema. One example of this is there are certain characters who seem to serve no purpose in the narrative, and even if they do that purpose is never defined. This is unheard of in conventional narratives, which operate under the principle of the lowest common denominator, where every character serves a clearly defined purpose (hero, protagonist, provider etc.), otherwise it's considered a waste of money to have a character who does nothing. After the David Bowie character has crash landed on Earth, he is watched by a man on the top of a hill. And this man reappears near the end of the film, and again just watches by his bedside. The function of this character is never explained within the film.

But it's not only the minor characters this affects, even the central characters are rather thinly drawn, with all the normal attributes characters in films possess (like clear motivation) being almost totally removed. This fits in with another idea from postmodernism of making the concept of characters problematic. Again, the characters in the film can be considered as simplified versions of the characters from the book. An example of this, is that in the book the purpose of the alien in coming to Earth is made very clear, whereas in the film it's not really explained at all, as it's considered irrelevant by Roeg to get across the films central theme.

This central theme seems to be alienation, and again this recurs throughout his films with all his central characters having a similar identity. The basic make-up of these characters is:

• they escape from a culture which has become obsolete.

• they move into a environment which is alien to them.

• they end up being drastically changed by this new environment, and normally a change for the worse.

This pattern fits the central characters of films such as Performance (1970), Don't Look Now (1973) and even his more recent films such as The Witches. In The Man Who Fell to Earth, the character of David Bowie:

• escapes from his home planet which is close to destruction.

• the alien environment he moves to is the Earth.

• at the films end he has become an alcoholic, been cut off from his own planet, and failed to fit in on Earth.

Cinema is the only discipline of art which can contain all of the others, and another postmodern idea is to move away from the idea that every art form should be different, and use a different means of expression. In common with a director such as Peter Greenaway, Nicolas Roeg attempts to combine all the forms of art within his films. In The Man Who Fell to Earth he uses:

• Paintings: a recurring image throughout the film is Brueghel's painting 'The Fall of Icarus', which is seen in a book, hanging in a hotel room, and in extreme close-up to introduce a flashback to a sequence on the title characters home planet. This picture itself obviously relates to the central character, Icarus being the character from Greek Mythology who flew too close to the sun with wax wings and fell into the sea.

• Poetry: part of W. H. Auden's poem 'Musée des Beaux Arts (1940)' about Breughel's painting is also used. In keeping with the idea that all the art forms can use the same means of expression, the poem is simply displayed on screen for a few seconds, which is very rare in modern cinema, seemingly harking back to the silent days of filmmaking.

• Music: the score of the film includes the War and Peace movements from Holst's Planet Suite, which again relates back to the central character. But this music is also contrasted in the film with popular music of the time by artists such as Roy Orbison and Bing Crosby, so this is postmodern in that it's mixing different styles within the art forms regardless of their status.

• Photography: one of the inventions patented by David Bowie's character in the film is self-developing photographic film.

• Theatre: in one scene there is an example of Japanese theatre, when the David Bowie character goes to a restaurant.

It also uses the cinema itself. Throughout the film there are many clips from various films used, although they're mainly seen on a television screen, which can be taken as a comment on how at the time cinema was losing out in the popularity stakes to television. The observation of David Bowie's character: "it shows you everything, but tells you nothing" can be taken as Nicolas Roeg's criticisms of television, but also as a self-reflexive statement, as it is a criticism which has often been levelled at Roeg's work.

In one section of the film a clip from The Third Man (1959) is used both to emphasise the separation of two of the lead characters, but also to contrast the two scenes which are taking place so they take on a new meaning. A common linking device he uses while cutting between the various scenes, is to keep the sound constant. During this scene the zither music made famous by The Third Man is heard throughout. This referring back to an earlier film within a film, or inter-textuality is one of the principle devices of postmodernism.

Postmodernism is notoriously difficult to define, but I think I have shown during the course of this essay that Nicolas Roeg's work fits in with many of the principle ideas of this movement. To sum these up:

• He combines all the art forms within his films, so as they can all use the same means of expression.

• He breaks down the barriers of genre within his films, so everything can be considered from an even level.

• His films are open ended, with explanations not being provided for everything that happens.

• His films create their own reality, which is different from the everyday reality of life.

• Through the fractured structure of his films, as a result of his unconventional use of editing and narrative, there is a breakdown in the relationship between thoughts, feelings and actions, which all become unconnected in a normal causal flow, existing as they do outside of any rigid time structure.

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Internet

• Nicolas Roeg Mailing List
• Nicolas Roeg Interview

Magazines & Journals

Kolker, R.P., 'The open texts of Nicolas Roeg', Sight and Sound, Spring 1977
Rosenbaum, Jonathan, 'Roeg's Gallery', The Movie, Volume 8 pp 1698-1700.