A film of the moment: Bad Timing

Abstract

When Bad Timing was finished in 1980 its distributor, Rank, distanced itself, calling it “a sick film made by sick people for sick people.” It was given an X rating in the USA. Roger Ebert awarded it just one and a half stars. A positive review from the likes of Playboy magazine, who predictably hailed the film's “eroticism,” was understandably not enough to lift director Nick Roeg's spirits in the face of reactions like this one, recounted in a 2000 Guardian interview: “At the first test screening in America, I was going to meet a friend, a quite well-known actor. Afterwards, he got into his car, drove it at me, and swerved off. He wouldn't speak to me for 3 years.” Bad Timing has gone on to accrue a kind of queasy cult status since 1980. If (as I confess was the case for me) all you know about it is that it stars Art Garfunkel and features a scene of near necrophilia, you need to watch it. It will repay your time, and, as our politics struggles to find the correct approach to historical sexual assault allegations and issues of consent on university campuses, it now feels eerily prescient. Playboy and Rank were wrong, albeit in very different ways. Bad Timing deals in eroticism but it isn't remotely erotic. It deals in sickness, but isn't itself sick. The psychology of suicidal behaviourThe causes of suicidal behaviour are not fully understood; however, this behaviour clearly results from the complex interaction of many factors. Although many risk factors have been identified, they mostly do not account for why people try to end their lives. In this Review, we describe key recent developments in theoretical, clinical, and empirical psychological science about the emergence of suicidal thoughts and behaviours, and emphasise the central importance of psychological factors. Personality and individual differences, cognitive factors, social aspects, and negative life events are key contributors to suicidal behaviour. Full-Text PDF