Cinema: Fractured Freud

BAD TIMING/ A SENSUAL OBSESSION Directed by Nicolas Roeg Screenplay by Yale Udoff

Modern, that is to say post-Freudian, Vienna. But the doings related in this film are strictly pre-Freudian, not to say prehistoric, in their banality. A rather dour young American psychiatrist (Art Garfunkel) is accosted at a party by a young American something or other (Theresa Russell), who is rather feverish in her gaiety. Instead of his suggesting a professional appointment, they decide to have an affair. But he cannot keep it light, and she cannot take it seriously; the rich variety of sexual experience she has had has led...