THE MAN WHO FELL THE EARTH

The Man Who Fell to Earth marked the meeting of a great artist who made just a few rare detours through the world of cinema and a director who made few films. Nicholas Roeg had just put his name to two major works with a blend of the fantastical and mysticism. Just as in these previous films, in The Man Who Fell to Earth Roeg skirts around the genre more than he exploits it. This is very much a sci-fi movie but it is also, and especially, a romantic portrait of a sensitive and idealistic being who has been uprooted from his familiar surroundings. The androgynous David Bowie, the incarnation of every fantasy, plays this individual from another world superbly well. Furthermore, there can be no doubt that this film is one of his most memorable incursions into the Seventh Art.