The return of the man who fell to earth ...

Its back, in a new print, to commemorate its 40th anniversary. Is it really that long since that hot summer of 1976, when we loved TAXI DRIVER and Nick Roeg's THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH .....  

A maverick film director, an emaciated rock star (who it seemed lived on Corn Flakes, milk and small mountains of cocaine) and who had never acted in a full-length film before - both in an inhospitable location in North America and New Mexico, plus a script heavy on allegory from a novel considered unfilmable - but somehow it all came together in another Roeg masterpiece, following his success with DON'T LOOK NOW. 

THE MAN WHO ... is now considered a cult classic, up there almost with 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY in its prescience on how we live now: information overload, digital cameras, endless television channels, machines that play music on shuffle, sinister worldwide corporations, surveillance, drought, global warming - its all here, and it should look terrific in a new print. Also of course Bowie dying this year adds extra resonance ... here he is the alien (great special effects from that pre-CGI age) who comes seeking water for his dying planet but get seduced by Earth's alcohol and human relationships, as that corporation seeks to take over his patents for new gadgets, leading to some razor-sharp images and cutting. It will be fascinating to see it again at this remove. There is also that fascinating documentary CRACKED ACTOR which the BBC made on Bowie at the time and during the filming. That should be included in the new package too.