At the start of his career, Nicolas Roeg made a name for himself as a cinematographer, working for such masters as François Truffaut, Roger Corman, and Richard Lester. In 1970, Roeg released his co-directorial (along with Donald Cammell) debut Performance, which featured Mick Jaggger of The Rolling Stones. His follow-up string of films in the 1970s made him a prominent force in cinema. The survival film Walkabout (1971), the influential horror Don't Look Now (1973), and the iconic science fiction with David Bowie The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) were all widely praised by critics.

Roeg’s films are experimental puzzles with a deconstruction of conventional narratives and kaleidoscopic editing. "Too many films today feel formulaic and familiar. I prefer it when the familiar is made to feel strange," he once said. Roeg’s expressive style influenced Steven Soderbergh, Christopher Nolan, Danny Boyle, Ridley Scott, and others.

Let's look at the best movies from the British cult filmmaker, ranked.

7 Performance

James Fox and Mick Jagger in Performance
Warner Bros.

Originally produced in 1968 but not released for two years, as its own studio, Warner Bros., banned it due to graphic violence and sexual content, Roeg’s co-directorial debut Performance is now regarded as a cult classic of British cinema. This radical crime drama about the London rock world centers on the brutal gangster Chas (played by James Fox) who, after killing a rival, finds the perfect cover in the home of burnt-out rock star Turner (Mick Jagger’s acting debut).

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A powerful and surreal piece of work, Performance starts like a British gangster movie and turns into a rip-roaring psychedelic trip that examines themes of identity; it's almost like a rock n' roll variation on Bergman's Persona. The gangster aspect of the film influenced Quentin Tarantino’s and Guy Ritchie’s movies.

6 Insignificance

Michael Emil and Theresa Russell in Insignificance
Island Alive

The delirious 1985 chamber drama Insignificance portrays a fictional meeting between unnamed versions of Marilyn Monroe (played by Roeg's wife Theresa Russell), Albert Einstein (Michael Emil), Joe DiMaggio (Gary Busey), and Joseph McCarthy (Tony Curtis). The director creates a fun-house mirror image of the significant idols of the 1950s and post-World War II America. An odd meditation on fame, power, and the possibility of human connection, the Cannes Palme d’Or-nominated alternate history film is another must-see Roeg piece.

5 Bad Timing

Art Garfunkel and Theresa Russell in Bad Timing
Rank Film Distributors

Described by its own distributor, the Rank Organization, as "a sick film made by sick people for sick people," the 1980 dark sexual-obsession drama Bad Timing is Roeg's most controversial movie. Bad Timing details the mutually self-destructive relationships of two Americans, jealous psychoanalyst Dr. Alex Linden (played by American singer Art Garfunkel, from Simon & Garfunkel) and the elusive married Milena (Theresa Russell), in cold-war Vienna. A look at the collision of love, desire, emotional guilt, control, and obsession, Roeg's drama is a complex and shocking work that received the Toronto Film Festivals's highest honor. It also features an iconic soundtrack with everyone from Tom Waits to Billie Holiday.

4 The Witches

Anjelica Huston in The Witches
Warner Bros.

Based on the Roald Dahl children's book of the same name, the 1990 horror-comedy The Witches follows an eight-year-old boy, Luke Eveshim (Jasen Fisher) who must stop evil witches (including Anjelica Huston, who wonderfully plays the all-powerful leader of a coven, Eva Ernst). Roeg captures the spirit of the surreal grotesqueness of Dahl's story with his typically odd imagery and editing, but brings an accessibility to the film that's absent from many of his masterpieces. It is simply one of the best Roald Dahl movie adaptations and a perfect introduction to the horror genre for children.

3 Walkabout

Roeg’s own son Luc in Walkabout
20th Century Fox

Roeg’s first solo credit as director, the 1971 survival film Walkabout was described by film critic Roger Ebert as "a meditation about living on earth, which finds beauty in the way mankind’s intelligence can adapt to harsh conditions while civilization just tries to wall them off or pave them over." Set in the Australian outback, Walkabout follows two children (played by Jenny Agutter and Roeg’s own son Luc) who try to survive on their own in the wilderness after their father's death, aided by a young Aboriginal (David Gulpilil). It is a visually beautiful, exotic, and inspiring film that has since been recognized as an essential piece of the Australian New Wave.

2 Don't Look Now

Nicolas Roeg's film Don't Look Now
British Lion Films

Regarded as a masterpiece of the horror genre, the 1973 film Don't Look Now tells a disturbing story of a married couple, Laura and John Baxter (played by Julie Christie and Donald Sutherland), who retreat to Venice in hopes of healing, only to be followed by the grief of the recent tragic death of their little daughter and a terrifying experience.

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Famous for a complexly edited and shocking sex scene, along with one of the greatest twist endings ever filmed, Don't Look Now is a bone-chilling and mysterious classic that should be a must-watch on every horror fan's movie list. The film’s stylistic techniques influenced Christopher Nolan’s Memento, Lars von Trier's Antichrist, Ami Canaan Mann’s Texas Killing Fields, Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight, among several others.

1 The Man Who Fell to Earth

David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth
British Lion Films

Described by Time Out as "the most intellectually provocative genre film of the 1970s," the 1976 science fiction drama The Man Who Fell to Earth stars rock legend David Bowie as Thomas Jerome Newton, a melancholy visitor from another world on a rescue mission who comes to Earth. In The Man Who Fell to Earth, Roeg examines alienation in contemporary life and society’s spiritual emptiness - the latter captured in the indelible image of Newton watching 12 television sets at once. It is a hypnotic, artful, and poetic film that was quite ahead of its time.