The films of Nicolas Roeg

Audiences respond to three things in the films of Nicolas Roeg. The first is their extraordinary power, the second their vivid style. The third has to do with the fact that they present us with puzzles (often about people whom audiences half recognize, but cannot immediately understand). John Izod argues that all three elements are tied together, with the power of the films springing from their source in ancient mysteries. By adapting the methods of the psychoanalyst C.G. Jung, he shows how Roeg reworks myth in order to reach into the unconscious of late twentieth-century humanity. These new, cinematic, myths do more than reveal the motivation of Roeg's characters: they excite the desire for greater understanding, so that spectators become involved in a quest of their own which leads them to seek an intensified self-knowledge through the films.