Whatever happened to Nicolas Roeg? Wait a second... who IS Nicolas Roeg? That is the unfortunate response I would get today, as the once promising British director has faded into obscurity to all but the most avid cinephile. His latest film, Puffball: The Devil's Eyeball, is languishing in the On Demand sector rather than getting major distribution in theaters or even on DVD.

So who is Nicolas Roeg? A promising camera operator and cinematographer on such classics as Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and Fahrenheit 451, he quickly made the transition to director. With Performance (1970), he was called upon to co-direct with the movie's writer, Donald Cammell. This film is the first to feature his now oft-imitated non-linear techniques in storytelling. Though the movie faced some controversy due to its explicit sexuality (a recurring issue in Roeg's career), it propelled him to early success.

His earliest films as a director are his most satisfying, and many can be found in the Criterion Collection of DVDs. These include: Walkabout (1971), in which Jenny Agutter plays a young Australian girl coming to terms with her sexuality while stranded in the outback; The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), where David Bowie plays an alien arriving on Earth in search of water for his world, only to get sidetracked by this planet's temptations; and Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession (1980), in which Art Garfunkel's complicity in his lover's death may be less perverse than the act he commits after her demise. His greatest success came with his frightening film Don't Look Now (1973).

Don't Look Now stars Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie as a couple mourning the recent drowning of their young daughter. In an effort to mend their shattered lives, they go on a "busman's holiday" to Venice where Sutherland's character, an architect, works on restoring a church. His wife meets two psychic sisters who have a warning for her concerning her husband. Meanwhile, murders are being committed in Venice by an unknown assailant. Then there's the continued sighting of a small figure in the same little red raincoat that Sutherland's and Christie's daughter was wearing when she died.

Roeg uses his non-linear narrative technique to great effect in Don't Look Now. Sutherland is routinely plagued by visions symbolizing death. These images contrast sharply with the Venetian surroundings at first. Slowly the atmosphere becomes more claustrophobic. The enchanting canals become a labyrinth from which the doomed couple cannot escape. The morbid images spliced next to the beautiful images of Venice inform the surroundings ominously.