When one comes across a film as quixotic and dense as Nicholas Roeg’s 1976 Sci-Fi art film, The Man Who Fell to Earth, the less that is said, the better. And I use those two descriptive adjectives in the most complementary way. In fact, the one thing that I found the most refreshing in the experience of this film is it’s complete disregard for providing any expository roadmap for the film’s fractured narrative. In a bold display that has been repeated too few times in the 33 years since this film’s release, Roeg and screenwriter Paul Mayersberg provide the audience only with the assumptions to be made from the title (and the universally recognized other-worldliness of David Bowie) that the story involves a being, a man, from another planet. Otherwise, it is up to the filmmakers to show, not tell, the story. It doesn’t always work, and I suspect that it isn’t always meant to.
The overall result, however, for those willing to open up and take the ride, is less a movie about this stranger’s agenda (to return to and/or rescue his family) than it is an exposition about capitalism, western (especially American) society, intellectual progress, celebrity, media, government regulation, alcohol and sex. Whoa, you might say. And you’d be right. And while the style may be a little too much work for some, The Man Who Fell to Earth is nearly as entertaining as it is insightful and mysterious. But if you’re looking for bright lights and flying saucers, you’d be better revisiting one of the two films released the following year: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (also likely considered a yawner by today’s Sci-Fi standards) or Star Wars.
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
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