The Man Who Fell to Earth, Nicolas Roeg (U.K., 1976)

“Thomas Newton” falls like an apple to earth. His diaphanous being has taken the form of David Bowie, androgynous earthling of the orange hair, pale skin, sad eyes. With a business partner, the alien establishes World Enterprises, an empire of images, in order to finance his journey home. The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane wrote of the re-release, “Time has done nothing to reduce its cool, confounding strangeness. Here is a sci-fi movie dedicated to the notion that no planet, anywhere else in the galaxy, would look half as freakish as our own would to the inquiring visitor.”

• Written by Paul Mayersberg, based on the novel by Walter Tevis. Photographed by Anthony Richmond. With David Bowie, Rip Torn, Candy Clark, Buck Henry. (140 mins, Color, 35mm, From Rialto Pictures)