Performance (Donald Cammell & Nicholas Roeg, 1970)
"I am a bullet..."
A Wandsworth gangster/crazy-dog/loose-cannon/lone ranger/maverick-type upsets the boss and has to be erm- 'put down'. So, after over-hearing a grooovy conversation about an empty flat, he hides out with a bunch of long-haired beatnik types, who hang around in their house (81 Powis Square in Notting Hill gate) & consume a large amount of mushrooms. Here, we have a meeting of minds. The 'turn it in' gangster type ( a great turn by James Fox) eye to eye with the free love pot-smoking, moog-fiddling beatnik Turner (Mick Jagger in his first film role). Much psychedelia ensues, man, and things start getting, like, willld, man. Super sexy Anita Pallenberg & beautiful Mick Jagger (or is that beautiful Anita Pallenberg & super sexy Mick Jagger?) get fuck-faced on mushies and, well... simply 'be'.
Donald Cammell wrote Performance, and photographer Nic Roeg provided the far-out visuals, with both of them credited as co-directors. Performance is a visual feast, and is a truly 'far-out' experience... meaning the film is all over the shop! Visually interesting, structurally-flawed, Performance is as bizarre today as it undoubtably was back in 1970. What must the fat cats at Warner Brothers thought when they saw this? Answer: They hated it. Even after asking for the film to be re-edited, Warner Brothers sat on it for two years, not really knowing what to do with the damn thing. Release it!
Experimental visuals and ropey acting aside, performance is, at times, very beautifully filmed. There's a very lovely sex-scene which is a fore-runner (or should that be fore-play?) to the one in Roeg's masterly Don't Look Now. And The Stones' track 'Memo from Turner' is a classic tune. Performance is also a fascinating time capsule representative of the era. Hmm... that would be nostalgic then, wouldn't it?
Part gangster movie, part mushroom-induced pseudo-documentary, Performance is a tale of identity (or lack of), and could also be construed as a tale of duality. Whichever way you look at it (and in whatever state you see in in) Performance is a very ambiguous experience, and an essential part of late 60s cinema.
