Performance

It doesnt really matter whether you like the Rolling Stones or not, but it may help if you know about the late sixties drug busts,the demise of Brian Jones,the Vietnam war,the Black Panther party,and the end of the flower power dream.Nic roeg and Donald Cammell sure did when they decided to make this film.Like a shattered kaliedoscope you cant put down it resonates long after the credits have rolled.Jagger plays a washed up rockstar trying to get back into contact with his muse-in fact any muse.Fox, plays a brutal gangster on the run looking only for somewhere to hide.Some things in this film have dated but the vast majority of it stands the test of time.Shelved by Warner Brothers on first release,it now stands as a proud monument to maverick film making which has never been bettered.

Visually compelling and disturbing look at two diverse sides of 1960s London; the criminal underworld and hippie culture, respectively symbolised by Fox's Chas, the wayward gangster, and Jagger's Turner, a semi-retired bisexual rock musician.

It's Chas' world we are first introduced to during a highly charged furiously paced scene of gangland violence. It soon becomes clear to us that he is not only an outcast to society but also dangerously individual within his own mob circle. On the run from both the law and the mob he takes refuge in a Notting Hill home which he finds is occupied by Turner, his junkie girlfriend, Pherber, and her French lover, Lucy. Tunrer becomes infatuated with Chas' violent charisma and his "vital energy" he himself feels he has lost.

As the title suggests the film is all about performances. Chas is initiated into Turner's underground world of drug experimentation and gender bending. Turner's name in itself is symbolic of the way he tries to play with and turn Chas' psyche around. It is ultimately the "performance" of Turner which brings the two worlds together, as he poses as Chas' mobster boss, Harry Flowers, in a scene shot similarly to a modern day music video.

Some critics had felt the film lost its way once Chas entered Turner's world. Yet surely such disorientation is indicative of how the film successfully explores Chas' own uneasiness in confronting his own subconscious in an alien atmosphere. The film is full of visual flourishes as one might expect from Roeg, who had been cinemaphotographer on films such as 'Fahrenheit 451'. Fox is mesmerising playing out the evolving identities of Chas, whilst Jagger's persona is exhibited to its full potential. Roeg was again to explore the theme of alienation using a rock star (this time David Bowie) in a more literal sense in his landmark science fiction film 'The Man Who Fell To Earth'.

Gangster James Fox (Chas) quite correctly exacts revenge on fellow bad-guy Anthony Valentine (Joey). But, this goes against the wishes of his boss Johnny Shannon (Harry) and so he has to go into hiding to prepare his escape from the country. The police are also looking for him although they don't figure at all in this film. Fox holes up in a house owned by faded rock star Mick Jagger (Turner) which he shares with a couple of druggy hippie chicks – Anita Pallenberg (Pherber) and Michèle Breton (Lucy). These three swap philosophies and indulge in a spot of identity swapping as well as a magic mushroom breakfast. Fox goes on a trip and he and Jagger truly become one. Meanwhile the gangsters are still searching for Fox…

This film definitely has 2 parts – the beginning gangster story and then the unworldly lodgings with Jagger. The latter part of the film is quite amusing and both my wife and I commented that we should spend all our afternoons like that, especially when they are partying to the music. Let's all get a bit boho. I'm sure there are things to spot on another viewing. The cast are good although Johnny Shannon (Harry) doesn't quite cut it as top dog. His surname is Flowers, though, which suggests a pansy in charge – and the Krays are obviously given another nod in this offering by look-a-like gangsters.

Both lifestyles no longer survive – the gangster world is totally different as is the bohemian lifestyle on show. Who does mushrooms these days? Back in the day, though….

Gangland enforcer James Fox gets involved with decadent fading rock star Mick Jagger in Nicholas Roeg's and Donald Cammell's cult film

Few films encapsulate drug-crazed Swinging 60s London like this one, though it was only seen three years after it was made and then heavily-edited because Warners were shocked at what they had financed. The film exceeded the boundaries of good taste that always epitomized British cinema.

This superbly shot, deeply disturbing, complex, often pretentious, often brilliant parable of confused identity was the first feature directed by leading cinematographer Roeg, sharing the credit with artist Cammell.

An eerily plausible Fox, cast against type, plays Chas, a sadistic gangster on the run who rents a room in the Notting Hill Gate home of Turner (Jagger), a reclusive, sexually ambiguous, washed-up rock star. Fox, his antithesis, is offered women and magic mushrooms before literally swapping personalities with the singer.

Fox abandoned the cinema for almost a decade after this film, such was its effect on him.



Verdict A dazzling, ideas-rich, extraordinarily inventive full-stop to the 60s

Thirty years after its release 'Performance' still remains one of the most controversial movies of the 60s/70s. For many it is an arty pretentious bore that is only worth remembering for being a mother lode of imagery that has been mined extensively by MTV "talents" over the last twenty years. (Cammell/Roeg must be up there with Bunuel and Kenneth Anger as the most plagiarized source for rock video!)

For the rest of us 'Performance' could well be THE great movie of the psychedelic era, rivaled only by Antonioni's 'Blow Up' and Jodorowky's 'El Topo'. 'Performance' merges the hard boiled Cockney gangster world of the Kray twins (exemplified by James Fox's brutal Chas) with the freaks of the rock/drug world (Jagger's enigmatic Turner) and shows they have as much in common as they differ. Reality and fantasy blur, gender and personas get confused, and Chas and Turner become increasingly hard to tell apart.

All of this unfolds to an ultra-cool soundtrack of The Last Poets, Randy Newman, Jagger's lost classic 'Memo From Turner' and former Spector/Stones/Crazy Horse collaborator Jack Nietsche's Moog. Add to this plenty of sex, trips and Jorge Luis Borges references, and you've got yourself a mind-blowing movie experience!! Highly recommended to Grant Morrison fans.