Nicolas Roeg, Donald Cammell-Performance (1970)

Chas, a violent and psychotic East London gangster needs a place to lie low after a hit that should never have been carried out. He finds the perfect cover in the form of guest house run by the mysterious Mr. Turner, a one-time rock superstar, who is looking for the right spark to rekindle his faded talent. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0066214/plotsummary)




"I like that. Turn it up!" Performance is the Altamont of '60s cinema; psychedelic and hallucinatory, decadent and depraved, polymorphous-perverse. And you can dance to it! Melding the sex, drugs, and rock & roll ethos of swinging '60s London with the gangster film, Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell's genre-bending cult classic is so mind blowing that star James Fox did not act in a film again for nearly a decade. (Amazon.com - Editorial Reviews - Donald Liebenson)




Fox stars as Chas, an "out of date" enforcer for crime kingpin Harry Flowers. Chas is a "nutcase," who likes "a little cavort," but when he kills someone he wasn't supposed to, he is forced to go on the lam. He takes refuge in a basement room belonging to Turner (Mick Jagger), a former rock star who has "lost his demon" and now lives as a recluse in his dilapidated house with his secretary/lover, Pherber (Anita Pallenberg, who was Rolling Stones bandmate Keith Richards' girlfriend at the time), and an androgynous French girl (Michele Breton). (Amazon.com - Editorial Reviews - Donald Liebenson)




They enjoy a little cavorting themselves. In these drug-strewn surroundings, worlds collide and identities merge. "I know who I am," Chas tells Harry early on. He (and viewers) will become less sure as Performance unfolds. Completed in 1968 but shelved for two years, Performance was originally rated X and has been redesignated R. (Amazon.com - Editorial Reviews - Donald Liebenson)




But it's still strong, potent stuff. With its elliptical editing, mirror images, and echoed dialogue that bridges the two worlds, Performance may not become clearer with repeat viewings, but there are fresh discoveries to be made each time. (Amazon.com - Editorial Reviews - Donald Liebenson)




The killer soundtrack features Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, rap revolutionaries the Last Poets, and Jagger's own astounding "Memo from Turner." "I know a thing of two about performing, my boy," Turner tells Chas at one point. "The only performance that makes it... that makes it all the way, is the one that achieves madness." Performance makes it all the way. As Roeg is quoted in a featurette produced for this DVD, "After all this time, its mystery is part of its magic and attraction." (Amazon.com - Editorial Reviews - Donald Liebenson)




Anita Pallenberg is probably best known for her romantic links to three of the original Rolling Stones. She was born in Italy in 1944. She became a model and appeared on covers of magazines such as Vogue. In 1965 she began dating Brian Jones. Subsequently, she left him for Keith Richards in 1967. She had a brief fling with Mick Jagger on the set of Performance. Several Rolling Stones songs such as "Angie" and "You Got The Silver" were written for her. The Rolling Stones song Wild Horses was inspired (partly) by Keith Richards's reluctance to go away on tour leaving her behind. She has two children, Marlon and Angela aka Dandelion, with Keith. After recovering from heroin addiction and her break-up with Keith, Anita studied to be a fashion designer. She co-wrote the script to Performance (1970) with 'Donald Cammell' . She had no intention of playing in the movie. She ended up replacing the original actress at the last minute due to a medical emergency. (http://imdb.com/name/nm0657848/bio)