Performance (DVD)

Aah, Performance. A crazy, crazy movie made in 1969 by directors Donald Cammell and Nic Roeg, it fuses hardcore London gangsterism with effete London counterculture weirdness to great effect. Starring James Fox, Mick-Jagger-when-he-was-still-cool and serial Stones-girlfriend Anita Pallenberg, it?s a seriously deranged art-house cult classic. It?s currently on re-release, and if you?re lucky enough to have a cinema nearby that?s showing it I?d heartily recommend that you go along. The story is pretty simple. Chas (Fox), a violent enforcer for mob boss Harry Flowers ...

Like some sort of creative explosion, you can almost believe that the disparate talents which put 'Performance' together burned out while doing it, and none of them managed to equal it. Donald Cammell, writer and co-director, never made a coherent film again; Nic Roeg, co-director, increasingly became consumed by his own pretentiousness; James Fox gave up acting altogether for several years, and Mick Jagger made only a few star cameos. 'Performance' is violent, sleazy, disjointed and weird; the first half is a brilliant gangster thriller which makes 'Lock Stock..' look like 'Playschool'. But as gangster Chas (Fox) retreats to the ...

'Performance' is an extraordinary film, and certainly one of the most inovative British films ever. Co-directed by Donald Cammell ('White Of The Eye' and 'Demon Seed') and Nic Roeg ('Don't Look Now' and 'Walkabout'), 'Performance' is mainly about East-London gangster James Fox's experiences with washed-up rock-star Mick Jagger. Made at the tail-end of the 1960s the film really captures the times' disillusionment in the haze of Jagger's apartment. Its central theme is the initial contrast between the leads, and how their differences slowly blur and their personalities merge. Another ...