Performance (film)

Performance (1970) is a British film directed by Donald Cammell and Nicholas Roeg.

Plot

Chas (James Fox) is a "performer," an ultra-masculine gangster who pressures his boss' enemies. Chas targets his performance at a wrong man, and needs to hide from the punishment by his boss Harry Flowers (Johnny Shannon). On the way abroad Chas finds a temporary shelter from the house of a declined, feminine rock star Turner (Mick Jagger). The two characters collide, Chas finds his pacifist side and Turner gets back his energy and creativity. But troubles emerge when Harry Flowers finds out about Chas' whereabouts.

History

Performance has been particulary notorious because of the difficulties it faced to get on screen. The rumour has it that Warner Brothers financed the movie hoping it could become a Rolling Stones equivalent to Beatles' A Hard Day's Night (1964). They apparently did so without reading a word of Donald Cammell's script, as the explict violence, sex and use of drugs sparked an outrage when the film was shown to Warner executives. Performance was vaulted for years, and only after several recuts and changes in Warner's administration it got its theaterical release.

Influence

When Performance was released, several aspects of the film were extremely innovative, and historically it can be seen as a precursor to MTV type music videos and many popular movies of the 1990's and 2000's.

• Performance was the first feature film to employ the cut-up technique. Directors Cammell and Roeg also went on to use this technique in their following movies, much before it become commonplace in popular cinema.
• Although it appears as a scene in a feature movie, "Memo from Turner" segment of Performance may be the first rock video in history as the visuals precede Music Television by 15 years.
• The gangster aspect of Performance has been imitated by many popular directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie, Jonathan Glazer and more.
• Performance pushed boundaries by featuring extremely explict sex scenes and use of drugs, both which have been rumoured to be real instead of simulated. Although Andy Warhol's (and other underground filmmaker's) films had featured such behaviour before Performance, it was unheard that such things appeared in a major studio production.

External links

• Performance at the Internet Movie Database