TotalTelly.co.uk

Devoted to Popular, Cult and Retro TV

Performance [1970]


RRP: £15.99
Our Price: £4.46 (subject to change)

Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

"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. Fox stars as Chas, an "out of date" enforcer for crime kingpin Harry Flowers.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 run. 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). They enjoy a little cavorting themselves and 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. 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. 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." --Donald Liebenson

Editorial
Synopsis

Psychological melodrama about a vicious gangster on the run, who takes refuge with a former pop star. One of the most bizarre cult films ever made.

A film of two halves, to put it mildly
Review date: 2008-08-27 Rating: 4 out of 10

A stylish, provocative, very influential watershed movie which helped break barriers in what films could show and get away with. It is pretty groundbreaking in its style as well, and Roeg brings his film art touch to the movie, with his trademark lurid, intense, always full of character cinematography. Infact he overdid it here, in my own opinion, helping make this an overtly arty flick.

As a narrative the film works really well up until Chas finds refuge in Turner's cavern. From then on we get bogged down in a self indulgent trip devoted to another world entirely, that of the 60s rock 'n roll hedonist scene, and it just loses all the carefully portrayed London gangsters plot to focus on a bit of trendy rock n roll, sex and drugs, for the sake of looking cool, really. Mick Jagger is indulged totally, and while he proves once more he has screen presence he also proves to be fairly shaky acting out lines inatead of singing them. It results in a self conscious performance heavy on posture and light on dramatic power. He overcompensates for his lack of acting nouse by piling on the campness, as a model trying to get into acting might do, misinterpreting real acting for performance, or mere showing off their personality.

So it's a film of two halves for me, with obviously good bits in, especially as it helped spawn much better movies like Villain, Get Carter and Clockwork Orange, and although Tommy wasn't as good as it could have been, it dived right into the style showcased in Performance and looked like it knew what it wanted to be, unlike the too experimental and raw Performance. But in the end it's a pretentious, indulgent art piece with a very badly worked narrative. A lot more discipline was needed by the directors to give credit to a fine piece of acting against type by Fox. He sacrificed his career for this role and in return the film makers just couldn't do his great performance any justice, as they messed up a movie with promise. It remains important in a way, but as a movie itself to watch and enjoy, it really isn't very good. Its appeal is mainly cult film appeal, and I don't think too many mainstream film makers would honestly wish they had made such an indulgent mess of a movie.

Similar Products

Reviews


Great film, poor DVD execution
Review date: 2007-04-16 Rating: 4 out of 10

I've been waiting for years for this to come out on DVD as it's my all time favourite film.

And it does indeed excel for the most part - a clear crisp cut with a soundtrack nicely audible.

My gripe is simple. During the Memo From Turner scene the soundtrack is inexplicably made by putting one channel of the stereo through both speakers. This means you can't hear the music properly and (as someone pointed out already) Turner's 'here's to old England' toast is inaudible. But then so is much of the guitar and other music in this sequence. As its the highlight of the entire film the overall impression of a long-awaited DVD is very poor and I suspect I will not watch it again, preferring a DVD recording of last time the film was shown on BBC2 - at least you can hear the music properly. How could Warners have got this so wrong?

Don't get me wrong - Performance is a brilliant, BRILLIANT film. It warrants ***** on its own, it's just this release is flawed.

Classic slice of 60's madness
Review date: 2007-04-02 Rating: 10 out of 10

Absolute classic and a must for any fan of 60's rock n roll & cinema. I don't think I'll expand on that other than to say that I'm confused by the amount of people saying that the VHS versions were all dubbed with BBC toff type voices for certain characters. I've got a VHS copy and I'm pretty certain it's the same as this. Harry Flowers with a cockney gangster voice, and no one sounding out of place. Just like the copy I taped off the TV years and years ago. Bit weird really. I've only ever heard of the dubbed version by mouth, never seen it. Maybe I'm just a lucky so and so.

Go get yourself a copy, sit back and enjoy then decide if you're with the hippy rock star or tough nut gangster. I used to saddle up with Jagger but came round to the fact that Chas is dead cool a while back........plus my wife said he was pretty tasty last time we watched it (prior to him doing mushies and cross dressing that is).

Eastenders fans keep an eye out for a very young looking Johnny Allen who's part of the Joey Maddox crew who duff up Chas in his flat.

I don't think I'll let you stay in the film business...
Review date: 2007-03-17 Rating: 10 out of 10

Stunned to realise that, after many, many years, Performance has finally come out on DVD - and not just any old version: the real, "proper", correct, undubbed version... I used to see this film regularly years ago.... early 70's... The Paris Pullman, The Electric Cinema and The Essential in London... Happy days. Then it disappeared, other than in the criminally dubbed version available previously on VHS. In about 1997 Alex Cox was going to show Performance as part of a series he was running on - I think - BBC2. A friend of mine and I called the Beeb and warned them that that the version they were likely to be about to show was the tarnished version. Give Alex C his due, they took it seriously and did some excellent work to try as far as possible to link an original soundtrack with the visuals. However, even here they missed a couple of the crass overdubs, but a very creditable 9 out of 10 for trying. This version? It has gone straight to 11 out of 10. Loads more could have been done as regards "extras".... interviews with Jagger, Fox, Johnny Shannon (if he's still around), Marianne Faithfull who was not in the movie but who has occasionally spoken about the film since then... Still, the slim extras at least include Sandy (Producer) Lieberson telling the story of the showing of the original cut to Warner Bros execs and their wives and concubines... hilarious! Now that is one showing I'd have loved to have attended!

And, by the way, this is Cammell's film, not Roeg's. Roeg has, over the years, sought from time to time to distance himself from Performance. His photography is very, very good, but the whole philosophy, style, presentation, characterisation is strictly Cammell. The greatest British film since Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger rode the range.

They've finally gone and done it!!
Review date: 2007-03-15 Rating: 10 out of 10

Well I am delighted to say that this version is a DVD master from the 2005 BFI print of the movie with all the original cast dialogue intact. Johnny Shannon (Harry Flowers), John Bindon (Moody), Laraine Wickens (Lorraine) whose original voices had all been dubbed in the only commercially available video versions up to now (even those broadcast by all the major TV networks in the past 20 years) have been restored. I would like to thank Warner Brothers Home Video team in London with whom I have been campaigning since 2005, for making sure that Warner Bros in Burbank didn't just release the US VHS version on DVD which was what was going to happen. Also for adding the very informative documentary feature included on the disc. For everyone who has been waiting for this, here it is. For those of you who haven't seen it but love film, buy it. This is probably the best British movie ever made. And now down to under a fiver. Criminally cheap. Every English film lover should own this so buy it for someone you love!

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Mick Jagger
Michelle Breton
Anita Pallenberg
Stanley Meadows
James Fox

Creators:
James Fox (Primary Contributor)
Mick Jagger (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 7321902116877
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2007-03-05
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 101 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)

Add to Cart

© 2006 Darren Hester, DesignsByDarren.com, Some Rights Reserved.
Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional