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Amazon.co.uk Review
The extraordinary 1970 British film Performance marked the directorial debut of cinematographer Nicolas Roeg (working with Donald Cammell). James Fox portrays a London gangster who has to hide away for awhile and ends up staying with a fading rock star (Mick Jagger). The latter recognises something of his old, daring self in the violent criminal, and after pushing open the boundaries of the hood's experience with psychedelics, the two men begin to intertwine as one. The film is an exciting pool of ideas about real and presumed power, about the mysteries of "performance" as a pressing outward toward an abandonment of identity and embrace of revelation. Beneath it all, however, is Roeg and Cammell's suspicion that the worlds of these two men--pop shaman and underworld soldier--are not dissimilar in their self-serving goals. --Tom Keogh
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 Fox stars as Chas, an "out of date" enforcer for crime kingpin Harry Flowers.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
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
47 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
They've finally gone and done it!!,
By
This review is from: Performance [DVD] [2004] (DVD)
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!
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I don't think I'll let you stay in the film business...,
By SJC "SJC" (Powis Square Notting Hill) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Performance [DVD] [2004] (DVD)
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.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Ultimate Performance, but sadly over-looked.,
This review is from: Performance W/S [VHS] (VHS Tape)
It was the film that made me love films. I first saw it at a cinema after a beautiful night of hedonism (part of an all-nighter in Bristol; U.K), and it was screened at about 5.00am. Later that day, I saw Jagger and co. at Bristol football ground.I don't think I can add much more to some of the eloquent reviews already posted. I have an encyclopaedic knowledge of it, and have lost count ( 20+?) of the times I have seen it. If only the full cut had been released. If I waxed lyrical about it, I wouldn't know where to stop. Just two points. Read Nabokov's "Despair", as it was being read by both Cammell and Roeg whilst they were filming it. The novel connects with the film. Also : a companion piece to this masterpiece is "The Servant", in which James Fox also appears.
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