Performance (film)

Movie
Original title	performance
Country of production	Great Britain
original language	English
Publishing year	1970
length	105 minutes
Rod
Director	Donald Cammell Nicolas Roeg
script	Donald Cammell
production	Sanford Lieberson
music	Jack Nitzsche Jagger / Richards
camera	Nicolas Roeg
cut	Antony Gibbs Brian Smedley-Aston Frank Mazzola
occupation
James Fox : Chas / Johnny Dean Mick Jagger : Turner Anita Pallenberg : Pherber Michèle Breton : Lucy Ann Sidney : Dana John Bindon : Moody Stanley Meadows : Rosebloom Allan Cuthbertson : Lawyer Anthony Morton : Dennis Johnny Shannon : Harry Flowers Anthony Valentine : Joey Maddocks Kenneth Colley : Tony Farrell John Sterland : Chauffeur

Performance is a British drama film from 1968; James Fox played the leading role, Mick Jagger made his acting debut alongside him. Donald Cammell wrote the script and directed with Nicolas Roeg . Goodtimes Enterprises studio produced the film on a budget of £ 750,000; because of its controversial content, the film was not released until August 1970, distributed by Warner Bros.

action

Chas is a member of a gang in the East End of London . As a debt collector for the gang leader Harry Flowers, he routinely uses violence. Flowers decides to take over a betting shop, but forbids Chas to participate in the violent takeover. Chas interferes anyway, whereupon he finds his apartment devastated and is beaten up. Chas shoots one of the attackers and hastily packs his suitcase to flee abroad. At the train station he hears about an empty apartment and decides to go into hiding there instead. Under the new name of Johnny Dean, he introduces himself to the shared flat: Turner, an inaccessible former rock star, lives with two women, Pherber and Lucy, in a ménage à trois . Chas becomes intimate with the androgynous pherber, suggesting aspects of bisexuality. After administering hallucinogenic mushrooms , Chas starts a relationship with Lucy, shoots Turner and is tracked down by Flowers' men, who kidnap him at the end of the film.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on Warner Bros. Records on September 19, 1970. The album includes tracks by Mick Jagger, Ry Cooder , Randy Newman , The Last Poets , Buffy Sainte-Marie and Merry Clayton :

page 1

1. Gone Dead Train , 2:56 - Randy Newman
2. Performance , 1:49 - Merry Clayton
3. Get Away , 2:09 am - Ry Cooder
4. Powis Square , 2:25 am - Ry Cooder
5. Rolls Royce and Acid , 1:50 - Jack Nitzsche
6. Dyed, Dead, Red , 2:35 - Buffy Sainte-Marie
7. Harry Flowers , 4:03 - Jack Nitzsche, Randy Newman

Page 2

1. Memo from Turner , 4:08 am - Mick Jagger
2. Hashishin , 3:39 - Buffy Sainte-Marie, Ry Cooder
3. Wake Up, Niggers , 2:47 - The Last Poets
4. Poor White Hound Dog , 2:50 am - Merry Clayton
5. Natural Magic , 1:40 - Jack Nitzsche
6. Turner's Murder , 4:15 - Merry Clayton Singers

Awards

The British Film Institute chose performance in 1999 at number 48 of the best British films of the 20th century .

criticism

The Protestant film observer succinctly notes that the work is a "pop fairy tale with some socially critical aside comments."

literature

• Mick Brown : Mick Brown on Performance  (= Bloomsbury Movie Guides). Bloomsbury USA, November 20, 1999, ISBN 1-58234-043-9 .
• Ali Catterall and Simon Wells: Your Face Here: British Cult Movies Since The Sixties . Fourth Estate, 2001, ISBN 0-00-714554-3 .
• Colin MacCabe: Performance . BFI Publishing, 1998, ISBN 0-85170-670-3 .

Web links

• Performance in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Photos by Robert Whitaker
• Performance at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
• Performance (1970) at the DBCult Film Institute

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Case Study: Performance ( Memento of the original from November 15, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Students' British Board of Film Classification page 
2. ↑ Evangelical Press Association Munich, Review No. 409/1970