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| Performance [1970] | ![Performance [1970]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51G3A1N39FL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Directors: Donald Cammell, Nicolas Roeg
Actors: James Fox, Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, Michelle Breton, Stanley Meadows
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: £15.99
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (10 reviews)
Sales Rank: 2552
Format: Pal
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Media: DVD
Running Time: 101 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 7321902116877
ASIN: B000KCI92E
Release Date: March 5, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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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 Fox stars as Chas, an "out of date" enforcer for crime kingpin Harry Flowers.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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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Beatnicks, druggies, foreigners! But I'm well in 'ere Uncle. October 31, 2008
Performance has always been a highly underated film designated to cult status and really only of interest to Rolling Stones fans. And for the most part considered simply as "wierd" by anyone else who might be changing channels, the rare occasions it's shown on TV. But there is certainly potential for a great film in its' concepts and with the ideas it explores. The themes of cross gender and mixing of identity is way ahead of it's time. And if they'd had the technology we have today this would have worked very successfully. The sound track which includes music by Ry Cooder and others is really excellent, Memo from Turner is also a rare treat, not only one of the first music videos that was made, but probably the best song Mick Jagger ever wrote and performed solo.
James Fox is brilliant and utterly convincing as violent gangster Chas Delvin. The first part of the film is fast paced showing Chas's fall from grace in his gangland underworld. The second part where he hides in Turner's Mansion feels like your dreaming in slow motion. The lighting and the stage sets of Turner's mansion is pure genius, warm, exotic and lavish, but with seeds of decay ever rotting amongst it's midst. Mick Jagger who's not particularly known for his acting, comes across well mostly as the reclusive rock star Turner, particularly in his scenes with James Fox. Anita Pallenburg as Ferber, Turner's german long term amour is perserved in time here as the exotic beauty and charismatic force of nature she truly was. The strange menage-a-trois they live in with Lucy a frail boyish french girl, played by Michele Breton, is shown as refreshing and uncomplicated. Rather than complex, shallow, seedy and exploitative as it might have been.
Towards the end of the film where Lucy's growing attraction to Chas reaches its' inevitable conclusion, suddenly brings a human element to the film. The acting is gorgeous in this simple natural and relaxed scene showing the emotional journey the character of Chas has made.(Maybe the Mushrooms did him some good after all.?!) And in total contrast to the unpleasant violent sexual scenes in the intro showing Chas with a nightclub dancer, as well as the violent and ambigous ending of the film. I was convinced Lucy and Chas were falling in love with each other-but not so with Turner and Ferber the more established couple who seemed more like friends. It is a pity that the scenes in Turner's mansion, which were successful in some ways-lacked clarity in others. Some better direction would have been helpful to make it more cohesive with the first part of the film and bring more power and impact.
 A film of two halves, to put it mildly August 27, 2008
1 out of 8 found this review helpful
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.
Great film, poor DVD execution April 16, 2007
20 out of 23 found this review helpful
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 April 2, 2007
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
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... March 17, 2007
21 out of 22 found this review helpful
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.
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