Much like a TARDIS, a Borges short story, or Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49, Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg‘s 1970 film, Performance, is far bigger on the inside than its outside might indicate.  Starring Mick Jagger, James Fox and Anita Pallenberg, and with its primary action confined to that of a London flat, Performance manages to explore, in its uniquely heady and hypnotic way, such notions as gender, identity and madness as a function of creativity.

In fact, it feels at times like there’s so much going on within Performance‘s 105 minutes, in terms of philosophical scope and ambition, movies like The Matrix or 2001: A Space Odyssey seem almost puny in comparison.

And much like the London flat itself, Performance is a movie to lose yourself in.  Since my preteen exposure to it via the Z Channel, I must have watched it a good dozen times.  Nevertheless, the film continues to surprise me.  Disorient, too.

Part of this was due, no doubt, to the alchemical editing of co-writer/director Donald Cammell, who sadly, took his own life in ‘96.  Cammell’s ultimately tragic life and career is certainly deserving of its own post at some point, but, in the meantime, what follows is Part I of an absolutely worthwhile 3-part documentary on the making of Performance and the controversy that’s dogged the film ever since its release 30 years ago.  Links to the other parts follow below.

 
Performance in the making, Part II, III

Well posted.
I had to resort to books and article accounts to get a bigger picture on this story.
Wonderful that somebody actually made a documentary on this tragiclassic piece of culture.

Tremendous film!

Thanks for posting this.  A couple thoughts:  1) For my tastes, Performance is indeed one the greatest films ever produced within the Hollywood system.  It would/could never be made today.  The freedom needed to create it doesn’t exist; yet another reminder that the collective “we” have regressed. 2) Donald Cammell was a genius and deserves the praise given in this documentary.  But Performance is also a Nic Roeg film and has all his trademarks—forward/backward temporal shifts, glimpses of daydreams, a gazillion edits.

By the way, I recently wrote a profile of the late Lowell George, Little Feat founder, for MOJO magazine.  Lowell studied sitar with Ravi Shankar at the master’s Kinnara School of Indian Music in L.A., along with George Harrison and Russ Titelman.  Titelman went on to work with Jack Nitzsche and the latter brought Titelman in to play on the Performance soundtrack, along with Ry Cooder, Randy Newman, Merrie Clayton and others.  Lowell plays on the more raga-esque pieces.  The score—like the film—is a masterpiece and available as a soundtrack album..

Expected some more on screen romance from them.