Saturday, January 07, 2012

Performance: The Movie



















What happens when co-directors shoot a film in 1968, it's edited and re-edited and otherwise played with and not released until 1970? With Performance, when the first-time directors are Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg and the primary actors are Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, Michèle Breton and James Fox, well: you are given an interesting and bizarre kaleidoscopic mess that might better be experienced in an altered state.  Seen in an unaltered state, Performance may not appeal to too many contemporary tastes.



















Visually, Performance shimmers at times, then alternates with splashes of underworld violence. The contrasts are a bit eerie. The film is embedded with literary, artistic, poetic and religious-philosophical "hyperlinks." The music is cool and the whole shebang influential. But can anyone actually enjoy this?  Probably not in one continuous sitting without some sort of escape plan.















More to consider here -- at some point.

Today's Rune: Journey.

4 comments:

Adorably Dead said...

Something to watch while blitzed. Good to know, lol.

Charles Gramlich said...

Haven't heard of this one. I do remember Mick Jagger in some kind of thriller once and I thought he did a competent job.

Erik Donald France said...

Thanks for the comments, folks ~~!
Charles, maybe Freejack?

Bob Ignizio said...

I've been meaning to watch this one of these days. Both Roeg and Cammell have made some very interesting films, and I personally love out to lunch sixties/early seventies cinema. It's on my Netflix queue at the moment, so hopefully I'll check it out soon.