Performance (1970)

Christmas present for my sister, Marilyn, as she longed for Performance to own

I thought I was just giving this a rating, but my sister, who is sixteen years older than me, says that Performance with Mick Jagger is one of the best, most original movies of its times, early seventies. So, perhaps that would perk your interest. I know she is not wrong! October 4, 2008

A Weird but Rewarding Trip Back in Time

I just bought this DVD new from Amazon and love it. Hadn't seen the movie since I was in college in '70 and HAD to see it again. It was worth it. My wife walked in while Jagger is singing Memo from Turner and was transfixed. We have seen the Stones in concert multiple times, but she had never seen Jagger like that. To me, this film is a cult classic, not because of the acting or the story, but because of its total weirdness, its mesmerizing music (particularly Ry Cooder's signature guitar), the presence of Jagger, and its sexual themes (hedonism, threesomes, androgeny). A mediocre movie that is totally hypnotic. September 9, 2008

Proof that you can't do EVERYTHING just cause you're beautiful

Looking back in sentimentality, people have a tendency to regale all things connected to happier times gone by, primarily youth: drugs; Rolling Stones, Anita, rock and roll, even anything British. (I watched this movie because of references to my favorite author Jorge Luis Borges).

But take away all the simulacra, strip away all the "brand names" and look at the film purely as a work that should stand on it's own, and it falls flat on it's face.

Atrocious acting from the two big stars, added to a bad screenplay from England that gets further diluted in Hollywood before its release (on the dvd extra, one of the creators mentioned they needed some more scenes and they just happened to have some extra footage of Mick spraying a blank wall, so they just threw it in), and cinematography that is without form or function. Is it a performance or is it a happening? It just looks like one massive blob of shots slapped together in the editing room - frantically shifting from one to the next in order to hide the fact that there is no internal logic to the scenes- in an attempt to approximate a drug-induced haze.

James Fox's convincing thuggery is the only real star in this film, for it only serves to highlight all that is missing from Mick and Anita. I'm sure all this sounded like a good idea when the filmmakers were hanging out in a room high on an epic trip. They wanted to take us along for a righteous ride.

But all we got was 105 minutes of coming down. June 2, 2008

CRITERION, PUT THIS MASTERPIECE IN YOUR COLLECTION!

Let me be clear right at the outset: Anyone with an aesthetic sense can see that Roeg and Cammell's PERFORMANCE (1970) is one of the ten greatest films ever made. THIS VERSION, however, is atrocious for three important reasons:

1.) The Warner Bros. DVD superimposes a "remastered" soundtrack over the original, dubbing the actor's voices and substituting "cleaned-up" versions for the original songs. As a consequence, the voices are not always synchronized and we lose the gritty sonic texture of the original.

2.) This edition omits Turner's declaration, "Here's to Old England!" during "Memo from T."

3.) It excises the scene in which Chas terrorizes a pornographer. Why? To receive an R-rating, perhaps, from the M.P.A.A.?

In sum, this version is an unnecessary operation on a perfectly healthy patient.

Joseph Suglia, Ph.D., the greatest author in the world March 2, 2008

CRITERION, PUT THIS MASTERPIECE IN YOUR COLLECTION!

Let me be clear right at the outset: Anyone with an aesthetic sense can see that Roeg and Cammell's PERFORMANCE (1970) is one of the ten greatest films ever made. THIS VERSION, however, is atrocious for three important reasons:

1.) The Warner Bros. DVD superimposes a "remastered" soundtrack over the original, dubbing the actor's voices and substituting "cleaned-up" versions for the original songs. As a consequence, the voices are not always synchronized and we lose the gritty sonic texture of the original.

2.) This edition omits Turner's declaration, "Here's to Old England!" during "Memo from T."

3.) It excises the scene in which Chas terrorizes a pornographer. Why? To receive an R-rating, perhaps, from the M.P.A.A.?

In sum, this version is an unnecessary operation on a perfectly healthy patient.

Joseph Suglia, Ph.D., the greatest author in the world January 14, 2008

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