Performance

1970

Action / Crime / Drama / Romance

15
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 78% · 36 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 78% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.7/10 10 12083 12.1K

london london, england rock star sexuality gangster heroin

Plot summary

In underworld terms, Chas Devlin is a 'performer,' a gangster with a talent for violence and intimidation. Turner is a reclusive rock superstar. When Chas and Turner meet, their worlds collide—and the impact is both exotic and explosive.

Director

Nicolas Roeg Photo
Nicolas Roeg

Top cast

Kenneth Colley Photo
Kenneth Colley as Tony Farrell
Ian McShane Photo
Ian McShane as Noel - Black Musican
Billy Murray Photo
Billy Murray as Thug 1
Jane Lapotaire Photo
Jane Lapotaire as Mrs. Farrell
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
810.90 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 45 min
Seeds 3
1.64 GB
1920*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 45 min
Seeds 29

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by AAdaSC 7 / 10

I need a bohemian atmosphere

Gangster James Fox (Chas) quite correctly exacts revenge on fellow bad-guy Anthony Valentine (Joey). But, this goes against the wishes of his boss Johnny Shannon (Harry) and so he has to go into hiding to prepare his escape from the country. The police are also looking for him although they don't figure at all in this film. Fox holes up in a house owned by faded rock star Mick Jagger (Turner) which he shares with a couple of druggy hippie chicks – Anita Pallenberg (Pherber) and Michèle Breton (Lucy). These three swap philosophies and indulge in a spot of identity swapping as well as a magic mushroom breakfast. Fox goes on a trip and he and Jagger truly become one. Meanwhile the gangsters are still searching for Fox… This film definitely has 2 parts – the beginning gangster story and then the unworldly lodgings with Jagger. The latter part of the film is quite amusing and both my wife and I commented that we should spend all our afternoons like that, especially when they are partying to the music. Let's all get a bit boho. I'm sure there are things to spot on another viewing. The cast are good although Johnny Shannon (Harry) doesn't quite cut it as top dog. His surname is Flowers, though, which suggests a pansy in charge – and the Krays are obviously given another nod in this offering by look-a-like gangsters.Both lifestyles no longer survive – the gangster world is totally different as is the bohemian lifestyle on show. Who does mushrooms these days? Back in the day, though….
Reviewed by ShootingShark 6 / 10

Intriguing, Weirdly-Made, Gangster Meets Burned-Out Rockstar Oddity

Chas is a London gangster who goes on the lam after he ignores advice from his boss and a personal vendetta gets out of control. He hides out in the Notting Hill Gate house of Turner, a strange, reclusive, bohemian musician with two girlfriends, and soon their hedonistic hippy quasi-philosophy starts to affect his wideboy personality.This is an odd movie, which is either extremely clever or a load of drug-induced cobblers, and I can never make up my mind which. It doesn't really have much of a coherent plot, and the style is so freaky (jarring jump-cuts, lurid hand-held closeups, inaudible dialogue, near-subliminal images, static on the soundtrack, a sudden burst of animation, lots of complicated montage) that you could be forgiven for assuming both the editor and the sound-mixer were stoned (which they probably were). Equally unsettling is that it's really two pictures stuck together; Chas' kitchen-sink gangster drama that takes up the first half-hour, and then Turner's new-wave art film. It feels like a character from one film has accidentally wandered into another and can't get back. There are two aspects which make it highly watchable for me. One is Fox's performance, which is intermittently stunning - with his spiky red hair, tight clothes and thug stylings, he's a punk-rocker six years before punk-rock was invented. The second is just the sheer variety of experimental techniques (both cinematic and artistic) on view, which is pretty amazing in a major studio movie - in what other film can you see a bullet fired into someone's head from the bullet's point of view or have a scene where the leading lady injects peyote into her butt ? Both directors - writer Cammell and cameraman Roeg - are great visual stylists (Cammell was a great elusive director- he made a couple of good horror films after this, but then tragically committed suicide, much like Michael Reeves), there is an interesting eclectic soundtrack supervised by Randy Newman and there are good supporting performances from Shannon and Colley. However, whilst there is a lot to like in this film, I'm afraid I can't rate it that highly - it's good, but it's self-indulgent, lacks any kind of dramatic structure, and is frequently unnecessarily confusing. Compare it to A Clockwork Orange for example, made around the same time and with several similarities in theme. The Kubrick film is equally stylish and audacious, but is also timeless, elegant, highly influential, exquisitely put together, and a very moving story. Performance is a unique movie, but for me its excesses are no substitute for the basics of movie-making; drama, suspense, excitement and entertainment.
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