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Feb 25, 2025 Web Exclusive By Hays Davis Photography by The Criterion Collection

For 1970’s Performance, co-directors Donald Cammell and Nicholas Roeg fascinatingly depict the fluid evolution and blurred identity of late-1960s London counterculture as it collides with gangster violence. After the first few seconds give a flash suggestion of decadence–with images of a moving Rolls Royce and naked, writing bodies–we follow a string of scenes where the lead character, Chas (James Fox), shakes down businesses and threatens prominent figures. Things go sideways for Chas when his violent tendencies lead to a clash with his boss, forcing him to go on the run. An overheard tip leads Chas to hide out in a basement apartment, where his landlord is Mick Jagger’s Turner.

Turner and his companions (Anita Pallenberg and Michele Breton) initially appear louche to Chas, who, despite his gangster lifestyle, still feels the faint confines of some social mores. The hard distance that Chas sees between himself and his new associates crumbles when he unwittingly ends up under the influence of a mushroom, and eventually Chas and Turner begin to recognize in each other a different but increasingly appealing version of an outsider. It’s not difficult to imagine how Performance was filmed in 1968 and then shelved during two years of reluctance with the finished product from Warner Bros., but The Criterion Collection’s 4K UHD/Blu-ray edition offers an excellent vehicle for examination decades after it finally reached the public. A full slate of special edition features includes a 1998 documentary on Cammell, 2007’s Influence and Controversy: Making “Performance” and interviews with the actors.

(www.criterion.com/films/30003-performance)