“Even the bath water was dirty.” According to director Nicolas Roeg, that was the reaction of an appalled Warner Bros. executive at a test screening of “Performance” in 1968, one that went so badly that even studio staff walked out. It was shelved for 18 months before being unceremoniously dumped into cinemas in 1970.
Fifty years later, it’s considered a classic. In his critically acclaimed Channel 4 documentary miniseries, “The Story of Film,” director and critic Mark Cousins said: “If any movie should be compulsory viewing for filmmakers, maybe this is it.” Co-directed by Roeg and Donald Cammell, “Performance” is sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll distilled to its purest visual expression. And now, a new limited-edition coffee-table book from Coattail Publications, “Performance: The Making of a Classic,” goes down the rabbit hole and reveals new details about the movie and its 1968 production.
In a phone interview, the book’s author admitted...
Fifty years later, it’s considered a classic. In his critically acclaimed Channel 4 documentary miniseries, “The Story of Film,” director and critic Mark Cousins said: “If any movie should be compulsory viewing for filmmakers, maybe this is it.” Co-directed by Roeg and Donald Cammell, “Performance” is sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll distilled to its purest visual expression. And now, a new limited-edition coffee-table book from Coattail Publications, “Performance: The Making of a Classic,” goes down the rabbit hole and reveals new details about the movie and its 1968 production.
In a phone interview, the book’s author admitted...
- 2/13/2019
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Fifty years since the making of Mick Jagger’s identity-bending film, producer Sandy Lieberson and author Jay Glennie share exclusive pictures and stories
When Mick Jagger’s first feature film, Performance, was unveiled in 1970, the reviews were less than kind. “You do not have to be a drug addict, pederast, sadomasochist or nitwit to enjoy Performance,” opined the New York Times, “but being one or more of those things would help.”
Yet in the 50 years since it was finished, it has become the definition of a cult classic. Two films in one, it begins as a British gangster movie with hallmarks that would go on to define the genre. Halfway through, Jagger turns up as the washed-up rockstar Turner living in a menage a trois with Anita Pallenberg (Pherber) and Michèle Breton (Lucy). The film transforms itself into a hallucinatory end-of-the-60s trip that, with its exploration of identity and sexual fluidity,...
When Mick Jagger’s first feature film, Performance, was unveiled in 1970, the reviews were less than kind. “You do not have to be a drug addict, pederast, sadomasochist or nitwit to enjoy Performance,” opined the New York Times, “but being one or more of those things would help.”
Yet in the 50 years since it was finished, it has become the definition of a cult classic. Two films in one, it begins as a British gangster movie with hallmarks that would go on to define the genre. Halfway through, Jagger turns up as the washed-up rockstar Turner living in a menage a trois with Anita Pallenberg (Pherber) and Michèle Breton (Lucy). The film transforms itself into a hallucinatory end-of-the-60s trip that, with its exploration of identity and sexual fluidity,...
- 11/16/2018
- by Tim Jonze
- The Guardian - Film News
Let’s raise a toast to the late great Anita Pallenberg, queen of the underground, the Rolling Stones muse who gave the Glimmer Twins their glimmer lessons. Pallenberg, who died Tuesday night at the age of 73, wasn’t merely Keith Richards’ consort – she was a rock & roll legend in herself, a style icon, a crucial part of the Stones’ mystique. She taught Keith her sinister glare, taught Mick Jagger her wiggle, taught Brian Jones how to wear floppy hats. Look at pictures of Keith before and after Anita – it’s...
- 6/14/2017
- by Rob Sheffield
- Rollingstone.com
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