A tough London gangster falls foul of his boss and goes on the run. In doing so he falls in with a fading pop star and finds, to his surprise, that he has more in common with him than he first thought.
Despite being made in 1970 (and only released years later) this is really about the late 1960's rock scene in "swinging" London. It is almost as if the producers couldn't make their mind up whether to make a gangster film or a pop film and, in a flash of inspiration, decided to make it a bit of both!
Certainly the film starts out in a conventional (and pretty bloody) fashion and quickly slips in to a psychedelic haze from which it cannot break free. We even have pre-MTV pop videos!
Having Mick Jagger as the pop star is the biggest plus and curiously he is very effective, mostly because he is not asked to act merely be (he talked about becoming a full time actor around this time!)
Here he is a "has been" whose chart success has gone and who now lives in a town house in Notting Hill. Here life is merely a long round of baths, orgies and laziness - aided by a couple of empty headed groupies. It is alleged the character is based on the late Rolling Stone Brian Jones (later found dead in his swimming pool) - with whom Jagger founded the his world famous outfit.
Certainly this a film that is more about experiencing than plot and given the gangster (Edward Fox) and the pop star (Jagger) are both washed-up (in their own way) it is hard to see how we can have a happy end.
I am sure that most of today's audience would turn this film off before it reaches the half way point, confused about the point and the characters. For an American audience, maybe even the accents will alienate. Although made by a major studio a lot of the content seems art-house and vague. The hand of Nicholas "Don't Look Now" Roeg is clearly visible and this makes the whole thing even more convoluted and inside-out.
Performance is best viewed as a kind of museum piece about experimental anything-goes cinema in the late sixties and, on screen, the effects and consequences of a louche lifestyle: A generation that pretended it wanted to change the world - but actually only wanted to sit in hot baths with groupies, listening to music and blowing dope.
Despite being made in 1970 (and only released years later) this is really about the late 1960's rock scene in "swinging" London. It is almost as if the producers couldn't make their mind up whether to make a gangster film or a pop film and, in a flash of inspiration, decided to make it a bit of both!
Certainly the film starts out in a conventional (and pretty bloody) fashion and quickly slips in to a psychedelic haze from which it cannot break free. We even have pre-MTV pop videos!
Having Mick Jagger as the pop star is the biggest plus and curiously he is very effective, mostly because he is not asked to act merely be (he talked about becoming a full time actor around this time!)
Here he is a "has been" whose chart success has gone and who now lives in a town house in Notting Hill. Here life is merely a long round of baths, orgies and laziness - aided by a couple of empty headed groupies. It is alleged the character is based on the late Rolling Stone Brian Jones (later found dead in his swimming pool) - with whom Jagger founded the his world famous outfit.
Certainly this a film that is more about experiencing than plot and given the gangster (Edward Fox) and the pop star (Jagger) are both washed-up (in their own way) it is hard to see how we can have a happy end.
I am sure that most of today's audience would turn this film off before it reaches the half way point, confused about the point and the characters. For an American audience, maybe even the accents will alienate. Although made by a major studio a lot of the content seems art-house and vague. The hand of Nicholas "Don't Look Now" Roeg is clearly visible and this makes the whole thing even more convoluted and inside-out.
Performance is best viewed as a kind of museum piece about experimental anything-goes cinema in the late sixties and, on screen, the effects and consequences of a louche lifestyle: A generation that pretended it wanted to change the world - but actually only wanted to sit in hot baths with groupies, listening to music and blowing dope.