The grimy criminal underworld and hedonistic rock-and-roll counterculture of late-1960s London collide in this mind-scrambling, kaleidoscopic freak-out. On the run from his vengeful boss, a ruthless gangster (James Fox) hides out in the Notting Hill home of a reclusive rock star (Mick Jagger) and his companions (Anita Pallenberg and Michele Breton), who open the doors of his perception as the lines between reality and fantasy, male and female, persona and self, dissolve in a hallucinogenic haze. Built around Jagger’s most magnetic narrative-film performance, this visionary collaboration between enigmatic artist Donald Cammell and first-time director Nicolas Roeg is a daringly transgressive, endlessly influential journey to the dark side of bohemia.
BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- New 4K digital restoration, approved by producer Sandy Lieberson, with uncompressed monaural original-UK-version soundtrack
- Donald Cammell: The Ultimate Performance (1998), a documentary by Kevin Macdonald and Chris Rodley
- Influence and Controversy: Making “Performance” (2007), a documentary about the making of the film
- The True Story of David Litvinoff, a new visual essay by Keiron Pim, biographer of dialogue coach and technical adviser David Litvinoff
- Performers on “Performance,” a documentary featuring actors James Fox, Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, and others
- The Two Cockneys of Harry Flowers, a program on the dialogue overdubbing done for the U.S. version of the film
- Memo from Turner, a program featuring behind-the-scenes footage
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Ryan Gilbey and a 1995 article by filmmaker and scholar Peter Wollen