Performance

In my college days, this movie was ubiquitous on the "midnight movie" circuit, but somehow I missed it until now (a broadcast on TCM). In retrospect, I can see that its impact on other filmmakers, especially in Britain, was powerful and immediate. Arriving in 1970, this movie was a keynote for the decade to come. Here we see a precursor to the hip ultra-violence of A Clockwork Orange (out the next year), to the gender-bending induction/seduction of the outsiders in Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), and of course to Roeg's own later The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), starring Mick Jagger's rock star doppelganger David Bowie.

The blatant homoeroticism of the gangster milieu in Performance was obviously inspired by the gay gangster Ronnie Kray, who with his twin brother Reggie (another double!) was the stuff of legend in England at the time.

The film reminds us of the long and extraordinary career of James Fox (yet another double, with his actor-brother Edward), and also features an early appearance by Anthony Valentine, later to play Raffles on TV. We were all young and beautiful once...yes, even Mick!