PERFORMANCE

UK, 1970, 90 minutes, Colour.
James Fox, Mick Jagger.
Directed by Nicolas Roeg, Donald Cammell.

Performance is not an attractive film.. In many ways it is quite repellent, and yet, in its vivid portrayal of an evil atmosphere, it has its own fascination. As a modern parable of good and evil, it could be quite powerful.

The name of the film itself indicates that we are dealing with something contrived, performances as distinct from reality. This is borne out in the film with the contrast between a cruel gangster and a retired pop star and their power struggle. James Fox acted in a film with a similar kind of meaning - The Servant - by Joseph Losey and Harold Pinter. Mick Jagger is convincing in his role and makes one ask whether this is close to his own experience. The film is directed by Nicolas Roeg, the photographer who also made the striking films -Walkabout and Don't Look Now and by Donald Cammell (Demon Seed).

1. The meaning of the title? Who was performing? Appearances versus reality, truth, falsehood? How relevant were these ideas to the dramatic unfolding of the film?

2. How did the film rely on techniques of photography in the creation of its atmosphere?

3. The overall impact of the film is of its ugliness. What value is there in exploration of reality through ugliness? Is this what happens here?

4. What standards did the film show of good, evil, morality?

5. What kind of person was Chas - a typical spiv of the London streets, pride in his profession, performing his jobs, relationship to his bosses? Even though he was evil, was he meant to be portrayed as an Everyman, or not?

6. What impact did the shop bashing have on you, in your attitudes towards Chas and his world of violence?

7. The role of chance and fate in the film, in the life of Chas? Has he really a victim of fate?

8. How did the atmosphere of the film change when Chas went to the flat? What kind of world did Turner live in - enclosed, solitary, foetid, sensuous? Was he a symbol for strange values especially in relationship to Chas?

9. Yet, in this world a little girl entered quite normally. What was her role regarding truth, reality, appearances? Was this important for audience perspective?

10. What effect did Turner have on Chas - shock, immoral, or did he complement this with his own immorality?

11. Chas's sexual and sensual experience in this atmosphere? Was his relationship with Turner and the two girls unsatisfactory? How did Chas's life in this perverse world become a performance? Was he masked by the values of Turner's world?

12. How did Turner become a boss during the trip and Chas lose his will? How was this visually presented in alternating Turner with the gang bosses?

13. What was your reaction to the final betrayal of Chas, especially by his brother? Was the shooting of Chas inevitable? Was violence the only way of breaking out of this particular world? Why?

14. Were the two girls a reality, have their own personalities, or were they elusive shadows in the world of Chas? What was their purpose in the film? How much was Turner's world a charade set within unreality?

15. What insight into a particular period did this film give? Did the film have social values?

16. Visual technique: differing tones and styles of colour photography, angle shots, symbols (paraphernalia of the performance?). The visual ugliness of violence, weird sensuality; hallucination sequence; the charade behind a normal facade?