A hypermasculine gangster hides out with a genderfluid throuple and slowly begins to shift his identity. No, this is not the plot of a new movie aiming to capitalize off the success of Emilia Pérez. It’s the plot of Performance (1970), a classic of counterculture cinema starring none other than Mick Jagger.
While the film — a collaboration between painter turned director Donald Cammell and cinematographer turned director Nicolas Roeg — is often discussed as a snapshot of the late 60s, it still feels sharp and relevant today. The new restoration now out from The Criterion Collection looks and sounds gorgeous with special features contextualizing the unique movie while leaving a window open for modern interpretation.
The first half of the movie is almost exclusively focused on Chas (James Fox), a gangster heavy so masculine and violent he incites fear in his own bosses. While it incorporates elliptical editing that hints at something more experimental, this first part of the film has a fairly straight-forward mob movie narrative. But then Chas goes on the run and meets effeminate musician Turner (Mick Jagger) and his two girlfriends — the voluptuous Pherber (Anita Pallenberg) and the androgynous Lucy (Michèle Breton).
Plot gives way to sex and drugs and conversations about gender. As Pherber teases Chas, questioning whether or not he has a feminine side, he exclaims, “I’m normal!” He tries to hold onto this sense of normalcy, but he can’t resist his fascination with his new housemates. And they can’t resist their fascination with him.
Normies want proximity to queers, queers want proximity to normies. It’s a classic dynamic. But the film reveals the intricacies in how this dynamic manifests. Chas will have sex with Lucy even as he says she looks like a boy, but he won’t have sex with the more feminine Turner, his true object of desire. And while the queers are interested in Turner that interest proves dangerous. It’s fun for normies to dabble in queerness — often less fun for the queers.
During a drug trip (a dream?), Turner embodies Chas, appearing as a masculine gangster. Most critical thought views this as Turner and Chas swapping identities. But Jagger’s gangster feels so much more like a drag performance than a true shift. Watching the film as a queer person, it feels like Turner and his girlfriends are slowly welcoming Chas into their world until they’re forced to regret it. Chas might be changed for the better — but at what cost?
Influential, puzzling, and still effective, Performance is a reminder that the struggle between gender fluidity and traditional gender performance isn’t new. They take what they want and then get rid of us until we find a way to rise again.
Performance is available on 4K and standard Blu-Ray from The Criterion Collection.
