If you fancy a night in watching a DVD, then take a look at the selection available at Island Libraries. At just £1 per night, they’re a great bargain. Ed
Essentially the effect of time and fashion on a film can at times be rather alarming, but ‘Performance’ in appearance at the irrepressible Ventnor Library, is an opportunity to see a work of great art combined with dialogue that is truly competitive, and sadly lacking in cinema in 2010.
What is both fascinating and highly addictive is that ‘Performance’ has such an immediate impact and is almost unaffected by modern tastes, causing it to be plausibly made last month, rather than in the 1970’s.
This film also connects to the brilliance of ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’ and ‘Walkabout’ as cause to demonstrate that director Nicolas Roeg, much like Lindsay Anderson, understood cinema as artistic to view and appreciate.
Not just Cult but Classic
However, Donald Cammell co-directs a film that is highly regarded and powerful to comprehend. Well acted, totally quotable and extremely provocative, ‘Performance’ is notably a cult film, but overtime is already becoming a classic.
The obvious controversy that comes with the film is that it requires such a jump to comprehend the finale. One of the stable misuses for a narrative that whoever thought of it, be it Cammell or Roeg, can lead to some serious ideas as useful and others as bewildering.
The enjoyment of ‘Performance’ is complete and perhaps much like ‘Blow-Up’, manages to combine ethics and acceptance to thinking outside character narrative.
Of course, it is never obvious and knowledge protects, but the delivery of one particular line that: “the one performance that really counts is the one that achieves madness”, is still effective and accurate today.
