If the Rolling Stones were one of the hottest bands of the late ’60s, then frontman Mick Jagger was on fire. An expert at preening and posturing, it was only natural an opportunity to appear on the big screen would eventually come calling for the singer. His debut acting role in 1970’s Performance, however, looked to be an absolute disaster at the time but has since turned into a cult classic and time capsule of the hedonistic era. This week, it was released under the prestigious Criterion banner with 4K digital restoration and a bevy of extras.
Filmed in 1968, Performance is – at least in part – the tale of an anything but gun-shy London gangster, played by James Fox, who has to get out of town when it gets a little too hot for him. He ends up hiding out at a countryside estate where a former rock star named Turner – played by Jagger – is staying with his lady friend Pherber, portrayed by Anita Pallenberg. Things quickly go off the rails in what can best be described as a psychedelic trip where Fox and Jagger’s characters somehow switch places and then meld together.
“This is a film about fantasy and reality…and sensuality,” says the voiceover in the trailer. “A film about death…and life. This is a film about vice…and versa.”
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The narrator isn’t wrong, but none of that helps explain what’s happening throughout the story. At times, it feels like the film reels themselves were dipped in acid before being made projector-ready by directors Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg. The studio execs at Warner Bros. didn’t know what to make of it either, shelving Performance for 18 months.
When it finally came out in the summer of 1970, the release came just weeks after another Jagger vehicle hit theaters in Ned Kelly, with both films getting panned. It didn’t help matters that the Stateside release saw multiple bits of dialogue dubbed over as the studio felt the Cockney accents would be too difficult for American audiences to understand. This left a spate of confusion in the ensuing years about which prints existed where and what had the true dialogue opposed to the dubbed version.
Performance found a second life though, perhaps because it was so twisted, decadent, and drug-heavy – like many cult classics – but there was also as much drama occurring behind the scenes as onscreen. Beyond the reports that the studio was appalled by the final product, there was the rumor that the sex scenes between Jagger and Pallenberg weren’t quite simulated.
Making that speculation even more juicy was the fact that Pallenberg was the real-life partner of Jagger’s Rolling Stones bandmate Keith Richards. The guitarist was supposedly apoplectic at the whispers during filming, leading him to stalk the film set and supposedly exacerbating the tensions between the songwriting duo, though years later in his memoir, Richards claimed he wasn’t bothered in the least.
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The Criterion edition of Performance is stacked with material. In addition to the new 4K digital restoration, approved by producer Sandy Lieberson, it’s got an uncompressed monaural original-UK-version soundtrack.
Included in the set, which is available on Blu-ray or as a combo 4K UHD + Blu-ray, is the 1998 documentary Donald Cammell: The Ultimate Performance and Influence and Controversy: Making Performance, a 2007 documentary. There’s also a new visual essay by Keiron Pim, biographer of dialogue coach and technical adviser David Litvinoff titled “The True Story of David Litvinoff” as well as “Performers on Performance,” a documentary featuring actors Fox, Jagger, Pallenberg, and others.
Additionally, there’s The Two Cockneys of Harry Flowers, a piece on the dialogue overdubbing done for the U.S. version of the film, and Memo from Turner, a program featuring behind-the-scenes footage. Finally, an essay by film critic Ryan Gilbey and a 1995 article by filmmaker and scholar Peter Wollen are also included.
A version of this article appears in this week’s print and online editions of my syndicated Rock Music Menu column under the title “Mick Jagger’s acting debut gets special edition release. “
The Chronicles of Michael Christopher 
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