The above two film stills are from Performance directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg. In the first Chas (James Fox), is in a bathroom and the mirror image he sees is of a hard man, a tough guy. Chas looks too much like the person he is : a gangster on the run. He is not pursued by the police but by the violent mob he has worked for. A loaded gun won’t set him free. His only hope of escape is to change his physical appearance. In the second image he is bewigged and feminized so that he resembles the woman in the hand mirror who is witnessing his transformation.
These scenes take place while Chas is hiding out in a seedy basement flat in North London. His unconventional landlords are bohemian dropouts Turner (Mick Jagger) and Pherber (Anita Pallenberg). At its heart, Performance is a clash of two subcultures: the criminal underclass and the post-hippy subculture.
Studios were uncertain about how to pitch this hybrid film and nervous about the controversy it seemed destined to cause. As a result, its release was delayed for two years. When it did finally reach cinemas in 1970, the promotional posters reflected ambiguities towards the content: “This film is about madness. And sanity. Fantasy. And reality. Death. And life. Vice. And versa.” As this slogan suggests, Performance defies easy categorization.
Although Donald Cammell is credited as co-director, Performance is Nicolas Roeg’s cinematic vision and features his signature cut-up style editing technique. This creates a sense of menace and nervous energy by jumbling up the linear flow of the narrative.
The use of mirrors is key to the exploration of narcissism and male identity. Of his fondness for the use of mirrors in his movies, Roeg said: “I think the mirror is an extraordinary thing, also the reflective, a reflection in water etc. Don’t you think it’s something strange that you rarely look at yourself in the mirror, except to do things like stand and ponder? I mean, in Shakespeare’s day it was thought that the mirror would reveal something, that it is trying to tell you something – not just to tidy your hair, but something more. I’ve always thought there was something very marvellous and magical about mirrors, and that they are connected to memory as well.”
Entering the looking glass world of Performance is akin to passing through a portal to an altered reality. In the process the identities of the two male protagonists, Chas and Turner, change and morph into one. Ultimately they transform to the point that they switch roles as these before and after images show:
In his documentary ‘The Story of Film: An Odyssey’ (2011), Mark Cousins called the film “the greatest study of identity ever made” and recommended it as required viewing for all student filmmakers. It also deserves awards for the most inspiring and inventive use of mirrors.
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This is the fourth of a series of blog posts tied to mirror images in films based on themes covered in my soon to be published book entitled “Mirror Visions – From the New Wave to the New Wyrd. Reflections on British cinema and identity.”
