The Dryden will screen Performance (Donald Cammell, Nicolas Roeg, U.K. 1970, 105 min., 35mm) as part of the Voyages and Discoveries series.

Though this is Nicolas Roeg's first directorial effort, it includes many trademarks that he would use later, including jump cuts and very clever juxtapositions of scenes and locations. In late 1960s London, an enforcer (James Fox) is forced into hiding and seeks refuge in a reclusive rock star's home (Mick Jagger), not expecting the crisis of identity that awaits him. While the film blends psychedelia with gangland, blurring boundaries and perceptions, the two opposing characters circle, swap, and their worlds collide. A hallucinogenic and sometimes violent film, there is no other movie quite like it, and afterwards, one feels as though one's world looks strangely different from how it did less than two hours earlier.

[source: George Eastman Museum website, 2019-Dec-9]