Performance Anxiety

I remember everybody's Performance came out in 1970: a mixture of "Perfect!" and "WTF?" Yet, somehow, no one I know saw it, until I did, just now.

The concept: James Fox is a London thug, an enforcer who gets in over his head and has to hide out. He finds Turner, a reclusive washed-up pop star played by Mick Jagger, who has a basement room in his rundown suburban house. He also has a couple of birds:

• Anita Pallenberg, who in real life was Brian Jones' and Keith Richard's lover. She co-wrote the movie and moves the story along in several places - not just by appearing nude a lot.
• Michele Breton, who looks enough like Jagger to give you double vision.
  

Turner's menage, especially Pallenberg, start playing with Fox's head, feeding him magic mushrooms, getting him involved with kinky sex, and finally, fitting him up in a wig and makeup, Turner-style, while Jagger makes himself over as a flash gangster and sings his solo hit "Memo from Turner".

A note on the music: the soundtrack is mostly slide guitar blues, conducted by Randy Newman, featuring Ry Cooder and Lowell George, among many others.

Another feature: Lots of roughtrade AC/DC naughtiness. We see Fox stripped, whipped and taunted as a poofter - I'm sure this would appeal to some tastes. Not mine, particularly, and there's plenty of nakey women if you prefer that sort of thing. But special love is lavished on the kinky stuff.

In conclusion, do they really make Fox into an imitation of Jagger? I say, "No!" Fox has a foxier face and is completely missing Jagger's trademark lips. My theory: He is made into an imitation of Brian Jones, the deceased Stones guitarist. The slide guitar soundtrack seems reminiscent of Jones, the dandified outfit Fox is set up in recalls Jones' fashion sensibilities, and Fox had the lost, drugged look that haunted Jones' last years. My theory has one flaw - Performance was made in 1968, when Jones was still alive, even though it wasn't released until 1970, the year after Jones' death due to misadventure.