Performance

'Memo From Turner' - Performance

This is an extract from the 1970 film Performance directed by Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg and starring James Fox & Mick Jagger in his first acting role. The film was extremely controversial for it's time with it's graphic depiction of sex, violence & drug taking and still looks fresh 40 years after it's release. The way it was edited had a massive influence on modern cinema & the 'Memo From Turner' sequence shown here is considered by many to be the first music video - The song is played in it's entirety as part of Chas' hallucinations with Jagger lip synching directly to camera.

In a way the innovative editing style of Performance was arrived at by accident. Nic Roeg had already left the project & was setting up in Australia for Walkabout when Donald Cammell and uncredited editor Frank Mazzola spent months recutting the wieldy preview cut that Warner Bros had deemed overlong and too incoherent for release. In re-editing what was already there, mixing up some scenes (like the opening montage of violent sex intercut with a travelling limousine) and adding faster cuts and fractured montages the film was given renewed energy and power.

It's a shame that these days it's considered indulgent to allow an entire song to play out within a film (unless it's part of a front or end title sequence) and great music often gets cut short to avoid a drop in pace or risk hindering the narrative thrust.

Other famous film scenes that use tracks in their entirety include 'Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head' from Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid and 'The Sounds of Silence/ April Come She Will' from The Graduate (two Simon & Garfunkel songs played back to back during a montage).