Performance (film)

Performance
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Written byDonald Cammell
Produced bySanford Lieberson
Starring
CinematographyNicolas Roeg
Edited by
Music byJack Nitzsche
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release dates
  • 7 January 1971 (1971-01-07) (London)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£750,000

Performance (stylised in promotional material as performance.) is a 1970 British crime drama film directed by Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, written by Cammell and filmed by Roeg. The film stars James Fox as a violent and ambitious London gangster who, after killing an old friend, goes into hiding at the home of a reclusive rock star (Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones).

The film was produced in 1968 but not released until 1970, as Warner Bros. was reluctant to distribute the film, owing to its sexual content and graphic violence. It initially received a mixed critical response, but its reputation has grown since then, and it is now regarded as one of the most influential and innovative films of the 1970s, as well as one of the greatest films in the history of British cinema. In 1999, Performance was voted the 48th greatest British film of the 20th century by the British Film Institute. In 2008 Empire magazine ranked the film 182nd on its list of the 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.