Chill Room collages are mind movies with dialog and music; Performance is a head movie that is just like a Chill Room collage. This was an experiment and it succeeds because the film's narrative and ideas work perfectly in an audio environment. Yes, the visuals are enticing but the soundtrack alone reorients into a new experience. It's a killradio play. If you don't know the film this is perfect as your mind will enhance what you hear. And for those familiar you will hear things you never noticed before.
Produced and engineered by dj bennett (chillroom@killradio.org)
Special thanks to my live listeners. Thanks to the killradio.org collective. Feedback requested.
The Chill Room, 22 November 2013, at 00:00 PST on killradio.org
VBR, 142 minutes, vice and versa
Set: Introduction / Randy Newman-Gone Dead Train / Jack Nitzsche & Merry Clayton-Performance / Chas starts his day / Court and business mergers / Jack Nitzsche-Rolls Royce and Acid / Jack Nitzsche-Harry Flowers ("turn that up") / A war on your hands, Joey / Harry chastises Chas / Joey and mates attack Chas in his flat / "I am a bullet" / Chas phones Harry / Ry Cooder-Get Away / Train station, Chas overhears Noel and his mum / Ry Cooder-Powis Square / Chas and Pherber / Pherber, Lucy and Turner threesome / The Bath / The Last Poets-Wake Up Niggers / Chas and Turner meet / Jack Nitzsche-Natural Magic / Ry Cooder-Bottleneck Blues / Jack Nitzsche & Buffy Saint-Marie-Dyed Dead Red / Jack Nitzsche-The Hashishin / Turner-Come On in My Kitchen, Me and the Devil Blues / "What's wrong with the lights?" / Chas and Pherber: "He's stuck!" / Jack Nitzsche & Merry Clayton-Poor White Hound Dog / Memo from Turner / Chas phones his agent / Chas and Lucy / Turner's Murder / Randy Newman-Gone Dead Train (reprise)
Performance, 106 minutes, 35mm color film, writer Donald Cammell, cinematographer Nicolas Roeg, directors Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, producer Sanford Lieberson, editors Antony Gibbs, Brian Smedley-Aston, Frank Mazzolla (uncredited), design consultant Christopher Gibbs, technical adviser David Litvinoff, music Jack Nitzsche, moog synthesizer Bernard Krause, sound editor Alan Pattillo. With James Fox (Chas), Mick Jagger (Turner), Anita Pallenberg (Pherber), Michele Breton (Lucy), Johnny Shannon (Harry Flowers), John Bindon (Moody), Anthony Valentine (Joey Maddocks), Laraine Vickens (Lorraine). A Goodtimes Enterprises Production. Released by Warner Bros. 1970.
Additional audio from Donald Cammell: The Ultimate Performance, a Figment film in association with the Scottish Arts Council 1998. Produced and directed by Kevin Macdonald and Chris Rodley. Voices heard include Donald Cammell, David Cammell, James Fox, Mick Jagger, Anita Pallenberg, Nicolas Roeg and Sanford Lieberson.
Literary sources: Mick Brown on Performance, Bloomsbury, USA 1999 Edgardo Cozarinksky, Borges in/and/on Film, Lumen Books, USA 1988 Colin MacCabe, Performance, BFI Film Classics, UK 1998 Rebecca and Sam Umland, Donald Cammell: A Life on the Wild Side, FAB Press, UK 2006
Be wary of these, my gentle friends, of all the skins you breed. They have a tasty habit -- they eat the hands that bleed.