Performance (1970). Directed by Donald Cammell and Nicholas Roeg.***1/2I DVR'd it the other day and watched it in several installments when the two year-old weren't looking. What a fabulous movie. I'd seen it some years ago but couldn't recall it well and was glad to happen on it again in the cable listings. It stars James Fox as Chas, a gangster enforcer who offends his superiors and is forced to hideout in London. Until he can get his fake passport and plane tickets arranged, he takes a basement apartment in a building owned by Turner (Mick Jagger), a burned-out rock star in retirement who occupies the upper floors with gal-pals Anita Pallenberg and Michele Breton.This is the dark and kinky side of "swinging London," I suppose: deviant sex, androgyny, hallucinogenics, identity crises, criminals, and...murder... As the title informs us, it's all about "performance"--how we perform, the audiences for whom we perform (including ourselves), and the scripts that guide our performances. Where and who is that self behind the performance? Where does "self" end and performer begin? And how can a bullet penetrating a man's skull dislodge a portrait of Jorge Luis Borges from his brain tissue?
Guest of Cindy Sherman (2009). Directed by Tom Donahue and Paul H-O (Hasegawa-Overacker). ***
This wacky documentary follows the adventures of a hapless surfer-dude cum public access 
cable geek, Paul H-O, whose iconoclastic program, Gallery Beat, brings him into contact (and frequently conflict) with the New York City art scene. Eventually he meets the photographer Cindy Sherman who, to the astonishment of H-O and about every art snob she knows, agrees to do one, then two, then...a whole series of interviews for the goofy program. Soon we learn why: she likes H-O, a lot. In short order, the two are dating and then, seemingly, in love. The documentary, for the most part, follows the twists and turns and ups and downs of this unlikely relationship, with a special emphasis on H-O's increasing marginalization as Sherman becomes the center of attention at NYC art parties and he gets cropped out of the pictures. Clearly, the relationship is doomed to fail, but it lasts 5 plus years, surprisingly, and both parties involved come off as decent folk whose love just couldn't withstand the pressure and demands of art superstardom. Here's a rather good review of the film--good enough to elicit a comment response from the filmmaker himself!: http://blog.spout.com/2009/03/24/guest-of-cindy-sherman-review/.
cable geek, Paul H-O, whose iconoclastic program, Gallery Beat, brings him into contact (and frequently conflict) with the New York City art scene. Eventually he meets the photographer Cindy Sherman who, to the astonishment of H-O and about every art snob she knows, agrees to do one, then two, then...a whole series of interviews for the goofy program. Soon we learn why: she likes H-O, a lot. In short order, the two are dating and then, seemingly, in love. The documentary, for the most part, follows the twists and turns and ups and downs of this unlikely relationship, with a special emphasis on H-O's increasing marginalization as Sherman becomes the center of attention at NYC art parties and he gets cropped out of the pictures. Clearly, the relationship is doomed to fail, but it lasts 5 plus years, surprisingly, and both parties involved come off as decent folk whose love just couldn't withstand the pressure and demands of art superstardom. Here's a rather good review of the film--good enough to elicit a comment response from the filmmaker himself!: http://blog.spout.com/2009/03/24/guest-of-cindy-sherman-review/.~cd
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