Directed by Donald Cammell and Nic Roeg
105 minutes
In English

Co-directed by British filmmaker Nic Roeg (Don't look now, The Man who fell to Earth) and Donald Cammell, this is an amazing crime thriller set in London of the swinging 60s. Having said that, it's not really a crime movie - it immediately shoots off into a weird metaphysical level. In a way it's a typical gangster flick that accidentally steps into a surrealist world of the imagination. It is therefore a film which defies classification and is full of drugs, gender-bending and labyrinthine philosophy. Heavily influenced by the writers Borges and William Burroughs. 

Starring James Fox as the tough Cockney gangster Chas Devlin, and Mick Jagger as a recluse musician who has created his own music-drug-sex den... a place where all stereotypes become undone, and nothing obeys the laws of our society. Like I said, that realm also includes a special gender-twisting thread. Director Nic Roeg was always an innovator with montage sequences - galaxies beyond anything Hollywood could dream of. So this one also has a radical, punchy, experimental editing style.  

When Warner Brothers studio financed it they were expecting a  physical sensation about swinging London in the style of the Beatles' hit A Hard Day Night. Mick Jagger was supposed to do the entire soundtrack, but when Keith Richards suspected Mick did a real sex scene with his then girlfriend while shooting this movie, the soundtrack idea collapsed. When Warner Brothers saw the finished result, they were horrified and locked it away for several years. 

This soundtrack is a classic, including The Last Poets, Mick Jagger's 'Memo From Turner', and Jack Nitzsche's Moog synthesizer wraps everything in an otherworldly mood. It also stars Anita Pallenberg as Pherber. What can I say? It's a wild world.