Born in Edinburgh in 1934 under the 'camera obscura' , Donald
Cammell started out as a prodigiously gifted painter. He
abandoned his talent for the canvas, believing film was the
medium for his artistic impressions. As a screenwriter and
director his "...talents were as
dazzling and provocative as they were under used and
unknown." His body of work, although
limited to only four feature films and one short film, is
cinematically distinct and creatively important. Countless
filmmakers have tried to mimic the style of PERFORMANCE,
Donald's intellectually and visually complex signature piece.
The films of Donald Cammell
PERFORMANCE - GOODTIMES
ENTERPRISES for WARNER BROS. 1968/1970 UK
"PERFORMANCE
is one of the most extraordinary British films, and arguably the
greatest"
BFI Film Classics/book series
Producer: Sanford Lieberson
Associate Producer: David Cammell
Directors: Donald Cammell/Nicolas Roeg
Screenplay: Donald Cammell
Director of Photography: Nicolas Roeg
Music: Jack Nitzsche
Editors: Anthony Gibbs, Brian Smedley-Aston, & Frank
Mazzola (uncredited)
Cast: Mick Jagger, James Fox, Anita
Pallenberg
NEW DVD available Feb. 2007
Purchase now through Amazon.com
THE ARGUMENT - 1971/1999
USA 35mm Cinemascope/short
"THE ARGUMENT
is a surreal gem that is also a fine illustration of the late
director's powerful, idiosyncratic work...Abandoned, once
lost, now found, Donald Cammell's THE ARGUMENT, like the
Phoenix, has been reborn."
Sam and Becky Umland/Video Watchdog Fall 2000
Producer: Frank Mazzola
Executive Producer: Anthony Mazzola
Director: Donald Cammell
Screenplay: Donald Cammell
Director of Photography: Vilmos Zsigmond
Music: Bruce Langhorne
Editor: Frank Mazzola
Cast: Myriam Gibril, Kendrew Lascelles,
Frank Mazzola
DEMON SEED - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Inc 1977 USA
"DEMON SEED is one of the most
fantastic (in all senses of the world) science-fiction movies
since 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY"
The Hollywood Reporter
Producer: Herb Jaffe
Director: Donald Cammell
Screenplay: Robert Jaffe, Roger O. Hirson based on a novel by
Dean R. Koontz
Director of Photography: Bill Butler
Music: Jerry Fielding
Editor: Frank Mazzola
Cast: Julie Christie, Fritz Weaver, Gerrit
Graham
WHITE OF THE EYE - Cannon
1987 USA
"There may have been many
films with stories like this, but WHITE OF THE EYE is the
missing link that has served as a model for its
successors."
Viennale
1999
Producer: Cassian Elwes, Brad
Wyman, Elliot Kastner, Sue-Baden Powell
Director: Donald Cammell
Screenplay: Donald Cammell, China Kong
Director of Photograaphy: Larry McConkey
Music: Rick Fenn, Nick Mason (as Pink Floyd)
Editor: Terry Rawlings, Michael C. Wright
Cast: David Keith, Cathy Moriarty
DONALD
CAMMELL'S WILD SIDE - The Director's Cut - Tartan
Films 1999 USA
"I cannot
think of two such radically different films being produced from
the same raw footage...Nu Image's film is an intriguing mess, a
flawed minor movie, whereas the new version is an effective
companion piece to PERFORMANCE"
Brian Pendreigh/The Guardian Jan.2000
"Perhaps
the most remarkable event of the festival (Edinburgh Int.
Film Festival/1999) has been
WILD SIDE...presented in a radically new director's cut...Under
Mazzola's microsurgery it emerges as classic cinema, an entirely
different film, richer and more complex..."
Peter Bradshaw/The Guardian Aug.1999
Producer of The Director's Cut: Hamish McAlpine, Nick
Jones, Frank Mazzola
Director: Donald Cammell
Screenplay: Donald Cammell, China Kong
Director of Photography: Saed Mutarevic
Music: Ryuichi Sakamoto
Editor: Frank Mazzola
Cast: Christopher Walken, Joan Chen, Steven
Bauer
Anne Heche as
'Alex', Allen Garfield, Adam Novack
Documentaries on Donald Cammell
DONALD CAMMELL - THE ULTIMATE
PERFORMANCE 1998 UK
Producers/Directors: Kevin Macdonald, Chris Rodley
Books on Donald Cammell
PERFORMANCE
- BFI FILM CLASSICS
by Colin MacCabe
Purchase now through Amazon.com
MICK
BROWN ON PERFORMANCE - Bloomsbury Movie Guide
by Mick Brown
