MEGASPOILERS
haha yeah la pallenberg was something
i don’t know that it was ahead of its time with the crossdressing specifically. people had been there long before
if anything the revolution is this was more explicit where old hollywood was more coded, but that was the glorious 70s letting it all hang out.
it wasnt just the clothes, check out the way jagger was lit on some of those scenes. it’s the kind of glamour light that was used for (again) marlene dietrich, or lauren bacall.
i.. disagree with your last shot evaluation. i definitely said “what was that about” but did not feel tricked or conned or cheated nor think now in retrospect that i was.
we’ve taken enough shrooms to get a whole vietnam platoon high. we’ve been already in psychedelic space for more than half the movie. we’ve talked about performance and the demon that has left them. we’ve swapped hair, roles, clothes, genders, everything. the whole foundation of the gangster genre has been shattered. i mean the narrative style of the beginning should suffice to show that, but it goes way beyond into a whole questioning of “reality”.
the gunshot? turner (turner! not a random name) offers himself rather than... the shot is... what the fuck is it? the head, opening like a tunnel? the randy newman lyrics? sure, shootin my supply through my demon’s eye could just be read in the ejaculate sense or maybe something else? i don’t think it’s a simple swap, i think it’s meant to be a lot more ambiguous and have you wonder. has the demon moved on/swapped heads? is chas going to his greatest performance having taken on turner’s demon? is chas doing a turner performance after turner did a chas performance?
also “persona” came way first, with psychoanalysis i stead of shrooms. it’s not a completely new thing it’s just more colorful. per so na per for mance
also this reminds me of the cortázar story, la noche boca arriba. lml @ translation... i can’t find it. roughly “the night lying prone” or something, great little short story. if “blow up” came from him i wonder if this text had some sort of influence here. i’d suspect it had, said or unsaid.
anyway it’s not that, was my point, it’s not a “trick”, or a gimmick, it’s a larger mindfuck overall, and central to the movie, which is why it’s fucking great. it’s really not reducible to explanations... but if it is i wouldn’t wanna.