'Can You See the Picture of Borges?' The Haunting Presence of Borges in Donald Cammell's 1970 Film Performance

Abstract

Visual references to Borges abound in Cammell's film Performance, passages from Borges's tales are read out, and Borges's face appears in the harrowing final scene. Cammell himself discusses the impact of Borges upon his art in many interviews and makes further reference to Borges in later films. However, perhaps owing to the psychedelic aesthetic of Performance and its counter-cultural embellishments, the strong influence of Borges upon it has been largely overlooked in the scholarship both of the film and of Borges. This article seeks to explore the deeper resonance of Borges not only on the script, but importantly upon the production and the cast. It becomes clear that Cammell's inclusion of Borges imagery was one aspect of an overt homage to the author, in which he evoked key elements in the plot and the characterization that play out philosophical and literary ideas central to Borges and his work.