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Donald Cammell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Donald Seaton Cammell (January 17, 1934 – April 24, 1996) was a Scottish film director who enjoys a cult reputation thanks to his debut film Performance, which he co-directed with Nicolas Roeg.
Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Cammell was a prodigy as a society portrait painter and thanks to family connections became a central figure of the swinging London social scene of the 1960s, specifically of what became known as the 'Chelsea Set'. Cammell's father was biographer to Aleister Crowley, and Crowley, who lived nearby the Cammells for a time, was Donald's godfather. Certain analyses of 'Performance' cite its style and content as evidence of Cammell's Crowleyite leanings. After Performance Cammell struggled to get another film produced until the visually stunning but low key Demon Seed in 1977. He also made the eccentric horror thriller White Of The Eye in 1987. Between infrequent film and TV directing jobs, Cammell made a mark directing music videos for the likes of U2.
When Cammell's 1995 film Wild Side was cut by the producer, he committed suicide by shooting himself, though his wife claimed the wound was not immediately fatal, and that he asked for a mirror so that he could watch himself die. (This is disputed in the published Cammell bioraphy.) A posthumous "director's cut", commissioned by FilmFour, and edited by his widow and co-screenwriter China Kong and editor Frank Mazzola, was released in 2000 to critical acclaim.
In 2005, Fan-Tan, a novel Cammell conceived with actor Marlon Brando in 1979, was released.
- Performance, with Nicolas Roeg (1968)
- Demon Seed (1977)
- White Of The Eye (1987)
- The Argument (1998)
- Wild Side (1999)