Sex, drugs and rock’n’roll are all referenced to great effect in Cammell and Roeg’s doppelgänger masterpiece, an orgy of ideas that imagines the lawless worlds of a violent criminal and a decadent showman feeding off each other with explosive results.

Lines are constantly blurred: between right and wrong, masculine and feminine, new and old. . . it all makes for an engrossing and disconcerting trip. James Fox plays the sadistic gangster Chas, drawn into the orbit of jaded rocker Turner, played knowingly by Mick Jagger. The pair are perfectly cast. (Notes by Michael Hayden.)

This film is screening as part of Drugs, the second of our three-month season dedicated to excess, presenting examples of how cinema has taken on sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll in Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll.