A documentary by Marie Losier. Unrated. Opens Sunday, April 1, at the Pacific Cinémathèque

From an early age, Honoré de Balzac, the French man of letters, realized he was a genius. When it came to writing, that was true, but this epiphany coloured all his other activities. Family members tried to silence his horrific violin playing, but he remained convinced that anything he created was inherently beautiful.

The English performance artist known as Genesis P-Orridge is like this. Born Neil Megson in Manchester in 1950, the poet, singer, and quasi-instrumentalist was influenced by expat artists Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs, who mentored him. He became a progenitor of punk and industrial music in two major bands, Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV, and was accused by Tory politicians of trying to “wreck civilization” with publicly funded art installations during the pre–Sex Pistols era.

P-Orridge really got hot after moving to the U.S. and meeting Jacqueline Breyer, aka Lady Jaye, an American who worked as a dominatrix to support her writing. Tall, blond, and stately in the Helen Mirren mould, Breyer was more than 20 years his junior. Nonetheless, they married in 1993 and began their Pandrogyne Project: that is, to become as much like each other as possible, right down to matching breast implants and lip jobs.

French filmmaker Marie Losier began this Ballad more than five years ago, and her cut-up technique matches that of her twin subjects, emphasizing the jarring juxtaposition of seemingly random elements—often at the expense of any deeper meaning. Most biographical data is skipped, so we don’t learn about P-Orridge’s previous marriage or the house-fire injuries that precipitated his gender-bending surgery. The result is a fascinating, fast-moving hodgepodge (only 70 minutes long) that doesn’t quite convince us of the essential quality of P-Orridge’s creations apart from their sensational story. One thing is certain, however: his Balzac is bigger than yours.

Watch the trailer for The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye.