#58: POWELL, Michael: Peeping Tom (1960)

POWELL, Michael (United Kingdom)

Peeping Tom [1960]

Spine #58
DVD
OOP

A frank exploration of voyeurism and violence, Michael Powell's extraordinary film is the story of a psychopathic cameraman — his childhood traumas, sexual crises, and murderous revenge as an adult. Reviled by critics upon its initial release for its deeply unsettling subject matter, the film has since been hailed as a masterpiece.

101 minutes
Color

Monaural

1:66:1 aspect ratio

Criterion Release 1999

Director/Writers

Original story and screenplay by Leo Marks.

Michael Powell was 55 when he directed Peeping Tom.

Other Powell films in the Collection:

#376: 49th Parallel (1941)

The Film

The film that killed Powell’s career.

There is nothing subtle about Powell’s approach to the subject matter. The first image is an ECU of an eye, blinking open. 

Mark Lewis (Karlheinz Böhm, son of the conductor) is looking at a Dora (Brenda Bruce) — a prostitute — while concealing his movie camera —

Bell & Howell 70

(Filmo)

We hear the click; the camera is running. The POV is now from the camera itself — the image is separated into four quadrants, defined by the viewfinder’s thin black bars. This POV is maintained until the moment of the murder.

The next image is a close-up of the projector, running the film Mark has shot.

The point is made. We, the audience, view the crime through the camera itself, and then relive it all through Mark’s projection. Not subtle at all … roll credits.

Mark slumps down in his chair; Powell barely conceals his sexual satisfaction.

**

Immediately after the credits, we are back to the viewfinder POV, with a short insert of Mark holding the camera. A man approaches Mark.

“What paper are you from?”

Mark’s response (“The Observer”) could hardly be more pointed.

**

The next scene — in the news agent shop, where Mark works — an elderly gentleman (Miles Malleson) buys a few newspapers, and, almost as an afterthought — asks the owner (Bartlett Mullins) if he has any “views.” Of course, it’s all clear, as the hidden pornography is brought to the counter, and the price is negotiated.

Great, understated performances by Anna Massey (daughter of Raymond Massey) as Helen; Maxine Audley as Helen’s blind, perceptive mother; Moira Shearer as the doomed stand-in, Vivian; and Powell and his eight-year-old son, Columba, as the scientist father and son.

Film Rating (0-60): 

55

The Extras

The Booklet

Six-page wraparound featuring an essay by Laura Mulvey.

“Peeping Tom is a film of many layers and masks; its first reviewers were unable even to see it at face value. Entrenched in the traditions of English realism, these early critics saw an immoral film set in real life whose ironic comment on the mechanics of film spectatorship and identification confused them as viewers. But Peeping Tom offers realistic cinematic images that relate to the cinema and nothing more. It creates a magic space for its fiction somewhere between the camera lens and the projector’s beam of light on the screen.”

Commentary

By renowned film theorist Mulvey.

Criterion could not have chosen a better commentator than Mulvey, whose expertise is “the male gaze,” and in particular the concept of scopophilia, a term incorporated into Marks’ screenplay.

In an amazing coincidence, she co-directed a film — Disgraced Monuments — with a man named Mark Lewis.

Stills gallery

Of rare behind-the-scenes production photos.

A Very British Psycho

Directed by Chris Rodley; the Channel 4 U.K. documentary about the life of screenwriter Marks, as well as the making and critical reception of Peeping Tom.

Read Edgar Allan Poe’s The Gold Bug for a deeper understanding of Marks’ cryptology work.

Original theatrical trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

34

55 + 34 =

89

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