Peeping Tom (1960)

[Foxbat]

I watched this Michael Powell film for the first time the other night. Powell was already a famous director when he made this with films such as the wonderful A Matter Of Life And Death and The Red Shoes under his belt. When Peeping Tom hit the cinemas, things were said - and I quote -the sickest and filthiest film I can remember seeing.

This movie effectively ended Powell's career. For those that have never seen this movie, it's about an awkward and shy man who works in a film studio and is also a serial killer. He films both the killings of his victims and the surrounding circumstances but, ultimately, he is looking that to record that last sickening moment of fear on his victim's faces as they meet their demise.

It's actually a pretty good and clever movie and not exactly gratuitous with the violence, so it's difficult to see where such a reaction from the critics could have originated from.

Part of the answer, I feel, might lie in the booklet accompanying this DVD. Inside it, there is an essay that begins with the words 'Cinema makes peeping toms of us all'. How very true. So. What did provoke such a reaction? Was it that the critics saw something of themselves reflected in the movie that made them feel uncomfortable. I think that might be the case. Still, like it or not, this film is definitely worth a watch and worthy of some debate.

If anybody else has seen this, I'd be interested in their thoughts.