Peeping Tom (1960)
Mark Lewis is an aspiring filmmaker with a deep secret. During the day he works at a British film studio as a focus puller. In his off hours he takes semi pornographic pictures of women for a tasteless rag. He appears innocent and unassuming yet there is darker side to him. He lures unsuspecting women into performing for his camera and records their brutal deaths. Night after night he watches the footage for his documentary. When he is befriended by a neighbor he shows her films that were made by his father. The films show Mark as a young child being terrified by his father for his experiments on fear. Never without his camera, the audience learns that Mark, his fears, passions, repressions and his camera cannot be separated.
Peeping Tom was so loathed on its first release that it was pulled from theaters, and effectively ended the career of one of Britain's greatest directors. It is believed that Powell's filmmaking style and use of point of view camerawork allowed the audience to identify uncomfortably with the killer. Powell married Martin Scorcese's editor Thelma Schoonmaker and has come to be known as one of Britian's most important filmmakers. He died in 1990.
Director: Michael Powell
Writer: Loe Marks
Cast: Karlheinz Böhm, Moira Shearer
Running time: 101 minutes
Year: 1962
Studio: Michael Powell
Peeping Tom was so loathed on its first release that it was pulled from theaters, and effectively ended the career of one of Britain's greatest directors. It is believed that Powell's filmmaking style and use of point of view camerawork allowed the audience to identify uncomfortably with the killer. Powell married Martin Scorcese's editor Thelma Schoonmaker and has come to be known as one of Britian's most important filmmakers. He died in 1990.
Director: Michael Powell
Writer: Loe Marks
Cast: Karlheinz Böhm, Moira Shearer
Running time: 101 minutes
Year: 1962
Studio: Michael Powell
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Martin Scorsese on 'Peeping tom'
'Peeping tom' in Senses of cinema
Additional Reading
Hawthorn, Jeremy. "Morality, voyeurism, and 'point of view': Michael Powell's Peeping Tom (1960)." Nordic Journal of English Studies Vol. 2, No 3 (2003): 303-324.
The Cinema of Michael Powell : international Perspectives on an English Filmmaker. Ian Christie and Andrew Moor, eds. BFI Pub: London. 2005
The Cinema of Michael Powell : international Perspectives on an English Filmmaker. Ian Christie and Andrew Moor, eds. BFI Pub: London. 2005