PEEPING TOM

PEEPING TOM

(a.k.a. FACE OF FEAR; THE FOTOGRAPHER OF PANIC)

Mark (Karlheinz Bohm) walks towards a prostitute stood on a dimly lit Soho street corner. Hidden beneath his jacket is a 35mm camera, with which he is secretly filming her.

She leads him up to her bedroom, all the while the camera's POV acting as our eyes. As she undresses, the camera lunges towards her and she screams. Next, we see the same footage being projected as a black-and-white film in Mark's room.

Mark, we learn, is a budding filmmaker who makes his money by renting out flats in the apartment block he inherited from his late father. On the side, Mark does risqué photo-shoots that he sells to a local newsagent.

One evening, after a busy day shooting, Mark returns home to discover a party in one of the flat's for the demure Helen (Anna Massey, THE MACHINIST). She notices him skulking by and rushes to invite him in for a drink. He politely declines, preferring to retire upstairs instead and watch the footage he recorded that morning of the police taking the prostitute's corpse away.

But Helen is persistent and comes to Mark's door with a piece of birthday cake. He invites her in and agrees to show her one of his many films. Tellingly, the film reel he actually chooses to show her is one that his father lensed.

In it, Mark is a child. His father, behind the camera, is given to shining lights in Mark's eyes while he sleeps, or tossing a lizard onto the petrified boy - all because he was a scientist who had become obsessed with researching the effect of fear on the nervous system. By Mark's own admission, his father filmed every event, every emotion of his life - there was no privacy in his childhood.

Helen becomes upset by the footage and leaves to rejoin her party.

The following week, Mark is hired as an assistant on a film set. After the shoot has wrapped, he stays behind in the studio with pretty young stand-in actress Viv (Moira Shearer, THE RED SHOES). He wants to film a scene with her where she is scared. When she expresses trouble at finding that emotion, Mark is all too happy to help her get scared - and the result is cold-blooded murder.

Mark's obsession with continuing his father's work increases as his friendship with the oblivious Helen develops, and the police progress with their investigations into the murders of the two women.

PEEPING TOM is one of those films I saw on TV many moons ago after having read a lot about it. Whether it was the overly dark print used, or the fact that it's reputation was so ferocious, I'm not sure - but my first impression back then was that the film was grossly overrated.

However, with the benefit of this DVD I've watched the film again and can now fully appreciate how important and successful it truly is.

Michael Powell had made his name in British cinema by directing classics such as THE RED SHOES, BLACK NARCISSUS and A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH. But when PEEPING TOM was released in 1960 it was universally reviled by critics, consequently failing to find a wide audience, and Powell's career never recovered.

Which is a shame, because PEEPING TOM is an intensely intelligent meditation on the thin line between the cinema and voyeurism. It's a great insight into a warped mind, as well as a quietly disturbing examination of the ramifications of child abuse.

Most of all though, PEEPING TOM is a marvellous metaphor on film itself. The central character is one who only seems animated when looking through his lens, and who is ultimately making his own film of episodes in life that he will only accept as reality when watching them back on black-and-white 35mm.

Although the look of the film - the fashions, the interior designs, the police etc - makes it all terribly dated, PEEPING TOM is still a joy to watch due to it's rich colour schemes. The red hues of Mark's home cinema room simply ooze style.

Bohm is uneven in the lead role, proving to be the weakest link in an otherwise excellent cast. His performance veers between surprisingly subtle to manic overacting a'la Peter Lorre at his worst. But it's not enough to dilute the overall impact of Powell's movie. With it's deranged musical score, candidly shot terror scenes and claustrophobic interior cinematography, PEEPING TOM is not only one of the best films about film, but a successful piece of horror drama too.

Optimum's disc offers an attractive alternative to the pricey Criterion release.

The film itself is presented uncensored in 1.66:1 anamorphic. It looks great considering it's age. The opening shot has a couple of flecks on screen, but these soon disappear. Images are occasionally soft, but by-and-large this is a remarkably sharp, clean and bright transfer.

The English mono audio track holds up well, being clear and consistent throughout.

Attractive animated menus include a scene-selection allowing access to the film via 12 chapters.

Extras are plentiful:

Eye of the Beholder is a new 18-minute featurette wherein various industry types discuss the film's reputation and controversy. Martin Scorsese (THE DEPARTED) and his frequent cinematographer Thelma Schoonmaker are among those offering their thoughts. It's particularly nice to see Bohm interviewed here too.

The Strange Case of Mark Lewis is another new featurette, including musing on the film from cineastes such as Bertrand Tavernier and Charles Drazin. This is longer (but less interesting) at 25 minutes in length.

A 10-minute interview with Schoonmaker follows, which finds her going into more depth about how Scorsese introduced her to the film.

And, lo! He's on hand to introduce us to the film too. An optional 2-minute introduction to the movie has been specially recorded by Scorsese, who oozes enthusiasm when discussing the film.

A gallery of 13 black-and-white stills offers some interesting behind-the-scenes snaps.

The original theatrical trailer turns up to, and although it's quite worn-out it's still huge fun with the voiceover man's theatrical "Look out!" cries.

There's also trailers for other Optimum releases, which in this case include THE WICKER MAN, DON'T LOOK NOW and QUATERMASS AND THE PIT.

Finally, film historian Ian Christie provides an excellent, detailed commentary track that starts off a little wooden as though he's reading from a script, but towards the end flows a lot more naturally. Good stuff.

Whether or not Optimum's release will be preferable to the Criterion release with it's 50-minute documentary "A Very British Psycho" is debatable. But it remains that in it's own right this is a great disc for a very substantial film.

Review by Stu Willis


 
Released by Optimum
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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