Peeping Tom

[Freddy]

From The Times, Eye Magazine today. Written by Brian Case.

MICHAEL POWELL MADE THE DARKEST MASTERPIECE OF HIS CAREER WITH PEEPING TOM
The screenwriter Emeric Pressburger and the director Michael Powell had made a series of masterpieces together, but without Pressburger. Powell had fallen on hard times. Leo Marks, a former Head of Coding in the British Secret Service, approached the great man with his script for Peeping Tom. "I told It to him, shot by shot. At the end he looked at me in silence. So I thought, right, I've made a mess of that, I'll try another." He outlined a second and a third, still without response, and got up to leave. "My dear chap," said Powell. "My voice is In my throat. Sit down. They're all mine!"
A thriller about a serial killer who films his victims, and who befriends and then terrorises a blind woman, it
was uncharted territory for Powell, and scandalised contemporary audiences.
The picture was shot in five weeks on a low budget, financed by a small company inspired by the success of the Hammer horrors. Powell wanted Dirk Bogarde or Laurence Harvey for the lead, but had to settle for the unknown German actor Carl Boehm.
The director had the reputation of a bully. Anna Massey found him "quite fearsome in a way. He had the ability to make you feel quite uncomfortable." But Maxine Audley played the blind woman and found him unusually courteous. "You look as blind as a tree stump. I've nothing to show you," he said. Powell himself was criticised for playing the sadistic
scientist father to his own son in the terrifying home-movie sequences. "My son understood what we were doing. I explained it all to him, and he enjoyed joining in." Marks's view was mixed. "Michael Powell was the best director for Peeping Tom. He wasn't the best director of Michael Powell... a giant talent with a pygmy generosity."
Pamela Green, Britain's foremost 1950s nude, played a pin-up: "I would like to have made one well-photographed, well-scripted film featuring the nude body. In one scene with Carl Boehm I was totally nude, beautifully lit by Otto Heller. The recut version left just a glimpse of me."
BRIAN CASE
Peeping Tom, Friday, Channel 4.1.05am

For Steve and all enthusiasts of P and P

Freddy

[Steve Crook]

Originally posted by Freddy@Apr 23 2005, 08:05 PM From The Times, Eye Magazine today. Written by Brian Case. MICHAEL POWELL MADE THE DARKEST MASTERPIECE OF HIS CAREER WITH PEEPING TOM [snip] BRIAN CASE Peeping Tom, Friday, Channel 4.1.05am For Steve and all enthusiasts of P and P Freddy

Thanks Freddy

Steve

[noglea]

I remember when Leo Marks appeared on a 'Peeping Tom' documentary a while back he mentioned that he was going to write a new film script but I don't know if he completed it before his death.

[Steve Crook]

Originally posted by noglea@Apr 24 2005, 11:40 PM I remember when Leo Marks appeared on a 'Peeping Tom' documentary a while back he mentioned that he was going to write a new film script but I don't know if he completed it before his death.

Not the one he was talking about in the documentary. He didn't publish all the code poems he wrote either. Although The Life That I Have was published in a nice little book illustrated by his wife.

He did write (or co-wrote) a few other film scripts, see his IMDb listing. But none of the others had the power of Peeping Tom.

Steve

[FRANKCAPRA]

I simply love Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom".

It is showing on the big screen soon at The Greenwich Picturehouse.

What do other people think of the film?

Ian

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by FRANKCAPRA I simply love Michael Powell's "Peeping Tom". It is showing on the big screen soon at The Greenwich Picturehouse. What do other people think of the film? Ian

Do you have any details of when it's at Greenwich Ian?
It's not (yet) listed on their website.

Love is a strange reaction to it.
Many admire or are intrigued, unsettled, or even sickened by it.
What makes you love it?

Steve

[FRANKCAPRA]

Hi Steve,
Peeping Tom is showing on Sunday/27th/May.

The Picturehouse group really is great as they show so many great vintage films.

A fantastic site....Movie Screenshots: Peeping Tom (1960)

Happy viewing...Ian

[ChristineCB]

The lighting in this picture makes even the most muted colors - walls, dark overcoats - seem garish and almost painful to watch, I find. It's almost like always being in the dark and having the lights turned on ultra-bright. I find myself wincing at all of the blatant use (mis-use?) of the chosen colors.

I think I'm more awed at Powell's sets because of his expert use of tonal B&W in other films, and the muted tapestry of colors BLIMP. When he wants to set a tone, he seems equally adept in any film-subject.

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by ChristineCB The lighting in this picture makes even the most muted colors - walls, dark overcoats - seem garish and almost painful to watch, I find. It's almost like always being in the dark and having the lights turned on ultra-bright. I find myself wincing at all of the blatant use (mis-use?) of the chosen colors. I think I'm more awed at Powell's sets because of his expert use of tonal B&W in other films, and the muted tapestry of colors BLIMP. When he wants to set a tone, he seems equally adept in any film-subject.

That's the difference between Technicolor (Blimp, Red Shoes, Black Narcissus etc.) and the Eastman Color that Peeping Tom was filmed in, and the (poor) quality of most prints. Even the first major re-relase ("Presented by Martin Scorsese") is still quite poorly colour balanced.

The recent DVD from Optimum has a much better colour balance. It is still fairly garish in places, but only where it's meant to be. That DVD has a good commentary track by Prof Ian Christie and a documentary that interviews Thelma Schoonmaker, Martin Scorsese, Columba Powell, Karlheinz Böhm (a rare appearance talking about his work on the film and its effect on him) and academics Ian Christie and Laura Mulvey.

It's coded for Region 2 but I would say it's even better than the Criterion DVD as regards the film itself. But the Criterion DVD also has the A Very British Psycho documentary with Leo Marks. So you'll have to buy all of them :

Steve

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by FRANKCAPRA Hi Steve, Peeping Tom is showing on Sunday/27th/May. The Picturehouse group really is great as they show so many great vintage films. A fantastic site....Movie Screenshots: Peeping Tom (1960) Happy viewing...Ian

Thanks Ian, I've added it to the Events list on my Powell & Pressburger site and have notified the email list about it.

Yes, the Picturehouse cinemas are great. I go to the one in Clapham quite a lot and I've often visited the Phoenix in Oxford.

That's a good set of screenshots on the Movie Screenshots site. But it's a bit cheeky of them putting a copyright symbol on them when they're "stealing" somebody else's work :

Steve

[ChristineCB]

Originally Posted by Steve Crook ...So you'll have to buy all of them...

You do this to me ON PURPOSE! I'll git you one of these days-!



(I had to get the boots that go with the whip...)

Actually, I think the garish colors fit well. I think the subject matter is meant to cause some wincing and shuttering of eyes, and the garishness works well to remind us that not everything can be muted over or toned down, as if blending into the background is the purpose of the film. It's a film that exposes, and the garishness of colors - and evidently the consequent choice of film-color photography, is well-understood by Powell and obviously effective in use. He's a craftsman that either knows the tools at his disposal, or knows the cinematographers who can deliver those hues on-screen and leaves the tool-choices up to them.

[Steve Crook]

Originally Posted by ChristineCB You do this to me ON PURPOSE! I'll git you one of these days-! (I had to get the boots that go with the whip...) Actually, I think the garish colors fit well. I think the subject matter is meant to cause some wincing and shuttering of eyes, and the garishness works well to remind us that not everything can be muted over or toned down, as if blending into the background is the purpose of the film. It's a film that exposes, and the garishness of colors - and evidently the consequent choice of film-color photography, is well-understood by Powell and obviously effective in use. He's a craftsman that either knows the tools at his disposal, or knows the cinematographers who can deliver those hues on-screen and leaves the tool-choices up to them.

A welcome return of the kinky boots

Yes, the garishness works well. But it could also be quite subtle. Check the lighting when Viv is walking around the empty studio prior to being "attended to" by Mark.

Powell certainly knew the effects he was getting. He had been a cinematographer and had done most other jobs involved in film-making as part of his early training. But he did also know and trust the cinematographers that he hired.

Steve

[ChristineCB]

The tricky part of coloring, lighting and photog'ing must be how the final product - on the big screen - must look.

We've all seen examples where up-close-and-personal pixels may be one color, but a big-screen or different monitors, much less different printers, all contribute to make for other-than-expected colorations.

Then to imagine what different big-screen materials must do, what different projector bulbs (and models of projectors themselves) - it must seem quite daunting. Yet Powell musters thru it with picture after picture that seems so well lit and colored. PEEPING is a perfect story for B&W, I'd have thought. Absolutely NO REASON for color.

Yet, to use such garishness, instead of soft, comforting, soothing tones (aww, how sweet!), I can't help but wonder how many generations this project took in his head before deciding to use THAT kind of colorings. Everything COULD have been done in darks and harsh lighting, shadows and softer whites but instead, we get THIS splattered in front of us. A fascinating choice by Powell, I think.

[FRANKCAPRA]

"Peeping Tom" can also be seen on the computer screens at the BFI Southbank
Mediatheque.

It is well worth a visit and I am going again tomorrow (Tues) afternoon.

Ian

[Mark O]

A great, great masterpiece of a Movie, I'm sure I'm not the only one round here who knows this Movie inside out! I was particularly impressed by Maxine Audley's performance too.......here's a few locations, the Newsagent's is only a stones throw from Newman Passage, but this fact is not made obvious in the Film......