Unfortunately "Peeping Tom" is in the second category. Cinematography is great but acting and directing are below average. Furthermore the screenplay is a mess. I saw it in a Montreal theater last night. Though the copy looked like new it didn't help me to appreciate this overrated film. Sorry !
shareawwww shucks, that's disappointing.. sorry you couldn't appreciate it...
i've always thought that 'Peeping Tom' was far ahead of its time for being made in 1960,
would kill a small to medium-sized creature to see this on celluloid... on the big screen.
though... cheers to the cinematography!
possession of a stolen shovel...
I liked it. I'll agree that the acting wasn't particularly good, but I thought the movie overall was creepy and entertaining.
"Better beware, there's a full moon tonight!"
I disagree wholeheartedly.
The direction is very effective and helps create an atmosphere of dread and disorientation, and it significantly helps drive the film's comments on filmmaking and voyeurism home. I think there is nothing quite like it in all of cinema. This may come across as jarring, but that's the desired effect.
The acting *could* of course be perceived as dated; these are Shakespeare play-trained British actors, and it does feel more artificial than other movies of the era (say, On the Waterfront or Breathless). However, intentional or not, I feel the artifice in the character portrayals increases the feeling that everything is somewhat "off", which ultimately contributes to the tension as well.
To me, this is one of the greatest thrillers of all time, and it doubling as a statement on the director's relationship with his actors is just the silver coating.
I couldn't agree more. This is a magnificent fim. Thespians rather than screen actors exaggerating, overacting and stilting their performances I think for effect; to enhance the creepiness. It helps to understand this movie if you knew the UK at this time. Such a film would have shocked and frankly, could only have been even contemplated by someone as established as Powell.
The depiction of middle aged repressed men in brown raincoats visiting backstreet newsagents for racy photos is spot on. Anti-social crime would have been under reported. Conformity was promoted by an establishment that had yet to experience the sixties. This was the expeditionary force! There had been no significant movies at least that I can recall made from the villain's POV before this. None that were in any way sympathetic or attempted to provide a rationale for their behavior.
By today's standard the shock value is tame (as underscored by the lack of blood) but then, every significant critic then was an aging member of the postwar establishment, it was a huge risk that such a film was ever going to achieve critical acclaim. Mary Whitehouse; the crusader for christian values would have no doubt campaigned to have this removed from cinemas.
Those days however were coming to an end propelled by a youth movement, born after the start of the war and this would have been at the tip of the Kitchen Sink movement in British Theatre and cinema which heralded the change about to come and embodies the boldness and gritty reality that it would introduce.
Powell was in a position and could afford to be radical and a harbinger of change. We should be grateful that he did. While it is said that the film damaged his career I would disagree and say that it enhanced his legacy. The price he paid for not just Tom but his growing body of work steering away from box office popularity, was harder to find financing for future projects.
Of particular interest is the detailed focus on London life at that time; paper stren streets, tobacconists on opposite corners, The Times and the Telegraph the two leading newspapers of the day amd on.
Never trust a man with wide set eyes. This was film that turned us into a voyeur and thus too much for some people's sensibilities. Most people can't think of themselves as creepy and loathsome. Mwahahahahahahaha.
It's a thematic effect. I would love to see this in a theater on Halloween or something.
I thought parts of it were good but overall flop..
shareit's not that bad.
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