.Bibi
Peep Show
There’s the word “Peep”, the handlebars of a scooter, a man with his face partly covered by a camera, and suddenly I recall a film I saw once, many years ago.
Peeping Tom (1960) directed by Michael Powell, a film about an isolated, withdrawn, frustrated, murderer, who takes “saucy” pictures, messes with film-making and is obsessed with capturing fear. A man who was the childhood victim of his psychologist father’s twisted experiments. It’s a tense, dark film, full of vibrant, luscious colour, a red curtain, an orange dress, the cobalt label on a wine bottle. It was a film about violence, but more deeply about voyeurism. It was loathed by critics of the time who denounced it as being “essentially vicious” one wrote “It’s a long time since a film disgusted me as much as Peeping Tom.” It infamously ended Michael Powell’s career.
Almost twenty years later cinema audiences were able to reappraise the film, when an intact version was restored and re-released. Society had changed and though the film was no less violent, the audience was more prepared for it, and some could accept that by choosing to watch they were also in part peeping Toms.
It must have been twenty years since I last saw it, then I saw this photograph and realized it’s time to watch it once more.
Blog photograph copyrighted to the photographer and used with permission by utata.org. All photographs used on utata.org are stored on flickr.com and are obtained via the flickr API. Text is copyrighted to the author, Rachel Irving and is used with permission by utata.org. Please see Show and Share Your Work
