I’ve been looking at some films from Powell & Pressburger (their production company was The Archers). It’s a hugely mixed bag, ranging from the rambling confusion of Blimp (1943) through the romantic celtic twaddle of I Know Where I’m Going (1945) to the OTT orientalism of Black Narcissus (1947). Then Powell works without Pressburger in Peeping Tom (1960) – the year of Psycho. And the result in this case is something that I’ve never known it was possible could come out of Britain.
It’s a very unpleasant and deeply disturbing film, but it’s also extremely courageous in taking up its problematic topic. Most importantly, however, it’s a film which deals artistically with its own mode of being. There are very few films that do this seriously and successfully. This one is almost unique.
There are two matters of which Powell seems to have intimate knowledge and that he tackles here. One of them is cinema…
Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960)
Garry Gillard | New: 4 March, 2017 | Now: 4 March, 2017