Red hair spells danger... Peeping Tom (1960), BFI Restoration, Cinema Unbound

 

This screening showcased a sparkling digital screening of the BFI's new 4k restoration of Michael Powell’s controversial big budget masterwork and it was followed by a discussion panel involving Archer’s expert Ian Christie, filmmaker Carol Morley and fashion designer John Foley, hosted by Doesn’t Exist magazine’s editor, Victor Fraga. Two shibboleths were dismantled, the first by Ian and concerning Peeping Tom being the film that basically ended Powell’s career. As he pointed out, Powell’s career had already been in trouble before Peeping Tom and not just because of the Honeymooners (1959); the kinds of films Powell wanted to make were at odds with the cinema of angry young men (and women) and he wasn’t about to make a Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, A Taste of Honey or Room at the Top. The Archers had made two crowd-pleasing war films for their last two collaborations but when it came to magical realism and post-expressionism, the early 60’s were not welcoming.

Another point Christie made was that far from ending his career, Peeping Tom was an enduring statement of his talent that would be picked up in the late 1970, 80s and 90s by film studies departments. Indeed, Carol Morley remembers watching it for the first time as she screened it at St Martins. Mr Fraga seemed intent on asking about the male gaze and the film’s treatment of women, whether such a film could still be made, and Carol’s was the voice we needed to hear on this question, remining us that Peeping Tom is restrained in its violence and that so many contemporary dramas offer sexualised violence against women regularly and on mainstream television too.

Ian Christie, Carol Morley, John Foley and Victor Fraga

Her point is also that here, as elsewhere, Powell’s women have agency and are not just victims, tokens or plot devices. Anna Massey’s Helen, Redhead no. 1, is the film’s hero and, when finally confronted with the horrific crimes of Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm), she doesn’t runaway, she doesn’t cower, she wants to know why he has done these things and her force of personality provides Mark with the only unconditional support he has ever experienced in a life ruined by the cruel experimentation of his father (Michael Powell… yes, of course). As Carol points out, the men are largely rubbish, the Police not enquiring enough, the film-within-a-film Director (Esmond Knight) seemingly incapable of motivating his female star, Diane, Redhead No. 3 (Shirley Anne Field, so vibrant here and sadly, now just today she has passed… what a fabulous talent and an amazing career she had) and the consumer of under-the-counter pornography who looks remarkably like a certain director (Miles Malleson, take a bow sir!).

There was some debate about whether the title was appropriate given that Mark doesn’t really fit the traditional model of a Peeping Tom but then surely, it’s the audience who are Peeping Tom’s too along with the director who, was perhaps reflecting on his contemporary from Hackney who once stated that he wanted to turn the audience into voyeurs. Carol Morley referenced the origin of the phrase, Tom the only one in Coventry who looked at Lady Godiva. Like Tom, Mark just has to “look” and, so do we.

RIP, Shirley Anne Field (1938-2023)

One of the subjects of that business, the renowned Pamela Green (don’t tell me you don’t know her…) plays a world-weary model called Milly and sees through every male gaze in her direction. Murderee and Redhead number 2. Vivian (Moira Shearer) expresses the intelligence and clear talent that have been overlooked by the film company whilst dancing for her would-be killer; yet another director who just wants her to react to his prompting, a Lermontov… a Powell. Given their history, it is interesting to see Moira dancing for Powell again and by this stage she’d decided to not only dance but live and had married and had four children. She danced here and again in the French film Black Tights (1961) and we’ll simply never know why she wanted to dance but she was an incredible talent and person.

Insert subliminal message here: go watch The Red Shoes, go read Pamela Hutchinson’s wonderful book on The Red Shoes… then go watch The Red Shoes over again and repeat.

Anyone who has already followed one of both of those instructions could see a film like Peeping Tim coming, the intensity of the men around Shearer’s character, Victoria is controlling, passionate and bordering on the indecent. You can see both films as not such much an exploitation but an exposure of the damage the obsessive male gaze can do and, if Moira ever wanted an apology from Mickey, here it partly is.

Carl Boehm and Anna Massey

Sadly Vivian – not Vicky – dies in vain as Mark is not satisfied with her demise on camera and goes off in search of another victim. It’s not that they must die but that they must die in the way he wants. He’s a relentless perfectionist, with his own rules and that cruel upbringing, guiding him ever onward to record the perfect, most cruel and terrifying death imaginable. This is what his own upbringing has brought him too and when he plays his father’s recordings of incessant cruelty to his childhood self, Helen feels pity and even love. Forgiveness perhaps not but understanding and sympathy… no wonder contemporary critics were so aghast. Is it so much to ask the audience to reach out to this murderous character at the same time?

All of which is why Ian Christie is right, how many have created so many timeless pieces of work with a supremely talented collaborator such as Emeric Pressburger and then gone on to make a film of this depth and quality? As ever, it’s about what we have seen and not what we might have seen and we are lucky that we not only have the very best of Powell but so many of his other solo efforts that only hint at what’s to come and what has gone.

"'ere mate, got any copies of Sight and Sound?"

I'm a location saddo so today I went to Newman Passage where the first murder takes place and it's pretty much unchanged, well, apart from the lack of police presence and crowds trying to glimpse the body as Mark calmly records everything...

I think the studio were up for anything.. Cert X