Classics: Peeping Tom
Cinema Forum Groningen
Nieuwe Markt 1, 9712KN GroningenMichael Powell's classic (1960) about voyeurism and the aggression of the camera has been restored (4K) by Martin Scorseses Film Foundation.
Shy Mark Lewis works as a camera assistant in a film studio. No one is aware of Mark's psychopathic behaviour, including subtenant Helen Stephens, who sometimes goes out with Mark in early-sixties London. Michael Powell's first feature-length film after years of working with Emeric Pressburger virtually marked his downfall as a filmmaker.
Upon release, the film was slammed by film critics as 'sick' and 'immoral' and almost immediately withdrawn from circulation. It marked the end of Michael Powell's career as a director. Lead actor Karlheinz Böhm's career also received a sensitive dent. Peeping Tom - long endowed with 'classic' status - is considered a key work about voyeurism and the aggression of the camera. In the early 1980s, mainly through the efforts of Martin Scorsese, the film was rediscovered.
Following earlier restoration at the initiative of Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation, the film has been restored again, now digitally (4K).