Peeping Tom
...a for most of this sequence (and a “real” movie camera operator), cinema itself. The prostitute is standing in front of a mannequin shop whose window primarily displays parts of mannequins. In particular, the display is dominated by a pair of legs. The film then makes a mannequin of the prostitute as it cuts her up into parts visually, zooming in on her legs and panning up her body. This shot is echoed a few scenes later where we first see Mark working for the pornographer. As he walks in a sees the new girl, the MC does the same thing, taking her in and then zooming in on her legs and panning up her body. When it is her turn to be photographed, she turns from profile to full headshot, revealing a fat lip and a fresh scar. She says, “[the pornographer] said you needn’t photograph my face”. In the mind of the pornographer she is not whole person, but just a collection of parts, just as she was for the MC and the prostitute was for the HC. This linking of the world of pornography, the HC/Mark Lewis, and the MC repeats in the plot and theme throughout the film. The opening pair of shots imply that what we are about to see will skewer the perspective of the camera operator and cinema itself Not only are women objectified and put on display by the camera, but also it is a gendered camera. The camera itself is identified with men and a male perspective. The directors at the movie studio where Mark works are all men. The camera operators are men. The only other people who operate a camera for any length of time during Peeping Tom are Mark or his father. Mark’s stepmother briefly handles a camera, but when she does it suddenly goes out of focus, as if the camera is somehow incapable of portraying her point of view. Interestingly, the only person who suspects Mark is Mrs. Stephens (Maxine Audley), a blind woman who lives below him. This suggests there might be other ways of “seeing”, that escape the police and others who are reliant upon the eye/camera. (The eye is identified with the camera several times: first in the opening sequence discussed above, but also later when we see Mark using a camera obscura, which very closely mirrors the way the eye operates, at the pornography shoot.) More metaphorically, the camera is portrayed as a phallic symbol several times in the film. When we first see Mark’s camera it is held in his coat at waist level. Later on when he is about to go out on a date with Helen Stephens (Anna Massey), the daughter of the blind woman who lives below him, she tries to convince him to leave the camera behind, saying it is too much a part of him, “I though it was growing into an extra limb.” The way he kills women is phallic. His weapon is a spike concealed in the leg of the tripod of his camera, which must be raised and then unsheathed before he can kill, driving it into the throat of the victim. Cinema itself becomes an instrument of violence. Because the first murder is completely told through the HC, the very act of filming someone becomes a possible prelude to death and filming is an integral part of the murders (part of Mark’s homicidal psychosis is that the murders and the reaction of his victims must be filmed). At one point Helen handles the camera and acts like she will film herself, but Mark gets agitated and stops her. He says, “Whatever I photograph I always lose,” as if the very act of filming is somehow violent or destructive. As the film progresses it turns this suspense on its head In addition to deconstructing the form of cinema, the film also criticizes the cinema business in the person of Don Jarvis (Michael Goodliffe), the studio head. He is shown as a selfish buffoon with little or no artistic vision. We first see him ignoring someone in a conference call. After he hangs up on the other person, he directs his secretary to draft a memo instructing all directors that in order to save money, if a shot can be both seen and heard, that the take is good enough and they should move on to the next scene. When a stand-in is found murdered on set, the police show up to investigate. They assure him that they will try to work around the shooting schedule and he thanks them saying how costly one day can be. One of the detectives says that he knows and looks at the other detective. On the way to the studio, they had been discussing the case and how hey were frustrated by the lack on progress, especially now that there had been a second murder. For them the primary cost is human life while for Jarvis, the only cost is monetary. The film is not just a treatise on cinema, voyeurism and gender; it is also an effective suspense film. After the credits we see Mark with the camera and kno...