Synopsis: Cameraman murders women whilst filming them to try to capture the ultimate face of fear
Director: Michael Powell
Actors: Carl Boehm, Anna Massey, Moira Shearer
Date: 1960
How viewed: Lovefilm rental
Rating: 3/5
David Meyer says:
.. our murderer's true pleasure lies not in murder or even in filming, but in watching the film later. It's a commentary on the voyeurism and the power of cinema, a telling parable about the relationship between filmer and filmed..
I say:
Another film that was generally reviled when it came out, but has now attained cult status. So, how was it for me? Well, I think the former, though I appreciate that, for it's time, it was clearly a bold piece of film-making. A film cameraman and photographer, traumatised by his scientist father using him to investigate child fear, continues in the same vein, attempting to make a 'documentary' about the fear expressed in the face of death. He does this by filming, and then murdering, 3 women. It's not a thriller, more a psychological study, with Mark (Boehm) at times seemingly realising he's mad, and almost wanting to be caught, or saved by the girl downstairs (Massey) who befriends him. I'm sure it's a film with multiple layers, especially raising issues about what's real and what's acting, the role of the film-maker, voyeurism, and the way that Mark can't bear to be parted from his camera (interestingly when he is, he almost revert to normal), and there were echoes for nowadays of people who can't bear to be parted from their phone or laptop, but generally it just comes across as a bit unpleasant and weird. Carl Boehm (intentionally) comes across as creepy, but why he was he cast as English, when he has such a German accent, why don't the murder victims fight back/run away instead of calmly accepting their fate, why is the girl downstairs so attracted to this creepy guy, and why does Michael Powell play the father in the home-movies with his real-life young son? All very odd, but not in a nice way!
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