Peeping Tom

(Michael Powell, UK 1960, 101 min., 35mm)

(In)visibility. Viewed as reprehensible in its day (while Psycho, released in the UK the same year, enjoyed widespread acclaim), this psychological thriller from the director of Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes is universally recognized as a masterpiece today. Carl Boehm plays a driven young man who seeks out Lower London prostitutes; armed with a 16mm camera that kills, his aim is to capture the ultimate expression of fear on film. Remarkable for its complex dealings with voyeurism and culpability, Peeping Tom remains one of the most modern texts yet made on the manipulative power of the moving image. Print courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.