Peeping Tom Opening Analysis

Peeping Tom (1960)
Michael Powell (Director)
£135,000 (Budget)

The opening shot of the film is of a closed eye, blinking as if it's going to open and then it does open, suddenly rather than slowly as if the person's shocked and has been distracted by something and this connotes that there's something wrong. Once the eye's open int keeps opening wider and wider as if the person's seeing something that they can't quite believe. It's such a close up view of a blue eye that it's hard to imagine whether the eye belongs to a male or female, let alone what they look like.

The next shot is down a dark alley covered in litter with a woman looking into a shop, she looks vulnerable and then turns around dressed in a skirt and top looking like she works the streets as a mysterious man in a long coat walks down the road. It's sunset so it's either late night or early morning connoting she could be working the streets as it's too late for shopping and she's looking into a shop window. The next shot is of an old fashioned camera, it's hidden in a coat a similar colour to t he man's coat who walked past the possibly hooker connoting that he's a creep and that he's filming her.

Original poster.

The camera zooms into the lens of the camera until the screen's black and then the next shot is of the woman on the street being filmed and the viewer can see through the camera's point of view as he walks up to her and checks her out suggesting he could be a pervert before she says 'could be 2 quid' and then walking down another alley in which he follows, still through the camera's point of view. They then go into a house an upstairs denoting that she's a prostitute as she undresses. He then moves closer and closer to the woman as she's lying on the bed and she starts screaming 'NO NO' as if he's got a weapon such as a knife in his hand. It's still being shown through the camera's point of view as if the viewer is enjoying seeing through the killer's point of view as if it's them doing the killing.

The film then skips from the killing straight into a completely different scenario of a man sat in chair watching back the video made of the woman being killed. This connotes that he's the killer. His identity is kept secret in the opening of the film but from the back he looks young and also rich as he has a big screen to watch his film back on; it looks like he has his own cinema room.