Movie Voyeurs
Spying on others is taboo—and yet they must
Gene Hackman in The Conversation (1974)
The only aural snoop on this list, Hackman’s Harry Caul is a pious and paranoid surveillance expert who tries to save the lives of a couple he’s paid to eavesdrop on. In Harry, Francis Ford Coppola created another tragic antihero to follow up on The Godfather’s—a man terrified of what it means to be responsible for other people.
Kate Dickie in Red Road (2006)
In a gender-reversing twist, the voyeur in this haunting and sexually explicit thriller, Jackie (Kate Dickie), is a woman with a secret agenda. A security officer who watches over a Scottish housing project via street cameras, Jackie singles out a local hoodlum (Tony Curran) on her wall of monitors and hatches a plan to seduce him. As the movie unfolds, it begs the question: Does the male gaze have to be, well, male?
James Stewart in Rear Window (1954)
This Hitchcock classic—the benchmark for all voyeur-themed films—chronicles the personal drama of a wheelchair-bound photojournalist named L.B. Jeffries (a gracefully graying James Stewart), who spies on his New York neighbors until he witnesses what might be a possible murder. His curiosity and his powerlessness drive him and his gorgeous girlfriend (Grace Kelly) to get to the bottom of it.
Carl Boehm in Peeping Tom (1960)
In this British hair-raiser (a cult favorite from Michael Powell), Mark Lewis (Carl Boehm) is a timid nudie photographer who likes to do more than just watch. In order to elicit the fearful reaction he wants from the female subjects of a “documentary” he says he’s making, Mark goes further than the average director and actually kills them. Thankfully, this sick puppy also manages to film his own demise.
Wes Bentley in American Beauty (1999)
Ricky Fitts (Wes Bentley), a pot-dealing teen, enjoys filming his surroundings with a camcorder, which helps him gain the affections of his neighbor, Jane (Thora Birch). But these two are just the sideshow to the main event, which Ricky’s camera documents and incites: the unraveling of the marriages of their parents. Jane’s, materialistic and cowardly, are played by Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening; Ricky’s, abusive and repressed, are played by Chris Cooper and Allison Janney.
James Spader in sex, lies, and videotape (1989)
It’s the movie that propelled writer-director Steven Soderbergh, James Spader and independent film in general into prominence. Spader’s character, Graham Dalton, sexy but emotionally damaged by a failed college relationship, interviews women on camera about their sexual experiences as a “personal project.” Watching the tapes is the only way he can pleasure himself, and his fetish reveals painful truths about Ann (Andie MacDowell) and her husband (Peter Gallagher).
Robin Williams in One Hour Photo (2002)
Creepy Sy Parrish (Robin Williams) is a photo lab technician in a suburban mall who idealizes the Yorkin family (Michael Vartan and Connie Nielsen are the mom and dad), having privately copied their snapshots for years and pinned them to his wall. His discovery of the husband’s affair violently shatters his image of the perfect family and our confidence in ever handing over negatives to complete strangers. Thank God film went digital.
John Cusack in Being John Malkovich (1999)
In this gloriously odd first collaboration of writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze, Craig (John Cusack), an unsuccessful puppeteer, finds a wormhole that leads into the mind of real-life actor John Malkovich. Being Malkovich is an addictive thrill for Craig, his girlfriend (Cameron Diaz) and the object of their lust, Craig’s coworker Maxine (Catherine Keener). And when Malkovich himself gets into the act, a complicated struggle for love, power and immortality ensues.
Michel Blanc in Monsieur Hire (1989)
Perhaps the saddest and spookiest voyeur on the list, Monsieur Hire (Michel Blanc), a pale and bald Frenchman, obsessively watches Alice (Sandrine Bonnaire), his beautiful neighbor, until she spots him. Instead of running for the hills, Alice, who is often neglected by her own boyfriend, actually appreciates the attention, even though Hire is suspected by police of murdering a young woman in the neighborhood.
William Baldwin in Sliver (1993)
When Zeke (William Baldwin) is not literally charming the pants off of Carly Norris (Sharon Stone), a glamorous new tenant in the Manhattan apartment tower he owns, he’s watching all of the building’s inhabitants from hidden cameras that he has installed throughout. Someone is killing women in the building—will Carly be next? This trashy thriller, penned by Basic Instinct writer Joe Eszterhas, proves that binoculars are for rubes.
