On episode 148 of the Director Watch Podcast, co-hosts Ryan McQuade and Jay Ledbetter discuss the final film in their Powell and Pressburger series, Peeping Tom (1960).
Welcome back to Director Watch! On this AwardsWatch podcast, the boys attempt to breakdown, analyze, and ultimately, get inside the mind of some of cinema’s greatest auteurs. In doing so, they will look at their filmographies, explore what drives them artistically and what makes their decision making process so fascinating. Add in a few silly tangents and a fun game at the end of the episode and you’ve got yourself a podcast we truly hope you love.
After decades of working together, the Archers split up towards the end of the 1950s, ending one of the greatest cinematic partnerships of all time. For both, they went on to make more films, but none of them reached the heights of their collaborations, with Pressburger being the less successful of the duo. For Michael Powell however, he made one key piece of art from the two of them that lasted in Peeping Tom, a provocative thriller about a killer who stalks his pray and films the murders of his victims. Shocking for the time, it basically forced Powell into retirement, but is now revered as a champing of pushing the medium forward, and being a masterclass in directorial creation of tension. Ryan and Jay break down their thoughts on the film and the controversy surrounding it, the break-up of Powell and Pressburger, if the shocking nature of the film has aged well, and their complete rankings of the films of the Archers, while also previewing their next films series.
You can listen to the Director Watch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen on the AW YouTube page.
This podcast runs 2h03m. The guys will be back next week to begin their series on the films of Charles Burnett with a review of the film, Killer of Sheep. You can rent it via iTunes and Amazon Prime rental in preparation for the next episode of Director Watch. Till then, let’s get into it.
Music: MUSICALIFE, from Pond5 (intro) and “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).
