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Old 15th March 2011, 10:44 AM
grrarghh grrarghh is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2011
Default SPOILERS! (For A Canterbury Tale)

Given how astonishingly odd some of Powell & Pressburger's films were, the fact that this film ended Powell's career in the UK is confusing.

Of course, with modern sensibilities it's quite shocking, but much less so than a lot of what came after. However, when compared to , for instance, P&P's A Canterbury Tale, it shouldn't have been so controversial. A Canterbury Tale is actually more disturbing in some ways. OK, it isn't about voyeuristic serial killing, but it is about an upper-class oddity who frequently pours glue over young girls' hair in order for him to manufacture the possibility for him to spend large amounts of time in a room with exclusively men where he is the centre of attention expounding on his love of English history. He needs the unadulterated attention of these men in order to be able to function and even after he's unmasked as The Glue Man, he's allowed redemption as he's the catalyst which brings the 'pilgrims' together and ultimately allows them to reach their destiny / destination. His misogyny is overt and never even vaguely hidden. Absolution is granted even though his actions were very, very questionable. Yes, I understand that he killed no-one, but there's such a questionable air to his actions that comparisons can be made to both Mark Lewis and Norman Bates. Psycho has a fair amount to thank ACT for, what with the mummy issues (Glue Man is a bachelor who seems to be an only child and lives with his mother) and the want to be liked by women whilst simultaneously being repulsed by them.

And let's not forget the strangeness of The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus, I Know Where I'm Going and...well, just about all of P&P's output. Absolute classics of British cinema, but a lot was forgiven and/or overlooked due to the fact many were released during WWII and audiences needed and welcomed any kind of escapism. Outwith P&P, there's also the Gainsborough oeuvre: films like The Wicked Lady and The Man in Grey are overtly misogynistic and titillating in equal measure.

Peeping Tom just came along at the wrong time. Britain was entering a new age of permissiveness and acceptance of the other, but just hadn't quite got there at the time of its release.
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