Extreme Close-Up (1973)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Jeannot Szwarc

Writer:

Michael Crichton (writer)

Release Date:

16 May 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

While doing a story on the intrusion of surreptitious surveillance in peoples' private lives, a television...

Plot Keywords:

Independent Film

Cast

Jim McMullan	...	John Norman (as James McMullan)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bara Byrnes	...	Sylvia Marina
Antony Carbone
Al Checco
Regis Cordic
Curtis Credel	...	Reporter
Jacqueline Giroux	...	Barbie (as Jackie Giroux)
Cheryl King	...	Nurse
James A. Watson Jr.
Katherine Woodville	...	Sally Norman

Runtime:

USA:80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | USA:R

Plot Summary

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

A television reporter, doing a series on privacy, uses some rented surveillance equipment as part of his report. When he tries to return the equipment, the shop is closed for the day. As a lark, he spies on the tenants in a neighboring apartment building.

What starts as a lark becomes a fascination, and then an obsession. His new hobby takes enough of his time to be noticed by his work partner, and he obtains and uses more equipment, adding directional microphones, more sophisticated telescopes, and finally infrared equipment. His targets become more involved as well - from looking into nearby windows, he progresses to following an attractive nurse home to watch her, then a celebrity, a security-minded challenge, leading to his own wife.

Dialogue sparse enough to cripple another movie doesn't really become a lack in this psychological study of a man becoming obsessed with voyeurism.

Rated R in the USA, this was not an exploitation film - the full-frontal nude scenes are seen at a distance, artfully blurred when necessary. The few close-ups of naked breasts are very much relevant in the context of his progression into voyeurism.

The film suffers mostly in its characterizations, which are fairly shallow for a psychological drama. The lack of a climax was somewhat disappointing, though it's clear that his excursion into voyeurism will remain a factor in his life after the movie ends.