The Collector (1965)
Freddie is an inept bank clerk with no future. His only hobby is collecting butterflies, which gives him a feeling of power and control that is otherwise totally missing from his life. He comes into a large sum of money and buys himself a country house. Still unable to make himself at ease socially, he starts to plan on acquiring a girlfriend - in the same manner as he collects butterflies. He prepares the cellar of the house to be a collecting jar and stalks his victim over several days.
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I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay
Awesome Movie
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
The Collector is one of those movies that are hard to translate into a motion picture without stifling its essence and selling itself short. The book, upon which this film is based, is a masterpiece, written by John Fowles. This is where the problem lies, though, how can you capture that internal dialogue, the turmoil churning within each of the two characters simply by filming their facial expressions and body language? You can't, except of course if you throw in some drawn-out voice overs, which'd go to show how desperate the director/screenwriter are for resorting to such desperate measures. The Collector as a movie still does hold us captive to its offbeat nature and set of events, but comes short of too many things essential to the story.
Gorgeous in a rather creepy, uncomfortable way. Terence Stamp is superb and Samantha Eggar, extraordinary. The sexual tension is tangible even if it is one sided. That's were the sickness resides. He is convinced that she will eventually love him. Isn't that the definition of madness? But when that madness looks like Terence Stamp, everything becomes immediately more complicated. I sat hoping for both their hopes to be fulfilled. Absurd, right? Perhaps but I wanted her to escape and I wanted him to have a moment of real honest intimacy with her - Impossible I know but that's what makes The Collector so compelling. The scene where he takes her out of the bathtub is one of the most perverse sex scenes without sex I've ever seen. Samantha Eggar was nominated for an Oscar but not Terence Stamp. In my own wishful mind, he won, big time. He certainly deserved it.
I've been looking forward to watching this one. The premise of the film is intriguing and by the plot outline I could tell this wasn't going to be a film that would just aim for thrills and suspense. Of course, I wouldn't have expected William Wyler to go in that direction either, even if this looked to be more eerie than anything he had done before.'The collector' was no disappointment, in fact it had the impact of a... shovel. The abduction takes place almost straight away, and the rest of the film we observe a young man and a young woman both fighting in various manners for what they believe in and hope for. Pretty much all of this unfolds in an almost otherworldly house and cellar (Gabriels Manor, Edenbridge, UK^) far from the hurly burly of London, from where the girl was kidnapped.The script may seem to take its time, but not one moment felt too much or out of place, playing on various themes such as trust, alienation, sadism, coming of age, love and paranoia, and manages to be utterly disturbing in such a subtle way. It consists of several long acts that eventually seem to take the two back to the beginning, but every time it is, or has to be, a néw beginning. Until... the ending may not be for everyone, though I think it was exactly what it needed - which is not to I say I saw it coming! Darkly humorous...? Or rather mind-numbingly sad...?The performances of Terrence Stamp and Samantha Eggar are of course key here, and they delivered two characters who pulled me deep into this two hour story and made it feel like it was just a half hour or so.A very big 9 out of 10 for now, but I might change my mind... sooner or later.^ On the market right now for almost 2 million pounds, with no particular mention of the age old cellar, though... (outbuildings)
Didn't intend to watch this as this was just playing on the TV but a few minutes watching it emptily, the movie kinda grew on me. Who wouldn't get invited at watching at a creepy nerd stalking and holding hostage a sexy lady at his basement? Few characters, a single setting, not even a handful of dialogues but just struggles and shifts of emotions..yet, something in this movie holds the attention of the watcher. Was it Terrence Stamp's truthful portrayal of a desperate collector? Was it Samantha Eggar's innocent beauty trying to fight for her liberty? Or is it the suspense of not knowing whether they end up with each other or end up killing the other? Its the curiosity and the excitement. I didn't even remember I was watching a movie 2 decades older than me. Definitely a must-watch.