Sunday, March 26, 2017

JRO's #91: The Plumber (Peter Weir, 1979)



I'm a bit bummed that I didn't make the time to re-watch this one.

This is the first film on the list that I've only seen once instead of at least half a dozen times.

I remember it being an uncomfortable film.

I wrote the following about it on my old film blog:

The Plumber is a perfect horror film. A very well-to-do intellectual woman, wife of a researcher/professor, has become a housewife while finishing her own anthropological studies. While her husband is away at work, a man comes to their apartment, claiming to be the university's plumber, there to check the pipes in their university apartment. Horror ensues. The psychological tension explored here provides a backdrop for discussing issues of culture, class, interpersonal relationships, and human vulnerability. I've never seen a bad Weir film. The Plumber is one of his best.

I described it then as a horror film, but it's worth noting that The Plumber is also a black comedy.

Peter Weir is a consistently good director and is well known for his big hits (pretty much every single one of his films has been a big popular success even if most filmgoers wouldn't recognize Weir as an 'auteur' in the way other directors are easily recognized). I won't be surprised if any of his other films make it onto other lists. I hope that they do so that I have an excuse to re-watch them! He will appear again much higher on my list with one of my favorite films of all time. I need to refrain from writing about that one here!

Okay. I'm done.

EDIT: One little tidbit: This is one of five films from 1979 on my list. I'll have to look over my list, but this might be the lead for any year. It also happens to be the year of my birth.

2 comments:

  1. I'm pretty sure it's on Filmstruck.

    I tried Filmstruck and was disappointed with the streaming performance via my hick dsl connection.

    I would subscribe in an instant if they improved their streaming and especially if they followed the wonderful trend of adding offline viewing capability.

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