Remote viewing which is a specified type of telepathy or clairvoyance is when a person can see through the eyes of someone else, and in the John Carpenter (1948-) penned thriller The Eyes of Laura Mars (1978), this gift or curse is given a savage twist.
The movie opens with the negative side of the eyes of Laura Mars who is played by Faye Dunaway (1941-). That is, it is an image of her eyes in black and white film negative as the story is yet to be developed while an unidentifiable woman sings a song with the lyrics “like a prisoner”… and what woman sees through a man’s eyes? Would she really want to? Especially if that man is a murderer…
Then we possibly have the first murder which Laura dreams of in her sleep, or sees in her mind’s eye, or is it a remnant from a portal from another human being? This high society photographer lives in a mammoth apartment as sirens speed by outside to the latest crime – perhaps even the one she has just witnessed in her nightmare. The Eyes of Laura Mars is her latest coffee table book about her photographic work and she wakes to find she doesn’t know why she hates scissors.
That’s the pre-credit sequence to former hairdresser and then producer John Peters’ (1945-) follow-up to his hit movie A Star is Born (1976). The Eyes of Laura Mars was written by Carpenter who co-wrote and provided the story. He called himself “just the dumb screenwriter” about his role in the movie and one might think of his esoteric pen-name of Martin Quatermass which he used on Prince of Darkness (1987).
“Do you consider yourself a serious artist?,” asks one reporter of Laura.
“I’m very serious about my work,” she says and you could be asking any artist or someone in particular who is raking in enough to live in such outrageous wealth. Further, the artist as serious artist? Let’s not get too serious about ourselves is probably the best reaction and Laura’s reply is deadpan and not a joke either but yet inside is contained the serious joke of the movie. The movie is not really art but a solid piece of giallo or thriller.
It is said many have the power of remote viewing. They can watch their neighbour as they undress in front of the mirror, watch them go to the toilet and learn the combination to their security devices. Mostly they are harmless people but what if and the joke is … What if you who had the power of remote viewing and have somehow bonded with a murderer and you can’t break contact. Every time the murderer thinks of you intensely, you get remote viewing of what they are doing, no matter how horrible – and I don’t mean Montezuma’s Revenge!
Some of the Iines in The Eyes of Laura Mars are about as subtle as Carpenter gets throughout his career as his screenplays are usually a string of action or horror set pieces with characters who are well cast. The director of the movie is Irvin Kershner (1923-2010 lung cancer) who directed The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Robocop 2 (1990) and it is interesting to note that he worked as a photographer and cinematographer since Laura Mars’ chief occupation is that of a photographer. He also worked during World War Two which may explain death as a part of photography which was common during the conflict.
Soon we are introduced to the suspects which include actors Brad Dourif (1950-), Raul Julia (1940-1994 stroke), Rene Auberjonois (1940-2019 lung cancer) and Tommy Lee Jones (1946-) and as it turns out an associate has been murdered: “Something about her eyes… something sharp,” says Auberjonois, almost delivered satirically, as it is not the sharp focus of Laura’s pictures but the real reason behind her fear of scissors after her terrible dream.
“Do you believe in psychic experiences?,” asks Laura in a late night phone call as the scissors and the the dream of witnessing her associate’s death must mean something to someone… and the woman says: “Oh, it’s just remnant forget it!” No, she doesn’t say that as there is no explanation because as we know there is no such thing as remnant, clairvoyance or remote viewing.
Laura, who has a picture of Martin Luther King (1929-1968 shot) in his coffin on her wall, likes to photograph death scenes as a part of her career oeuvre which look like Bryan Ferry has murdered a bunch of Roxy Music cover girls. The same could possibly be said of Carpenter’s work during his colourful career.
It’s during this portion of the movie that we get the idea that Jon Peters wanted to make a killing with the disco soundtrack but unfortunately the results are less than desirable.
While taking photos of a shoot which captures perfectly 1970s New York, she sees her late night friend on the phone stalked and freezes with her eye in the camera finder.
“Should I cut?,” she says in shock that the image was a clairvoyant scene seen through the eyes of another and definitely not a dream at all.
Is this a real power someone will own up to? This Red Planet/remnant power? Does Carpenter perhaps know and is privy to such experiences or has he been smoking too much dope and taken too much LSD?
Anyway poor Laura sees her friend ice-picked to death in the eyes.
“I saw it. I saw it,” she tells the police. Whatever you do, if you have a psychic experience… don’t trust the police as they have been trained not to trust you. A cynical observation but when it comes to psychic powers…
“What the hell did you see?,” asks the policeman at the station.
“I saw it happen, I was a few blocks away,” she says.
“Where’d you see it, through a telescope?,” and they could have used character actor Dennis Franz for better delivery but the results are the same… fitful amusement.
Poor Laura’s slip of the tongue statement makes no sense in the real world and detective Tommy Lee Jones asks: “Is this an accurate statement of your experience?”,” which is another satirical line about the pros and cons of being psychic. Laura’s written statement for the police must look as though she’s been either living Valley of the Dolls for far too long or had too many acid laced gin and tonics at last night’s high life social gathering.
As for people with the power to see through others, it is said that some of them are driven insane or are housebound by the experiences and the fact they cannot turn it off. Think of the little old lady at the beginning of The Dark Crystal (1982), or was it witches?
“I can’t stop it – but I can make people look at it,” she says all too oddly.
The power to see such things cannot be stopped say those who suffer from it, even if they were blind and in The Eyes of Laura Mars there is the theme of blinding as an obsession or as retribution for either having the power or not. But we don’t know yet if the killer too has the power to see or if they are mad, or both.
“When you say I see, do you mean I see as you say in your statement?,” asks Tommy Lee in another tart Carpenter line about remote viewing.
One twist is the police think she’s recreating her own murders for her photography, while her husband is also suspected. Meanwhile the police gossip as to whether she really was “seeing those things” and whether it is unspoken anyway that such a thing exists the answer is, an unqualified: “No.”
Laura is at a port-side studio and sees the very door she’s entered being approached from behind and it scares the living shit out of her. It’s innovative in terms of one being stalked by another sensitive to the power and so Carpenter chooses to use it again later.
Then in a tightly edited scene Laura sees something but we don’t know if its epilepsy from the disco music playing at her photo shoot or another future murder as she takes shots of a handsome model playing a dead James Bond clone. This time it appears it’s a premonition which may be breaking the rules a bit in terms of the power but does Laura also have precognition? “What you are seeing through the lens is what the killer sees,” which could make The Eyes of Laura Mars a film essay for any killer with the power to spread mayhem using remnant. Thus the voyeurism of horror and this one is more of a giallo than a thriller as it possibly doesn’t make much sense to most people who view it.
There’s dull stretches in Laura Mars but there’s always a murder in the works and Laura sees two at once as she once again gets blinded by visions of models getting ice picks in the eye sockets. A reporter suggests these murders maybe “the pinnacle of your work” to Laura. I’m sure Laura wouldn’t agree as she questions her own guilt as a part of the scenarios she has become a part of as possibly her coffee table book goes into another printing run.
As for those with the ‘real’ malady of ‘remnant’ … Do they feel guilty? Or do they band together and watch video cassettes of snuff films to be spread telepathically throughout their community? Have they no longer the propensity for conscience as a result? Thus, are these people just within or outside of the boundaries of the insane or criminal? Just because they are peeping toms of the psychic world, who can get away with it, does it mean they must take responsibility – or enjoy a gift many others would really want!
“I’m completely out of control,” says Dunaway kissing Tommy Lee.
The ‘remnant portal’ or ‘remote viewing’ in Laura’s case possibly opens when the killer thinks with Laura in mind to the point of murderous obsession and proxy idee fixe as she sees that very obsession. Perhaps it is that want to recreate the book after all. Who has been so obsessed with a coffee table book in history? Only Laura Mars and thousands of other collage creators – but to the point of murder? Kenneth Halliwell comes to mind (1926-1967 overdose).
The idee fixe by proxy is echoed with the Rene Auberjonois character dressing as Laura as a decoy so she can escape a police stakeout. This echoing in the editing and its rhythms are by future Oscar winner and several times Steven Spielberg collaborator Michael Kahn (1930-).
It is as Laura is escaping the stakeout that she has another vision, this time of Auberjonois being murdered and she crashes through a building’s wall of glass and masonry. This is another hazard perhaps presented to those who have remote viewing in their heads as Panavision as opposed to in the corner of their eye or through their favourite powerful blue stone in their collection of dark crystals it would ‘appear’ – or so to speak.
New York is the perfect maze for the rich and poor and those with and without the power to meet and for various crimes to happen at close quarters and Laura Mars contrasts these worlds pretty well with the meeting place being the street and the city itself a Mecca of possible suspects. Dourif is fingered for the murders but there is no saying is ‘sick’ or driven by psychic urges beyond his control, and then it’s all over…
That is until Laura sees someone coming after her at her own apartment door and I guess there is no worse terror than knowing and seeing you’re own stalker that is outside from their point of view, especially if they are holding a weapon and are not special delivery with a lotto prize. “Death is a sacred thing,” says Tommy Lee after bursting through the window, as he explains money and poverty are the key to murder… and even witnessing murder is the key to murder… and it would appear another personality has taken over that of Tommy Lee.
“You sound high,” says Laura but unfortunately it’s a split personality of the classic variety if there is such a thing as Tommy Lee gives us another speech which may take two viewings to absorb and understand. The film was a hit, by the way, so people possibly went back to view again.
Are those like Laura, the pure human beings, while the ones prone to have their visions watched over are mentally ill? Did Tommy Lee have an inkling to his schizophrenia? In this big wide wonderful world of psychic phenomena, are there variations and shades or people with Laura’s gift. But is it a deviant gift or a gift of deviants? Is it a curse as a result? Carpenter’s screenplay poses more questions than answers. Was it gut bacteria in a bad chicken salad sandwich?
“He really loved me,” says Laura sentimentally, about serial killer Tommy Lee and the film at the end goes back to negative, this time it’s a colour negative as if we have the full picture this time, but yet again it is one that is not the pull picture as it zooms outwards… It’s a puzzle, we know this picture, yet it is still a puzzle. Meanwhile the voice of Barbra Streisand sings Prisoner and Laura is ultimately captured in the frame a prisoner of her ‘power’, memories of her love of a seriously looney dead man and of her fame.
Cult Film Alley 