Stalking
Related: fandom - voyeurism - obsession
In film: Peeping Tom (1960) - Klute - (1971) - The Conversation (1974) - Body Double (1984) - The Cable Guy (1996)
Stalker
The term stalker characterises one who has an intense voyeuristic obsession with a particular person. This obsession leads them to physically follow a person from place to place and observe them.Stalkers most commonly attempt to remain hidden from their victims. --http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker, Feb 2004
The Art Of Stalking
by Suburban Knight, aka James PenningtonThe Story of Adele H (1975) - François Truffaut
Isabelle Adjani, not yet 20, stars in a classic about the art of stalking. It's Francis Truffaut's true life story of Adele, the passion-maddened daughter of Victor Hugo. Bruce Robinson--yes, that Bruce Robinson, scriptwriter of Withnail and I, and still an actor today--plays the dandyish English officer for whose sake Adele crosses an ocean and destroys herself. (RvB) 
The Story of Adele H (1975) - François Truffaut
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
François Truffaut's dramatization of the true story of Adele Hugo, the daughter of French author-in-exile Victor Hugo, and her romantic obsession with a young French officer is a cinematically beautiful and emotionally wrenching portrait of a headstrong but unstable young woman. Adele (Isabelle Adjani, whose pale face gives her the quality of a cameo portrait) travels under a false name and spins a half-dozen false stories about herself and her relationship to Lieutenant Pinson (Bruce Robinson), the Hussar she follows to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Pinson no longer loves her, but she refuses to accept his rejection. Sinking farther and farther into her own internal world, she passes herself off as his wife and pours out her stormy emotions into a personal journal filled with delusional descriptions of her fantasy life. Beautifully shot by Nestor Almendros in vivid color, Truffaut's re-creation of the 1860s is accomplished not merely in impressive sets and locations but in the very style of the film: narration and voiceovers, written journal entries and letters, journeys and locations established with map reproductions, and a judicious use of stills mix old-fashioned cinematic technique with poetic flourishes. The result is one of Truffaut's most haunting portraits, all the more powerful because it's true. --Sean Axmaker for Amazon.com
Duel (1971) - Steven Spielberg
Duel (1971) - Steven Spielberg
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
This is the TV movie that put Steven Spielberg on the map, shortly before he made The Sugarland Express. Working from a script by Richard Matheson, the film stars Dennis Weaver as a mild-mannered traveling salesman who unintentionally angers the driver of a semi truck. Suddenly, the truck is not only riding his tail but trying to run him off the road. No matter what he does (pulling over, stopping at a diner, calling the cops), he can't get rid of it. Spielberg makes the wise decision of never showing the driver, even as he cranks the voltage on the film's suspense elements. As a result, the truck itself takes on an air of satanic menace--even a personality of sorts--as it seems to hunt its human prey. Spielberg made a lot out of a little, suggesting just how skilled a storyteller he would become. --Marshall Fine
Play Misty for Me (1971) - Clint Eastwood
Play Misty for Me (1971) - Clint Eastwood
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Clint Eastwood (making his very assured directorial debut) is a poetry-spouting stud-muffin DJ stalked by a maniacally amorous fan after a misguided one-night stand in this enjoyably schlocky, undeniably effective film about good intentions gone murderously wacky. Although many of the very '70s trappings presented here may ultimately be too dated to be taken seriously (including a very self-indulgent jazz number and a hilariously gooey seduction number between Eastwood and Donna Mills), the core premise of infatuation taken out of bounds remains uncomfortably plausible--and was influential enough to be appropriated by one of the biggest hits of the '80s. (Here's a hint--it starred Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, and a very unfortunate bunny rabbit). A well-staged and occasionally very frightening thriller worth watching for Jessica Walter's peerlessly unhinged performance alone. Frequent Eastwood collaborator Don Siegel (director of Dirty Harry, Coogan's Bluff, and The Beguiled, to name but a few) has a nice cameo as Murphy, the mustachioed, chess-playing bartender. --Andrew Wright for amazon.com