Notes
The term is from nineteenth-century France, in contrast to the expression “peeping Tom,” which is thought to derive from the eleventh-century story of Lady Godiva.
† The word “voyeurism” did not appear in any of the four reviews of the film in the New York Times, and it is never spoken in the film itself. “We've become a race of peeping Toms. People ought to get outside and take a look in at themselves. … Look out of the window, see things you shouldn't see,” says Thelma Ritter, as Stella, the visiting nurse looking after the broken-legged James Stewart.