Eyes of Laura Mars

Eyes of Laura Mars is a 1978 American supernatural horror thriller film directed by Irvin Kershner and starring Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, Brad Dourif, René Auberjonois, and Raul Julia. It follows a New York City fashion photographer (Dunaway) who suddenly develops clairvoyant ability to witness disturbing serial murders from the point of view of the killer. The screenplay was adapted (in collaboration with David Zelag Goodman) from a spec script titled Eyes, written by John Carpenter; it was Carpenter's first major studio film. H. B. Gilmour later wrote a novelization. Producer Jon Peters, who was dating Barbra Streisand at the time, bought the screenplay as a starring vehicle for her, but Streisand eventually decided not to take the role because of "the kinky nature of the story", as Peters later explained. As a result, the role went to Dunaway, who had just won an Oscar for her performance in Network (1976). Streisand nevertheless felt that "Prisoner", the torch song from the film, would be a good power ballad vehicle for her. She recorded the song for the soundtrack and it peaked at number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. Peters commissioned photographer Helmut Newton to provide the images that stand in for Laura Mars' portfolio in the film. Released on August 2, 1978, by Columbia Pictures, the film was a box-office success, grossing $20 million domestically. Some critics and film scholars have noted Eyes of Laura Mars as an American version of the Italian giallo with elements of the slasher film, and it has gone on to develop a small cult following. Plot Laura Mars is a glamorous New York City fashion photographer who specializes in photographs featuring stylized violence, which attract controversy from the press and feminists who feel her work is exploitative. The night before the release of her photography book The Eyes of Mars, Laura has a dream about an assailant entering a woman's apartment, which she observes from the first-person perspective of the intruder. The following night at the book release party, Laura is notified that her photo editor, Doris, has been found murdered, her eyes gouged with an ice pick.