<i>Voyeur</i>’s Queasy, Fascinating Exposure
The Netflix documentary explores the writer Gay Talese’s odd relationship with his subject Gerald Foos, a peeping tom.
Gerald Foos, the story goes, is a man whose life was spent in the shadows, lurking in an attic above the Manor House Motel, where for more than 20 years he observed guests fight, sleep, watch TV, shower, and have sex. After purchasing the motel, Foos had—with the help of his wife—installed special air vents in the ceiling of most rooms, through which he scrutinized his customers, taking copious notes on the action within. Although Foos styles himself as a sociologist, describing his motel as a “laboratory” and his peeping space as “an observation platform,” he also freely confesses that the act of watching others without their consent was a sexual predilection, and that he masturbated several times a night while.
